Our Sister's Keeper

Mississippi, 1927. The groanings are coming.

No town is perfect, but East Cobb comes close. It’s a wealthy all-Black Free Town – untouched by white oppression – where ambitious Thea Elliot and her husband plan to make good on their big dreams. Little do they know that the idyllic town teems with ghoulish, walking nightmares...that only the women can see.

Marah knows the groanings well. She is one of the carriers – women with the ability to pull traumatic memories from men. Populated by men entirely freed of their pain, East Cobb has flourished, even as the remnants of their memories haunt the town’s women. When an unexpected death drives Marah to discover more about her own power, Thea’s and Marah’s worlds collide. The sisters must confront the rotten core at the heart of East Cobb’s prosperity and choose what – and who – will survive the reckoning.

A gripping blend of historical fiction and Southern gothic psychological horror, Our Sister’s Keeper is a fierce exploration of Black sisterhood, rage, and resistance.

'For fans of Octavia Butler’s 1979 classic Kindred or Erin Crosby Eckstine's Junie.' – Booklist

'Jasmine Holmes’s foray into fiction feels like a homecoming. With warmth and a wealth of insight, Holmes skillfully crafts in East Cobb a setting and story that does what only art can; it illumines the past and the present, creating for the reader a clarity that lasts beyond the page. Our Sister’s Keeper is breathtaking, too lovely for a nightmare and too tragic for a dream.' – Bethany C.a Morrow, bestselling author of A Song Below Water and So Many Beginnings

'Holmes’ first novel is a historical Southern Gothic nightmare that forces readers to confront shared trauma and the pain of the past. Holmes’ historian background meshes with lyrical writing to create a world that feels fully realised despite supernatural elements. Recommended for fans of Octavia Butler’s 1979 classic Kindred or Erin Crosby Eckstine's Junie.' – Booklist

Our Sister’s Keeper combines historical details with incredibly imaginative fiction, making for an unforgettable story centred on women who bear the burdens of others. But what happens when they tire of suffering traumas that aren’t theirs, when it becomes clear that strength can be both a blessing and a curse? Set in the post–Reconstruction era South, Jasmine Holmes’s debut novel is a fascinating tale of past and present colliding in the twistiest of ways. This is a story of sisterhood in the face of obstacles closing in from every corner, and a testament to the strength and power of women united.' – Del Sandeen, author of This Cursed House