Sophie begins plotting revenge on the Sorority that killed her friend Violet in Sisterhood: A Hyde Street Story #2, written by Maytal Zchut with art by Leila Leiz and Alex Sinclair. The series mixes several subgenres of horror, particularly slasher films and the paranormal, to craft a story with complex main characters who you feel for.
Violet’s death last issue was incredibly chilling thanks to Leila Leiz’s art. Her art harkens back to the more detailed work of the 1970s and 1980s artists like Bernie Wrightson, who could render both the beautiful and the macabre in glorious fashion. Her work fits this horror tale perfectly. The scenes at the beginning of the issue are especially striking as Sophie talks with Violet’s ghost, who’s floating inside a mirror like she floated in the pool where she drowned days before. It’s both haunting and heart-breaking as Sophie loves that she can talk to her dear friend again but realizes that things will never be the same for them.
Writer Maytal Zchut, who previously focused on the extreme lengths people go through to look perfect in the excellent one-shot book Devour, also a Hyde Street story, now turns her attention to a study of the sacrifices some will go through to be popular and accepted, and it makes Sisterhood every bit as powerful a story as Devour.
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Both issues do a great job of showing Sophie and Violet’s backstory, how both girls are no strangers to tragedy and pain, and because of that they developed a close bond over the years. So when Violet is killed, you feel the loss that Sophie’s feeling. You also feel the rage towards the Sorority that allowed it to happen, especially Karma, the head of the Sorority and someone that’s so vicious, manipulative and evil that she makes Regina George from Mean Girls look as tame as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
Karma’s so well-written that you can’t help but hate her. She never accepts responsibility for anything and if she’s caught in a lie she just diverts the subject to something else. You really hope by the end of the miniseries that she lives up to her name and she gets some massive payback for the bad karma she’s created.
The most entertaining aspect of this issue is watching Sophie reluctantly transform herself from a studious tomboy to a social butterfly as she tries to get accepted into the Sorority that killed Violet. The book’s filled with dread and tension as Sophie tries to get into the Sorority, and you wonder if she’s going to be found out. But amidst the tension, there are a couple of light moments and once again, the art conveys how awkward and uncomfortable Sophie is with the trappings of being a Sorority girl.
The issue ends with a bloody denouement that leaves no doubt that this series is all about delivering the horror and like the best horror stories, it dwells within the darkest layers of love and revenge.
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