Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin': Sisters of the Crimson Vine

Sisters of the Crimson Vine

by P.L. McMillan

Genre: Folk Horror

John Ainsworth nearly died in that car crash.

Soon he’ll learn there are worse fates.

After a brutal accident, John awakens in the dilapidated Crimoria Convent under the care of thirteen unconventional nuns. Grievous injuries trap him within the borders of the ruined sanctuary and its strangely successful vineyard. When his body starts healing faster than nature allows, John’s questions quickly pile up.

A pair of Church auditors arrive to look into the convent’s finances. It’s obvious the pair are unwelcome guests, but John has bigger concerns. The order’s annual ritual draws near and John begins to discover things that make him wonder if any of them are truly safe in the hands of the Sisters of the Crimson Vine.

“A taut braid of repressed desires, implied deviance, and eldritch horror. McMillan coyly lures us to a finale as repulsive as it is compelling.” – Stoker award-winning Jamie Flanagan, co-writer of The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass

“In her masterful debut novella, Sisters of the Crimson Vine, P.L. McMillan cultivates dread like a fine wine. The more we sip, the deeper we sink into this insidious tale grown from the seed of Jackson’s “The Lottery” planted in a Lovecraftian terroir and harvested in Ari Aster’s Midsommar. Like the title characters’ famed libation, you will not be able to stop reading once you imbibe. A drunken sense of imbalance and uncertainty remains with you until the very end. Lovers of the occult will be pleasantly satiated by P.L. McMillan’s gothic offering.” – Stoker award-winning EV Knight, Three Days in the Pink Tower

“Sisters of the Crimson Vine by P.L McMillan is folk horror at its very best. The visuals, tension and mood created then intermixed with undeniable dread and mystery rides the very edges of illumination and darkness. P.L explores themes of religious hypocrisy and the power of women and sacrifices made to survive. She expertly subverts older tropes into something terrifying and new. This book is as vivid and twisted as any Aster movie.” – Brenda S. Tolian, Blood Mountain

“Sisters of the Crimson Vine is a perfectly paced suspenseful story that will make you want to savor every word. Invoking the ominous folk horror atmosphere of the Wicker Man and Midsommer, P.L. serves an unsettling tale of the supernatural bond between women and nature and the power and price of living free from patriarchal dominance.” – Joy Yehle, author and host of The Burial Plot horror podcast

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** See the author read an excerpt from the book HERE! **

P.L. McMillan writes dark stories and loves cosmic and gothic horror in particular. Her works have been published in Sanitarium, Hinnom Magazine, Fundead Publications, among others.

To her, every shadow is an entry way to a deeper look into the black heart of the world and every night she rides with the mocking and friendly ghouls on the night-wind, bringing back dark stories to share with those brave enough to read them.

"Someone suggested to me that McMillan might be one of the next great cosmic horror writers and if [The Space Between] is a good indication of her talent and imagination, I’d say they could well be correct." – The Miskatonic Review

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