Blood Sisters: A Novel

I liked the character of the sister Kitty and getting inside her head. That part was great. However, the story was so unbelievable at times it really lost me. The main character made so many victim-like decisions, I found it frustrating. Also, the small realm of characters in her world made it predictable and flat. Sorry to not be more positive.

I liked that the point of views changed meaning we got to see what characters were thinking... especially Kitty! I liked Kitty best of all. There were parts, however, where it's just too perfect a plan (or twist some may call it) that happened. I don't want to spoil anything, but whoever may read this will find certain things just too unlikely to happen (but apparently happened in this book). Anyways, I had to work hard to keep reading this at first. Then I just figured why not finish it (curiosity did get to me).

There are so many layers to this gripping mystery. And just when you think you have the whole story... there’s more... and then more! The fact that the one person who you suspect holds the key to everything has a serious head injury, trapped in their own body, unable to communicate adds another level of depth to the mystery, and had me on the edge of my seat throughout the book, screaming at the person to remember. Also, the author’s knowledge of prison life was both insightful and interesting. A top-notch read. Looking forward to her next book.

This novel as so many twisted layers that I feel like I have whiplash. The characters are not likable and the author had to resort to inventing a machine that could read the thoughts of a person with a brain injury in order to resolve the story. I wish I could get those hours back.

Intriguing beginning with it starting 15 years after a dear friend doesn't come home. For some reason, the first 15% of the book gave me the creeps; that's a good thing. The author did a very good job showing both sisters' "prisons" due to the accident. Loved how past crucial members of the story were revealed. the BETRAYAL - I knew something was off, but didn't expect that !!!

Alison has secrets. She lives her life hiding them from everyone, keeping herself from making any friends, or sharing anything about herself with others. A job at a men’s prison ramps up her fears. A lot of surprises in This story. Keeps you reading...

It was just too long and quite boring at times. It just dragged and the twists weren't so twisty, but silly. Some things didn't make sense, like Kitty's memory. It was very MEH...I don't recommend it.

Three little girls set off to school one sunny morning. Within an hour, one of them is dead. Fifteen years later, Kitty can’t speak and has no memory of the accident that’s to blame. She lives in an institution, unlikely ever to leave. But that doesn’t keep her from being frightened when she encounters an eerily familiar face. Art teacher Alison looks fine on the surface. But the surface is a lie. She’s struggling to make ends meet and to forget the past. When a teaching job at a prison opens up, she takes it, despite her fears. Maybe this is her chance to set things right. Then she starts to receive alarming notes; next, her classroom erupts in violence. Meanwhile, someone is watching both Kitty and Alison. Someone who never forgot what happened that day. Someone who wants revenge. And only another life will do. . .My Thoughts: Alternating narrators, Alison and Kitty, reveal the story in Blood Sisters. Dual timelines flash back to 2001, when an accident happened, to 2016, when Alison and Kitty are dealing with events in very different ways.From the beginning, we are aware that something led up to that accident, something that still haunts both sisters. Alison buries her feelings in her art…and occasional cutting.Kitty, unable to speak, has flashes of memory, but is unable to express any of her thoughts.Even when, in moments we see in 2001, we learn about what happened, there is also a deep and underlying darkness that has not come forth. What are the characters hiding?In the beginning, I found the story slow and sometimes confusing. I didn’t warm up to the characters until we began seeing the moments from the past…and I realized the depths of rivalry between the sisters. As I kept turning the pages, I was captivated by finding out just one more secret. There were so many, and so many surprising twists and turns. By the end, I kept waiting for the final one that might reveal the unexpected darkness in each of them. 4 stars.

I know we all like different things, but the 4 and 5 stars with comments like, 'didn't expect the twist', 'don't want to spoilt it for you', now have me puzzled.The book is yet another one of promises of twists and turns and fails miserably. It is described as a thriller. It's not. It's really not. It's just a story of two sisters and another girl on their way to school and an accident occurs. One dies, one is physically and mentally incapacitated, and the other (unfortunately) survives to tell us this long, ridiculous, badly written tale.I've really got to stop being duped into buying a books of this poor standard.

("Spoiler" alert)Oh dear. She nearly has a plot here but it is so flimsily held together with 1 dimensional characters, ludicrous situations and hopelessly under-researched life situations that it is more reminiscent of an over enthusiastic GCSE essay than anything else. I have reasonably good personal knowledge of one aspect of the novel (brain injury and lack of speech) and so I know just how poorly that has actually been researched which leads me to think that other aspects of the book are equally fantastical...it certainly looks that way.Yes, there is some technology being worked on that has, in a very basic way, the ability to "read" emotions from brain activity...but it is nothing like she has portrayed here. And in fact she has created a brain injured young woman who has no speech, no input from a specialist speech therapist, no-one even attempting to provide her with some form of useable AAC (Alternative and augmentative Communication) even though late on in the book it transpires that she can spell and her mother and others seem to be aware of this!!! She has a "picture board" (yes, that can be a form of AAC) but it is stated that "oh Tee" gave her this. Actually that is not the role of an "oh tee" ...it would be a speech therapist.I know I am rather picking it to pieces but I think there is a serious issue here that this writer is completely mis-portraying what can be done for people who have no speech. I am under no illusion that it is easy to get the right input but in this novel firstly the girl/woman has nothing at all, and then in a trice she has a state of the art device that can read and vocalise her every thought. The sloppy research is neatly summed up by the fact that there is mention made of the "lever" which Kitty uses to control her electric wheelchair: but actually they are never called "levers"...it is a joystick...Sorry...

Started well and I though I had found a really good book....but the story got ridiculously far fetched which ruined it. Everything about when she worked in the prison was ridiculous, especially when she stayed there overnight - what?!!. And two of the inmates in the prison ( I won't say who as would be a spoiler - but really??? ) And when it was realised her sister could understand and talk through the machine- which was treated casually. And the whole pregnancy and baby and moving out of the home - would not happen so randomly. Too much of the book was contrived and unbelievable for me. And it certainly isn't a 'thriller'. I can forgive some coincidences but this was excessive just farcical by the end. Sorry, but I finished it feeling that the author must think the readers are stupid.

I found this book very disappointing. The characters weren't believable or described with any meaningful detail. I found the treatment of the character with Downs Syndrome to be in really bad taste, playing to stereotypical views of uncontrollable sexual urges and lack of genuine feelings. The coincides which guide the plot are totally unbelievable and the neat little ending just cringeworthy. There are so many book sites out there which are better than this, better written, better plotted, thought provoking, funny or just plain better. My advice would be to invest in something else and leave this one on the shelf.

The ludicrous inconsistencies render this book ridiculous. The clumsy signalling of the "twist" meant it was in no way surprising. I am dumbfounded by anyone who scores this book more than one star. I would have given it no stars, had that been an option. Seriously, save your money!