Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Daisy Johnson, who has been called “one of her generation’s most intriguing novelists,” is the youngest author to have been included on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. She now makes a comeback with Sisters, an eerie tale of two sisters who become entangled in a complex emotional web and struggle to distinguish between themselves.
July and September, who were born only ten months apart, are as close as thieves and rely solely on one another. The teenagers have since relocated with their single mother to a long-abandoned family property close to the coast as a result of a case of school bullying. July discovers that the strong link she has always shared with September is changing in ways she is unable to fully comprehend in their new, isolated life.
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
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Inside the home, a pervasive feeling of dread and anxiety sets in. Outside, the sisters test the bounds of acceptable behaviour, but a string of unsettling encounters pushes them beyond their comfort zone and forces terrible truths about the sisters’ past and future to the surface. Sisters is a one-two punch of wild fury and heartache—a taut, powerful, and profoundly moving account of sibling love and what occurs when two sisters must confront each other’s darkest impulses—written with radically inventive language and imagery by an author whose work has been called “entrancing,” “a force of nature,” and “weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling.”
A beautifully written, mind-bending, mind-twisting, tight, poetic, and sad book. Between sisters July and September, something horrible and intolerable occurred. SISTERS, which appears to be a hybrid of a thriller, novel, horror, and prose poetry, is all of those things and is therefore difficult to categorize. It’s bizarre and fanciful to read this story; it feels like a folktale with ominous overtones or a fever dream.
SISTERS probably isn’t what you’re looking for if you’re searching for something more traditional. You’re in for a treat if you’re seeking an engaging, deeply unsettling portrayal of two teenage sisters being raised by a dejected mother who is most certainly experiencing at least depression.
Sheela, the mother of July and September, decides to relocate the family from Oxford to the seashore in order to start over fresh. The old house has been in the family for many years. I’m already addicted. The property has its share of issues and a sinister, ominous past that instantly creates a strong sense of anxiety.
These sisters are entangled in a complex web of deceit, jealousy, love, dark urges, and other emotions. However, it also discusses dysfunction and perspective. Do all relationships follow a cycle? Do they pursue one another constantly? Are we individuals or are we a part of one another?
