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Review: Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Title: Blue Sisters
Author: Coco Mellors
Year published: 2024
Category: Adult fiction
Pages: 352 pages
Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): USA (CA, NY), UK, France

SummaryThe three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left the family reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize that the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from one another but from themselves.

Review: I wanted to love this book, but I didn't. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it didn't pull me in like I hoped. I wanted to get lost in it and stay up late reading it.

I like the dynamic of the three (remaining) sisters. They have tension, love, support, and frustration. They rely on one another (too much?) and need one another, but are also not great for each other. Their mother on the other hand, what a nightmare. She wasn't a good mother while they are growing up (and even talks about how she didn't want to be a mother) and now that they are adults, she pretty much ignores them (so, how come by the end she is close to them and invovled? I felt like that happened too easily).

The fact that all of them have major demons to deal with (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc) felt like a bit much for me. I know many families have siblings where everyone struggles, but this felt like it was put in the novel to try to get a good story that was filled with tension. 

I liked Bonnie, the boxer, best. She is strong, independent, works hard to earn a living and be really good at what she does. At the same time she supports her sisters, and has a tender heart. I am not surprised that in the end she is the one who seems to be on the road to happiness.

I also liked that the sisters, even though they fight and are frustrated with each other, are always there if they are needed.

Challenges for which this counts: none




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