Sister

Our book for June was Sister, by Rosamund Lupton. Not very many people made it out to the discussion. I'm not sure if this is a reflection of their busy schedules or their opinion of the book. Sister is Lupton's debut novel and earned a star review from Publishers Weekly and was listed on Amazon's Best Books of the Month for June 2011.

The novel is written as a letter from Beatrice (Bee) to her dead sister, Tess, recounting the events since Tess's disappearance. Within this framework, Bee alternates between having a conversation with Tess and re-telling her story to a lawyer. The reader is kept in suspense as to whether Tess was murdered, as Bee believes, or has simply committed suicide, as the police believe.

I found the storyline intriguing, trying to guess what really happened. However, it was also quite confusing keeping the timeline straight. There was the present (Bee writing the letter), the past (her recounting the events to the lawyer), and the "distant" past (the things that she was telling the lawyer about). The writing itself has a bit of a dream-like quality to it. (I liked the concept of "singing your song" to the one you love.) Between the time jumps and the passive writing style, it was hard for me to be fully drawn into the story.

Those who attended the discussion had mixed reviews: the rating scores ranged from 4 to 10 (based on a 1 - 10 scale, with 10 being "I loved it.")

Feel free to add your comments!