Monday, March 7, 2011

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

The book description for The Weird Sisters caught my attention immediately. It's about three grown sisters, Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia. They are the daughters of a Shakespearean professor. The family has always been immersed in books, and the girls often think about things in terms of Shakespearean quotes.
Although some of the story is told in flashbacks of their childhood, most of it takes place as all three adult sisters return home when their mother is ill. It's not a reunion that they are happy about.


"We see stories in magazines or newspapers sometimes, or read novels, about the deep and loving realtionships between sisters....Who are these sisters who act like this, who treat each other as their best friends? We have never met them."


I could relate to these sisters. That's one thing that I liked right away. Another thing that was unique about this book was that it was told in what I found described as a plural narrator. It was as if it was always being told by one of the sisters, but it wasn't specifically one of them. Almost as if the reader were a part of the sisterhood...an additional sister who really wasn't a sister. Confusing? It actually wasn't, I am just not describing it well.  I liked the style. It brought me into the story right away.
There were a few things that I didn't love about the book. The character of Bianca, or Bean, was definitely a sister that I would have had conflicts with in my real life. I couldn't feel for her. I think she was supposed to become more likable as the book went on, but she wasn't for me. The birth order stereotypes bothered me a little because the author could have been a little more creative there.  But overall is was a very good read. I would give it a 4/5.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

that sounds like a good book and i love the shakespeare reference title, which had me intrigued when i saw your post! thanks for the review!

Kristen said...

Sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for the review!

Glory Bee said...

I'm going to have to pick up this book. Now if you were in our reading group, I'd already have known about it. hint hint

TheBookGirl said...

Glad to see that you enjoyed this one Christine. It was not one that really worked for me, although there were definitely good things about it.

Christine said...

I can understand why it might not work for some. One of my favorite reviews that I read for this book was a negative one, but I liked it for the same reasons that she didn't.