Review by Frank Plowright

The Sinister Sisters follows the format of preceding graphic novel The Witch’s Wings in uniting three spooky stories told in the company of the Midnight Society, a group of teens with an interest in the supernatural.

Izzy is aware her twin sister Grace sneaks out at night, and after tracking her to the woods during a Midnight Society meeting it’s clear Grace would prefer her sister wasn’t part of their activities. A solution is reached that the sister telling the scariest story can remain with the society, which seems rather a callous way to treat a member and friend.

Author Roseanne A. Brown has transitioned rapidly from children’s novels to graphic novels, and although the setting is the USA, she serves up horror stories based on African legends at levels appropriate for a young adult audience. The first concerns Blessing in Ghana and the threat of the bushwalkers. She’s considered an exemplary student, but in fact cheats on tests, a crucial point not well highlighted by Bill Musuku’s art, which is generally sketchy and the bare minimum required to tell the story. Brown generates sympathy for Blessing’s background, but bushwalkers prey on failing students…

Sharleen Khan’s art on the extensive framing sequence is far more polished, bringing out the sibling rivalry, and managing to create an atmosphere through the locations.

Joseph stars in the story of the spirit drum, an ancestral possession said to grant the wishes of the person playing it. It’s passed on by his grandmother with the warnings that wishes have consequences and that he must never play the drum after sunset. Gigi Murakami draws a fine set of African spirits, but it’s in service of something predictable, and reinforces the exceptionally harsh consequences for poor behaviour in African legends, with no chance of redemption.

Khan also draws the title story, featuring a pair of squabbling sisters trapped in an increasingly deadly house with evil supernatural versions of themselves. It’s the best in the book and the best drawn. There’s a good final page, but too much of The Sinister Sisters is ordinary. It does, though, raise the bar for scare levels of stories aimed at young teens.