sisters

when a certain gentleman arrived from rome, she wore the dress and i stayed home

A year ago all three of my sisters visited Taylor Swift me in Seattle. This was the only time in our adult lives that it was just the four of us¹ and we had a lovely time, all scattered around my tiny apartment instead of scattered around the country. My mother did try to worm her way in by passively sighing to my kinder sisters “oh if only I could come too”. She knew better than to ask me straight out. Sisters only!

Being four girls, naturally we grew up obsessed with that bible of sisterhood, Little Women², the book and the films. We loved the Winona version of course, but the Elizabeth Taylor version also had a special place in our hearts. “Rodrigo Rodrigo save me! and faint!” Now, we are privileged to add GG’s³ perfect entry into the lexicon. I spend every viewing of her version with a light but steady stream of tears⁴ because it captures childhood nostalgia with genius and beauty and contains an absolutely brilliant ending. Obviously, I am the Jo of the family being mean, snarky and always looking for an attic to be left alone in.⁵ We’ve got our Meg, who married Jon and had a few babies. The others don’t align as neatly to Beth⁶ and Amy, but of course we are all all of them. Growing up I fought with two of my sisters incessantly, the older never let me borrow her clothes and the younger was always singing like she lived in the movie Enchanted or something. Such whimsy was unacceptable and disturbed my reading! The youngest was cherubic until she teenaged her way into a flowery, gothic rebel by which time I was out of the house. We were lucky enough to have a recent trip just the two of us to Lisbon where we got to know each other as adults a bit and were both surprised by the realization that we had things in common! A lucky thing as it took our combined teamwork to snag those Eras tour tickets.

Really once we all left the house and were allowed some actual independence we got along much better. We can now enjoy each other’s idiosyncrasies instead of suffer them. When all four of us are together our voices morph into our mother’s as we cackle, cook, tease, play dutch blitz⁷ and generally recount the same stories over and over again.

Now “let us be elegant or die” as we read one of these books on the rich, complicated and layered relationship that is sisterhood.

YOLK by Mary H.K. Choi

Jayne and June couldn’t be less alike. June, a workaholic with a fancy NYC apartment, cannot understand Jayne, a flaky college student with highly questionable taste in men and a not-so-secret eating disorder. Each has found their own way of escaping their conservative family and small town upbringing only to revert back to their petulant, childhood selves on the rare occasion they interact. When June is diagnosed with cancer and needs to commit some minor identity theft for treatment, Jayne moves in and each sister is forced to confront the narrative they’ve crafted of each other, their family and themselves.

Though this is marketed as YA, to me it straddled that line between Adult and Young Adult as our protagonists are in their early twenties. The writing is stellar, sharp and wise and the tone is full of humor and heart. I enjoyed the well placed modern references, inside jokes and most especially that specific attitude of loving snark that infuses sisterly interactions. We’re immediately plunged inside an juicy tension filled dynamic and, narrated from Jayne’s first person POV, we get a front row seat to her hot-mess, self-involved yet earnest and relatable nature. We initially frame June within this Jayne infused lens and as the plot progresses we discover more about each sister as they both experience intense coming-of-age experiences that demand something to give. I appreciated the realistic pendulum swinging vibe of their relationship as they each know the other deeply and also not at all, teaming up only to turn against each other the next minute. We get a sweet romantic subplot as Jayne reconnects with a childhood friend, but this story primarily focuses on the forced internal reflection that comes when a loved one is suffering and everything you thought you knew about them, and yourself, is turned inside out. At turns light and dark, comic and heavy this one will get under your skin⁸ with its well constructed plot, vivid word smithery, witty observations, deep character focus and nuanced emotional heft.

This is the best part of having a sister. Since we were raised by the same lunatic, under the same conditions, June knows exactly what I’m thinking.

INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE by Emma Torzs

Joanna and Esther are half sisters, their family dedicated to the care and keeping of a collection of magical books. Estranged as young adults, Esther lives in Antartica plotting her next global adventure while Joanna remains at home, studying and guarding the library from foes unknown. When their father ends up dead while reading a strange new book, they are thrust into a mysterious conspiracy full of secrets, betrayal, murder and magic that reveals more about the world and themselves than they ever could have imagined.

