Outstanding ... Uncomfortably familiar ... A subtle, clever riff on a vampire story ... Purvis is adept at conjuring a mounting sense of dread, and it is a pleasure to linger in her imagination. Her attention to the natural world...is a marvel ... But her greatest creations are the sisters.
Eerie ... I thought it was really interesting that we never get the girls’ perspectives—if not a little obvious as to the messaging of the book, which is that their perspectives are consistently ignored ... Sometimes, Purvis is a little too on the nose ... If you’re looking for a novel that addresses the unfairness of being a girl and how being a wild animal is almost preferable, with interesting perspectives from the villagers, a little spooky atmosphere and an ambiguous ending, this is the book for you.
Purvis, whose prose style is clipped and flinty, keeps a shrewd distance from the sisters, refusing to conclusively dispel the claims of their metamorphoses ... Irony that Ms. Purvis hammers home perhaps too forcefully. But she is excellent at evoking the fear of the unknown and the lure of the mob.
