Review: The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The library's book club chose this as the book of the month so I picked up a copy. It's a plot concept I might have picked up on my own and I expected to enjoy it. There's a dysfunctional family, a series of problems that bring the kids back to the nest and a cancer fight in a parent. Add in the fact that they are bookish and it was a recipe for success.

I had two major issues with the book, however. First, was the tone. The story would be told from Rose's point of view and then would include "our mother" or "our house" and I would think, "Oh, is Bean talking? It can't be Cordy because it's about Rose's opinions of her." And then, a few moments later I would swear that Cordy was telling the story but the changes from "my" to "our" would pop up again. It turns out that this is considered first-person plural and the narrators are presented as a 'we' instead of a 'me.' I hate it. Hate, hate, hate it. My second issue was the father's dependence on Shakespeare for basic human interaction. He's a human being that cannot write a personal note, answer a basic question or talk to his family without using quotes. This person simply couldn't be a functional adult with a job and family.

It had the potential for 3 stars but I wasn't able to get past the lack of a single storyteller...or a rotation of individual storytellers.



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