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A review by ifthebook
Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall
2.0
I really wanted to like this, what with the secret societies, the secrets of a small town, and the magic in the "real world," but I really couldn't. First of all, there's Maddie, who we're supposed to sympathize with. Honestly, I found it hard to care about her at all. She hangs out with girls who are completely evil, is intimidated by them but writes it off as friendship, and yet still acknowledges to a certain extent that what they do is wrong. And yet she does absolutely nothing about it. She even defends them to her cousin, Cordelia, when Cordelia points out just how bad the girls are. Basically, this was like A Great and Terrible Beauty. I had no reason to like Maddie, so I didn't.
Then there was Cordelia, who was basically a Mary Sue. She's gorgeous, boys fall all over themselves for her, the social queen of the school has a vendetta against her because of this, she's smart, she holds herself above all the high school drama, she has a connection to the psychic world and isn't afraid of it, she believes in fairies and mermaids and revels in it. Cordelia was so perfect that she annoyed me at times, too. Then she disappears, after a Lord of the Flies-esque ritual, and her mother goes crazy. Really? Also, I'm not sure PTSD is the right diagnosis for her mother's issues. I'm not an expert, but that just doesn't seem right to me. Then the grandmother spirals into dementia, apparently also triggered by Cordelia's leaving. All of that was a bit too much for me. So much melodrama, all because of Cordelia.
Then there's the relationship between Maddie and Reed. Cordelia leaves and all of a sudden Reed, who hasn't spoken to Maddie all that much before, is suddenly in love with her and willing to wait until she's older? That doesn't seem far-fetched, or anything.
And Maddie's search for Cordelia didn't seem to sit right with me, either. She'd go through occasional periods of "I'm going to find out what happened no matter what!" and then lapse into not doing all that much. In this way, many, many months passed, which made me feel like she wasn't very sincere about the whole thing.
I did like the explanation for the faces that kept appearing, though. That was probably my favorite bit. Sometimes things aren't described by the supernatural at all.
Then there was Cordelia, who was basically a Mary Sue. She's gorgeous, boys fall all over themselves for her, the social queen of the school has a vendetta against her because of this, she's smart, she holds herself above all the high school drama, she has a connection to the psychic world and isn't afraid of it, she believes in fairies and mermaids and revels in it. Cordelia was so perfect that she annoyed me at times, too. Then she disappears, after a Lord of the Flies-esque ritual, and her mother goes crazy. Really? Also, I'm not sure PTSD is the right diagnosis for her mother's issues. I'm not an expert, but that just doesn't seem right to me. Then the grandmother spirals into dementia, apparently also triggered by Cordelia's leaving. All of that was a bit too much for me. So much melodrama, all because of Cordelia.
Then there's the relationship between Maddie and Reed. Cordelia leaves and all of a sudden Reed, who hasn't spoken to Maddie all that much before, is suddenly in love with her and willing to wait until she's older? That doesn't seem far-fetched, or anything.
And Maddie's search for Cordelia didn't seem to sit right with me, either. She'd go through occasional periods of "I'm going to find out what happened no matter what!" and then lapse into not doing all that much. In this way, many, many months passed, which made me feel like she wasn't very sincere about the whole thing.
I did like the explanation for the faces that kept appearing, though. That was probably my favorite bit. Sometimes things aren't described by the supernatural at all.