A review by erinbarton
Sisters by Daisy Johnson

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

overall i really enjoyed this - beautiful prose, atmospheric and unnerving. johnson flips the idea of gothic horror with the beachside setting during the summer, but keeps all the tropes that matter: the blurring of dreams and reality, the isolated setting, the moody atmosphere.

i didn’t guess the twist until about 30 pages or so before it was revealed, mostly because i didn’t know there was a twist to be looking out for. the mystery of “what had happened at the school” to cause them to move to the country house had me thinking that september would have done something to hurt july’s bullies. the scene that gave the twist away for me was the one in which july looks in the mirror and can almost see aspects of september looking back. after this the thought occurred to me that september had died and july was imagining this summer with her, and then looking back there were so many clues peppered in: july feeling when september had had sex, september never eats anything, the mother begins drawing pictures of just july, and the hide and seek sequence. although the twist is one that i’ve definitely seen/read before i feel it was well executed, however the remaining 30 pages or so after the twist is revealed were less engaging to me. <\spoiler>
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