Around Mother’s Day, I received an incredibly
exciting package in the post. I get a lot of books in the post (much to my
downstairs neighbours’ despair) but this one threw me as being a LITTLE bit
different. Coupled in with the ARC was a teensy-weensy bottle of the good
stuff- sparkling white wine! A book and a glass of wine- is there anything
better? I think not. I’ve read The
Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry
before, so I knew that Blood Sisters
would be right up my street.
The book was one that I was intrigued by
immediately. They do say not to judge a book by its cover, but for this one it
was incredibly difficult not to because the cover is just SO beautiful. The
story centres around two characters, Alison and Kitty, who we are led to
believe from the offset are sisters. The story skips back and forth between
chapters from their perspectives. Alison, an art teacher at a local college,
comes across an advertisement for a job as an in house art specialist… at a
local, open prison. The story principally follows her getting stuck into her
new job, the relationships that she forms with the inmates, and all links back
to a particular point in her life where everything changed forever. In
contrast, Kitty lives in a care facility following an accident that left her
with brain damage and requiring constant support. We hear the story from Kitty’s
thoughts, as opposed to her spoken words, because her accident has left her
void of the ability to communicate coherently.
The two stories from the sisters’ perspectives are separate but as the
tale progresses, become more apparently intertwined and the end result is nothing
short of fantastic.
The book is brilliantly written and absolutely
nothing is left unanswered at the end of the story. I absolutely loved the
switch between perspectives- I found Kitty to be such an interesting and
intricate character, having both a contrasting intelligent voice and childish
naivety about her. She is so blissfully unaware of certain situations and the
appropriateness of certain behaviours, but so sharp and witty in others. I love
how tense the chapters involving Alison are- I found myself on the edge of my
seat as twist after twist was unravelled. It’s fair to say that I definitely
didn’t see the vast majority of the twists coming, but at the same time they
were definitely twists that were just oh-so believable- no predictability at
all. The book approaches some pretty tough topics and does so in a very
realistic and thoughtful way. The characterisation throughout the tale is en
point, and all characters, principle and secondary, are relevant and have a
useful role to play. I found myself questioning everyone and everything about
the story, yet I still failed to come to the correct conclusion- the tell of a practically
perfect tale! The pace of the story was excellent- it started off quite slowly
but burst into a story that I literally couldn’t put down within a few pages. I’ll
have to be honest with you - I’m finding it difficult to write this review
without blurting out all the amazing things that happened, so you’ll have to
just take my word for it and pick up a copy of the book when it’s published on
June 29th!
Thank you so much to the amazing team at Penguin books for sending me this book for review- I’m so excited to see other people’s thoughts on it. It really is a fantastic and chilling tale.
4.5/5
