Sisters
Author: Daisy Johnson
Published by: Penguin Random House UK
Pages: 185
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★★
Something unspeakable has happened to sisters July and September.
Desperate for a fresh start, their mother Sheela moves them across the country to an old family house that has a troubled life of its own. Noises come from behind the walls. Lights flicker of their own accord. Sleep feels impossible, dreams are endless.
In their new unsettling surroundings, July finds that the fierce bond she’s always had with September – forged with a blood promise when they were children – is beginning to change in ways she cannot understand.
Taut, transfixing and profoundly moving, Sisters explodes with the fury and joy of adolescence. It is a story of sibling love and sibling envy to rival Shirley Jackson and Stephen King. With Sisters, Daisy Johnson confirms her standing among the most inventive and exciting young writers at work today.
My thoughts:
The darkly riveting relationship between teenage siblings is explored in this gothic tale from Daisy Johnson. It is a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins. Born just ten months apart, July and September are extremely close, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. September is extremely complex, forceful and hard to interpret. I loved the mystery around her character and the way we are gradually drip fed more and more little bits of information about her as the story develops.
Set in the North York moors, the house becomes a character, a significant, misty presence looming over the small family. With evident traces of depression and desperate actions of self-harm, darkness has engulfed the two girls. The house seems alive, full of sounds and shadows, full of memories and lurking threats. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behaviour—until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the past.
The rain doesn't stop, the birds are menacing, the ants are crawling inside the walls, whispers and cracks and the fragile mind of July who struggles to understand her sister and the world around her.
This book certainly cast its spell on me. It was hypnotic, engrossing and hallucinatory. This story is beautifully written and full of atmosphere; especially within the Settle House.
Daisy Johnson is simply a master when it comes to evoking an enchanting and haunting atmosphere. But ultimately it is the author’s talent in portraying complicated family relationships in Sisters that really makes this one such a memorable and entertaining read.
I loved this beautiful and very unique story. At times it’s quite ambiguous and I really liked the way things came together and became clearer in the final part of the book.
It gave me that surreal and mind-bending experience that I absolutely love. Sisters is brilliantly written and works so well as a gothic thriller, a mild horror and also a psychological drama.
This is a book that I will always remember. A wonderful, unsettling story and the perfect choice for a creepy Autumn read.
Overall reaction:
