A review by augureader
The Forgotten Sister by Nicola Cornick

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

I decided 2023 would be the year of reading my bookshelf, rather than just getting seduced by all the pretty new books on the internet, and everyone else’s bookshelves. So, I went up to my unread books, picked 3 and decided to read a chapter to see which one took my interest the most. 

I got this book in a Historical Fiction box I bought more than 2 years ago now, and it’s been prettying up my bookshelves ever since. The premise is so intriguing, and I thought the first chapter piqued my interest. (Also, the copy I have is a floppy paperback, which tipped the scales even further in its favour.) I loved that this had a dual timeline, and that it wasn’t centred around a world war. And, while the writing wasn’t quite exquisite, it was easy enough to read with its large print and lower page count (it ended on 367 rather than the 402 it promised due to an excerpt from another book taking up the last 30+ pages). So far, so good, but then… the repetition started. I got very tired of reading about how there was nothing between Lizzie and Dudley, and how everyone kept thinking there was. I found the characters (pretty much all of them) one-dimensionally insipid and vacuous, and the plot to take too long to actually… start. We get introduced to Johnny and then lose him for about 35% of the book. The logic used didn’t really make sense to me – Why everyone would react to what happened was beyond me… highlighting and underlining the “vacuous”. And I thought BOTH storylines started many things but didn’t finish them well enough for me to consider it a “good book”. So… It was OK, and I liked things about it, but I don’t know that I’ll be singing any praises from any mountain tops. It’s a very quick read and has a decent enough plot twist, if not well-developed characters to back it up.