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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
P.S. - I would really encourage you to try it yourself and form your own opinion about it.
Finished it in a few hours because I had to know what happened.
Raamat on hea ja lihtne lugeda, pidev action ja põnevus hoiab raamatut käest mitte ära panema kuni see on läbi. Kuigi... lõpp oleks võinud veidi teismoodi olla, tundus kuidagi, et kuni lõpuni kirjanik ei teadnud päris hästi kuidas raamatut lõpetada ning siis kuidagi üritas ruttu kaelast ära saada ja kõigile meelepärane olla. Sellegi poolest annan 4 tähte terve loo põnevuse poolest.
The Sister is literally full of mystery and suspense that constantly has the reader trying to guess in between the lines.
Grace and Charlie were the best of friends and living out of each others pockets growing up. When Charlie dies, Grace really struggles to carry on with her life as she has so many unanswered questions. The friendship between Grace and Charlie was really great to read, they are very close and through the author I could also very much feel the sense of loss and sadness that surrounds Grace after Charlie’s death.
The story flicks between the past and present which really draws the reader into the whole storyline, so much so that I felt so connected with Grace and everything that was going on around her, that I felt like I was going slightly mad with all the horrible things that seemed to keep happening to her.
When Anna turns up in Graces life, I was really wary. She just seems to good to be true and around the same time everything in Graces life starts to take a very dark and sinister turn.
It’s very obvious that all isn’t as it seems, but boy, when Grace does get to the bottom of everything that is going on, it certainly took me by surprise!
The Sister is a wonderfully dark and sinister read that had me hooked from start to finish and I can’t wait to see what else the author has in store for us readers in the future.
My thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was given a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
"We all have different sides, I think. The things we share. The things we keep hidden. The good, the bad. The truth, the lies.".
This book is set in the "Then" (around 10 years ago) and "Now", and starts with our protagonist 25 year old Grace retrieving a memory box that she and her best friend Charlie buried a decade ago. Grace and Charlie have been friends since school, polar opposites but joined at the hip nonetheless. Grace is quiet and thoughtful, whilst Charlie is bold and imaginative. On the day the memory box was buried, Charlie slipped a pink envelope inside, promising Grace that they could open it together when they dug it up as adults. Grace does not expect to find what she does those ten years later about her best friend however, and without Charlie there to help her, things are more difficult than she thought they would be; Charlie wants to find her father; a man who her mother only met briefly fifteen years ago.
So Grace begins her search for Charlie's long lost father, starting by approaching her alcoholic and somewhat hostile mum Lexie, (whom she hasn't spoken to since Charlie's funeral) in hope of attaining closure. After reaching out online she hears from Anna - Charlie's half sister.. And so the real story begins..
My initial and main feelings for Grace included sympathy and frustration; she spends the majority of time alone grieving friends and family members she has lost, and appears somewhat stuck in a tenuous relationship with her thoughtless and somewhat distant long-term boyfriend, Dan. As the book moves on this dissipates, being replaced by curiosity and at times, confusion; there is a lot more to Grace's life than we originally anticipated. Charlie is fun, likeable and extroverted both as a child and as an adult; very much the glue that held Grace together at times.
I think that the way the book is written is interesting; I always love books written in two different tenses but this one seemed exceptionally well done. I found myself getting comfy, but fidgeting impatiently almost immediately, I genuinely struggled to put this book down. It's surprisingly accurate how the depiction of the characters as teenagers is portrayed, it's so often that authors voice children incoherently and inappropriately in books, but the voices of Grace and Charlie seemed realistic and age appropriate throughout to me - I found myself smiling along through these parts, thinking that Charlie sounded a lot like myself at that age.
There is little improvement I felt could be made with this book. My only qualm being (at times) Dan; he is depicted as a little two dimensional, selfish, petulant and boring. His only interests throughout the book appear to be going out with his friends and eating - more like an overgrown child than a man in his mid twenties; a (somewhat lacklustre) side kick than a character in himself, and all in all, a "typical bloke". I didn't quite get the impression that he and Grace "clicked" or were the sort of people that would ever be together in real life. At several points throughout the book I found myself wondering how they even got together in the first place - the first thing he ever did was bully her for christ sake! And no, not in a "I like you so i'll be mean because I'm childish" way. He just came across as a mean person. I feel this could have been developed upon to portray a more three dimensional relationship overall, but maybe I'm just nit picking..
Anyway I have to admit it was the cover of this book that initially attracted me to it (the pink and black colour scheme is striking yet simple, familiar yet original) - It was hard to believe this was a debut novel as it was amazingly well written and just so ... Good. Overall I can't recommend this book enough, it's made it to my favourites on Goodreads and I will certainly be buying a copy to re-read (despite knowing the plot twist) when it comes out. A genuinely original and intriguing read. I can't wait for more books to come from Louise Jensen, I'm sure she'll be a household name if she keeps up writing stories as high caliber as this one. A well deserved five stars from me.
