In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Laura Venita Green’s novel Sister Creatures is a haunting and engrossing debut.
Shelf Awareness wrote of the book:
“Sister Creatures is often unsettling, but pairs moments of great sweetness alongside discomfiting ones. This novel remains thought-provoking long after its final pages.”
In her own words, here is Laura Venita Green’s Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Sister Creatures:
Sister Creatures is a novel in thirteen haunted chapters, and it only makes sense that the playlist features thirteen songs. For the four years I worked on this book, I listened to countless hours of music by Gen-X-beloved artists to carry me back to the nineties when I was growing up in rural Louisiana, the place where my cast of women originates. I also listened to tons of eerie a cappella, epic instrumental, and bizarre religious music that matches the tone of certain sections in the book. Also, to make this playlist more fun and collaborative, I used a few recommendations by editors and friends. Included below is the novel’s table of contents with a song for each chapter.
PART I: LOUISIANA
1. STUCK / Tess
“The Child is Gone” by Fiona Apple
As my protagonist Tess, a horror-book-obsessed college dropout, says in this first chapter, “Fiona Apple is the shit.” I couldn’t agree more! This Gen X icon is the only artist with two songs in my playlist.
2. I WANT MORE / Thea
“Part of Your World” performed by Jodi Benson for The Little Mermaid soundtrack (written by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken)
Although some might find this selection too obvious, there was truly no other option to introduce Thea, an entity that haunts my book in many different guises. Plus, I recently had the random pleasure of witnessing a highly-respected literary agent perform this song in karaoke, which made me feel there’s space for this Disney classic in the literary sphere.
3. FÜR AMELIA / Lainey
“If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” by Cat Stevens
Lainey and her sister sing some of the lyrics of this song in this chapter, reminiscing about their late mother, who was a Cat Stevens mega-fan. It’s such a pleasant song to sing along to if you’re trying to take a break from the world’s problems for just a few minutes.
4. GOLD STAR / Olivia
“American Teenager” by Ethel Cain
This young, Southern gothic singer takes me right back to my upbringing in the rural South, where football, cheerleading, and Jesus were of the utmost importance (it’s worth watching the brilliant music video for this song, too). I learned about Ethel Cain after an editor recommended her to me as someone who would make a great soundtrack to my work, and she was not wrong! This is the perfect song to listen to before we depart from Louisiana as my characters move out into the broader world beyond.
PART II: BEYOND
5. ONE TRICK / Tess
“Footprints” composed by Wayne Shorter, arranged by Renee Rosnes, performed by ARTEMIS
I can write anywhere at any time as long as I have my headphones on playing music. And if I’m writing a first draft, nothing else puts me in the zone better than no-lyrics jazz, so I had to include a favorite. This incredibly talented female quintet best represents my cast of women.
6. PALSGRAVE HOUSE / Thea
“Lux Aeterna” composed by Clint Mansell, performed by the Kronos Quartet
I’ve been obsessed with this instrumental masterpiece since the movie Requiem for a Dream came out in 2000, and really no other song works to accompany Thea while she’s held against her will at Palsgrave House.
7. MAMA PRAYED / Olivia
“Mouthwings” by Mountain Man
I think a cappella music can be so wonderfully eerie, which is certainly true for this Mountain Man song. It’s a perfect complement to the sinister triplets we meet in this chapter.
8. SLOVENLY TESS / Tess
“Erleuchtung und Berufung” by Witthüser & Westrupp
I really wanted an odd German song for this chapter where Tess is living in Germany, trying and failing to learn the language, while her daughter Summer becomes increasingly obsessed with the creepy 18th century children’s book Struwwelpeter. I asked fellow 2025 debut author Ella Alexander to help, since she’s living in Berlin (and since I thought it would be fun!), and she told me to check out this slightly cursed song with its uncanny lyrics.
PART III: HOMECOMING
9. HINTERGARMISCH / Thea
“Wherever I May Roam” by Metallica
There’s no version of my playlist that doesn’t include Metallica. In Thea’s final chapter, this badass heavy metal song gives her the send-off she deserves.
Rover wanderer
Nomad vagabond
Call me what you will
10. BANNED / Lainey
“Für Elise” by Ludwig van Beethoven (performed by Lang Lang)
This song shows up in Lainey’s previous chapter (Chapter 3) and provides a bittersweet backdrop as Lainey tries to reconcile with her long-estranged sister.
11. JESUS & BOOZE / Olivia
“Best Guess” by Lucy Dacus
While I was deep in the weeds of a final edit of this book, my editor sent me this song with the note that he could hear it on the playlist at the wedding of two characters in this chapter. First off, I was touched that he believed that much in the future of their relationship—it gave me hope. Second, damn, I needed the brief music break that his message and this song provided.
12. SISTERCREATURE / Gail
“Relay” by Fiona Apple
This penultimate chapter of Sister Creatures answers the question of whatever happened to Gail, a character whose presence is often felt, though she is rarely seen. It’s only fitting that Fiona Apple accompany this important moment, with a song from her 2023 album Fetch the Bolt Cutters. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say these lyrics are very relevant:
Evil is a relay sport
When the one who’s burnt
Turns to pass the torch.
13. THE STRAYS / Summer
“Real Men” by Mitski
This final chapter, featuring Tess’s daughter Summer, passes the baton to a younger generation. I asked my stepson Max’s partner Michelina Haralson, close to Summer’s age and one of the most music-knowledgeable people I know, to recommend something. She gave me a few options, and this one stood out. There’s no doubt Summer, a professional runner ever endeavoring to manage her anger issues, loves Mitski, an artist I think is pretty fucking great myself.
Laura Venita Green is a writer and translator with an MFA from Columbia University, where she was an undergraduate teaching fellow. Her fiction won the Story Foundation Prize, received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and appears in The Missouri Review, Story, Joyland, Fatal Flaw, and translated to Italian in Spazinclusi. Her translations appear in World Literature Today and The Apple Valley Review. Born in San Angelo, TX, she’s lived in New Orleans and now lives with her husband in New York City. Sister Creatures is her debut novel.