Rating: 2/5
Review:
Not for me
I didn’t get on well with Sisters. I found it a struggle and
eventually became quite irritated by it.
It is impossible to
give an outline of the plot without undesirable spoilers, so I won’t
try. The book opens with a family arriving in an unwelcoming, quite
isolated cottage in Yorkshire, having suffered some kind of serious
incident in Oxford where the two girls, named July and September
(really?) were at school. Much of the narration is by July, the
younger sister who is plainly somewhat traumatised, but by what is
not clear...and very little else happens for a long time. There’s
lots of Oppressive Atmosphere and Hinting At Dark Things, told in a
fractured voice which is intended to sound like a troubled girl, but
which sounded to me like an author trying to be clever and actually
being mannered and self-conscious.
Things do begin to
happen slowly, and past events begin to emerge...and the Big Surprise
at the end becomes fairly obvious quite early on. Add to this a
lengthy passage from the point of view of the mother, giving a lot of
history which, to me, added nothing and served only as a distraction
and I began to skim. I reached the end with some relief.
A lot of people have
liked Sisters, but I’m afraid I didn’t and can’t recommend it.
(My thanks to
Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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