While you might see what’s coming and want to yell, 'No, don’t go there!' you know it’s going to happen anyway. But the real mystery in Karen Dionne's The Wicked Sister is in what happens next. And there’s always something happening next. Diana Cunningham is a truly wicked character. And Rachel, the one who sees the best in everyone, does figure it out, but she’s the good sister, which keeps her from totally embracing how wicked Diana is. This is classic good versus evil. A real live cat-and-mouse game. Moreover, it’s an absolutely eerie delight to read.
Dionne...begins with a pleasing, pervasive sense of unease that is unfortunately rife with improbabilities by the conclusion. Moreover, the magnificent setting and convincing character study of a child psychopath are undermined by inconsistent plot details ... Despite the story's few flaws, Dionne knocks out a psychological thriller with a low-grade yet ever-present sense of danger. Fans of Paul Doiron and environmental thrillers may like this book.
Horror movie meets mystery ... horror-movie conventions come into play, as Rachel makes decisions that put her more and more in danger. This is strong on the psychology of guilt and great at creating the spooky, haunted-house landscape, but the absurd, horror-movie plot elements get in the way a bit.
... [a] devastating, magic realism–dusted psychological thriller ... As Rachel scrambles to remain undetected, the tension at times becomes almost unbearable, especially as the reader becomes privy to critical information unknown to Rachel via flashbacks narrated by her late mother. Dionne paints a haunting portrait of a family hurtling toward the tragic destiny they can foresee but are powerless to stop.
Dionne has her locale down pat: It doesn’t get much creepier than a huge lodge filled with taxidermic animals where cell signals are scarce and dangers lurk in the surrounding woods. The characters lack nuance, though, and Dionne tends to clearly telegraph upcoming plot twists. Further, the book’s true villain does everything short of mustache twirling, and it’s not quite clear if readers should take Rachel’s earnest claim that she can talk to animals seriously. In the end, it’s all just a bit too much. A melodramatic, ultimately disappointing endeavor.
