Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - As irmãs Blue + brindes

I can’t argue with the writing, it was often beautiful and emotional and poignant, but I’m not sure how I feel about the rest of it. This book was perhaps a bit long and often repetitive, and the sisters were mostly described to me, especially in the beginning. The characters felt a bit caricature-y, like the classic elder sister who is everyone’s mom, a middle child who floats around, and the youngest wild child who does whatever they want. There’s obviously some truth to this, these kinds of characters are common for a reason, but I wanted something more than that. Their relationship felt very real but also overdone. The ending was way too sweet and neat, I just didn’t buy their resolutions and dialogue. The mediation on grief and love and unburdening yourself from unhelpful expectations was good, but I just think other books/works have done this in more nuanced and interesting ways.

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issyd23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Preferred her first book - this one took me a while to care about the sisters but I eventually got there 3💙

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skbgfd's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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gwenswoons's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was good — it came to me as part of a monthly book subscription I have with a literary fiction-ish bent, and it definitely fit that bill. The prologue immediately captured me; I love a complicated-family saga (or a complicated family saga, true either way), and I loved the immediate characterizations of the different sisters.

I struggled at points to stay really engaged with the book. I actually love that it basically does nothing but watch our main characters reckon with grief, but to my reading there were so many moments that I felt could have been crafted ever so slightly more specifically: specific repetition done either less often or more intentionally; inconsistencies of voice that felt again less intentional than they might be (particularly in the back and forth American/British-ness of certain characters and relationships); a good number of typos, oddly. I don’t often think about this stuff but I guess I felt that as good as this is, there was an even more special book within reach and it felt a little disappointing even as I thought it was good in many ways. The choice to write in multiple POVs — one I often do love — felt like it caused the sisters to be deliberately kept separate for so much of the book; perhaps why I felt the prologue and epilogue were some of the most effective moments in the novel.

Anyway — it’s good, not (for me) great, and I’m not sure I would read more by CM. It’s sad but without big lingering impact, I think, which breaks my heart a little bit since there’s potentially so much intense and powerful stuff in here about family, addiction, grief.

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whatannikareads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

amazing dialogue. sometimes felt wordy but written with so much love and care. each main character is so fully fleshed out. grief is handled with so much care here. she is the girl the streets say she is.

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the_modernreader's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

“A lot was written about romantic love, Avery thought, about the profundity of that embrace. But this, too, was deserving of rapture, of song. Before she ever knew a lover’s body, she knew her sisters’, could see herself in their long feet and light eyes, their sleek limbs and curled ears. And, before life became big and difficult, there were moments with them when it was simply good. Squeezed beside Bonnie and Lucky now, it was superfluous to describe what she felt for them as love. They were love, beautiful and unbearable and hers.”

Nothing as unforgiving as grief. Seeing each sister battle the feeling of loss whilst trying to keep afloat was a beautiful experience. I thought of my mom as an older sister, my grandmother as a young mother, mothering herself and her children. I thought of my friends and how they’re my closest feeling to what it feels like to have sisters. How horrible the world is to women living with chronic illnesses that have been deemed less important. And how blessed I am to have community. I can’t wait for her next release…

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kaitlyn_avecado's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I'm one for 4 girls, my twin and I being the youngest. One of the characters said "Until you know my sisters, you don't know me." I've always felt this, though more strongly when i was younger. I feel my truest self when I'm with them.

The narrator on Spotify was not my favorite. At all. But the writing saved the book for me. I preferred this to Cleopatra & Frankenstein (which had too many shallowly written characters), so it was nice to dive into just a few perspectives. This book showcases the love of sisterhood and how we sometimes hurt the ones we love most. I felt Bonnie's chapters were lacking - maybe because she was least messy? All in all, would recommend, especially if you have sisters.

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