Set in current times, this urban fantasy is well paced with terrific character work and an intriguing magic system. Without falling into melodrama, the emotional angst between the sisters is believable and consistently engaging while the addition of a few delightful supporting characters creates a unique dynamic when all paths eventually intersect. Esther and Joanna are each distinctly drawn with their own specific strengths, faults and arcs that support, clash and complement each other realistically. I enjoyed the addition of a third POV; their mysterious role, gothic atmosphere and banter filled interactions. This book has: shadowy societies with murky agendas, globe trotting adventures, clever riddles, suspenseful dilemmas, rooms full of books, fairy tale-ish violence and a hint of romance woven with themes of love, loneliness, duty, family legacy, fate and destiny. Familial frustrations take center stage as Esther and Joanna are forced to confront, un-learn and re-learn aspects of each other and themselves to see if the bonds of their sisterhood are able to weather the storms set against them. With some Alix E. Harrow vibes, this is a thrilling standalone and I wouldn’t be mad if there were to be a sequel in the future.

Even without understanding the words, her sister's voice hit Joanna like a hammer against glass. It was unchanged, that voice. It sounded like Joanna's childhood, sunlit and safe and gone.

KALEIDOSCOPE by Cecily Wong

Morgan has “complicated, charismatic magic… this ability to make others arrange themselves around her oblivion, around her will” and is universally beloved especially by her younger sister Riley, who is destined to live in her shadow despite their closeness. The success of their parent’s global luxury brand, Kaleidoscope, has catapulted them into the glitzy world of New York society which fits glamorous Morgan much better than plucky, brainy Riley. When a freak tragedy hits the family, Riley is submerged in grief and grapples with new revelations that threaten everything she believed about her sister, her family and her own identity. Bereft and reeling, Riley and “an unlikely companion” travel the world on an escapist odyssey of discovery and healing.

Be warned, this is rife with heartbreak and loss so is often quite emotionally raw. But Riley’s relatable humanity and snide humor shines throughout keeping it from sliding into grief porn and grounds the story in a realistic, layered and ever evolving portrait of all the different kinds of love in life. This requires and rewards attention in its non-linear delivery and there’s some poignant format and POV play as the story hops around in time and mood; creating a colorful, ever twisting, sporadic and never fully complete image, à la the kaleidoscope of the title, to reveal new understandings of the characters, settings, feelings, relationships and story. Another book laden with themes of family legacy and expectations inside a coming of age tale, relationships are the focal point here in all their beautiful, complicated, confusing, changeable and bittersweet glory. Part family drama, part romance, part coming of age tragedy and part globe trotting travelogue this one is gut wrenchingly lovely with expert character work, skillful prose and a consistently engaging plot that grips your attention and heart with every shape shifting page. It has that laugh out loud while tears stream down your face kind of quality that I’m sure we all look for in a novel. I hope we get more from this author soon.

… remembered that hostile day at the mall, when Mom said she'd buy us each what we wanted and we'd both chosen that red fucking backpack. It was one of the rare instances I can recall of Mom intercepting our conflict. We went home with nothing, pissed off with each other. We made the pact a week later, when we became so lonely we had to do something, when the backpack had bloomed into a symbol of something much worse. We would not go to battle over an object, a thing, a city, a man. Neither of us, we promised, would ever own a red backpack. But I never stopped wanting it and neither did you.

I wore it up to the cashier, reckless, exhilarated. I bought it for you.

What are your favorite sisterly reads?

1. we have a younger brother too but didn’t think he cared about tswift so wasn’t included

2. or was that just me?

3. long time readers will remember my love of greta gerwig

4. i have it on good authority this is also my father’s response

5. i would also attempt to put on plays starring my siblings and cousins and they NEVER cooperated

6. thankfully all alive

7. M has finally decided to stop her cheating ways

8. whether you’ve got a sister or not