Book Review: "Sister of Mine" by Laurie Petrou

“...we'd learned enough growing up to know that secrets can't be split in more than half or they start to crumble, and you find pieces of them all over town in everybody's pockets...”

- Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou

It must have been some time last year when Laurie Petrou's Stargazer appeared on my Amazon Recommendations. I read it and then, as a teacher, automatically recommended it to all my female students who found themselves fans of Colleen Hoover. All of them who read it, absolutely loved it. Even though I myself had only read one or two Colleen Hoover books in my time, I did think that Laurie Petrou was on to something when it came to how women can actually be pretty toxic to each other if put into certain situations. Petrou, I believe, hits the nail on the head a bit more than Hoover in the sense that women can often be bad for each other rather than it just being about the men that they are with. In her books, women are at the centre of compassion and destruction. This is especially true for this book entitled Sister of Mine.

There is something about sister relationships in novels that, when they turn toxic they really turn toxic. That is true for Hattie and Penny in which the older, Penny, looks out for her younger sister as both of their lives have been encased and defined by tragedy. At the beginning of the book, we are taken away into their tragic world where their father walks out and their mother dies in a tragic accident.

We are then whisked away to Penny's marriage which is, at first, nice and calm. But her husband quickly turns controlling and abusive. Penny feels like she can only really rely on her sister, Hattie for support. But, as things start to move out of control, Penny is released from this abuse in a strange way. As new men enter their lives, their relationship becomes more and more volatile. As new people enter their lives, we get a look into what might have really happened that night when Penny was released from that horribly abusive marriage.

Secrecy shrouds this novel as it did in the book Stargazer and I honestly think that Laurie Petrou's speciality might be depicting female secrecy and how people swear to take things to the grave. Apart from that though, there is a deep sense of competition between the sisters in getting what they never had: a perfect life. When new people from out of town come about as strangers, this competition is forced into the foreground as both sisters try to gain access to the stranger. However, there are more secrets that they must untangle first and perhaps, the strange has brought his own with him.

One thing I like about Laurie Petrou's writing style is that the prose is often deep and profound whilst also having an entirely believable storyline. The storyline as the investigators enter the narrative becomes a lot more realistic in story and atmosphere and a lot more believable because I think we are being taken on the same journey as the sisters in their own head. When things start to come to light, the sisters realise how real the situation is and in that, we get minor changes in tone by the writer who goes from the innocent theft of the earrings at the beginning of the book to these almost incantation-like repetitions (i.e: I love her, I love her, I hate her, I hate her). The darkness is coming out as if it is seeping from a pressure cooker, about to explode.

All in all, I think that this book is equal to Stargazer in its brilliance and how it depicts the sheer secrecy of female relationships. If you have not read Stargazer already then I suggest you do so. When it comes to Sister of Mine I would honestly tell you to not sit there and expect things to happen bit by bit because even the reader is not give the whole picture - we piece it together just before the book ends and with that ending, we have a complete image with a couple of unanswered questions. Nobody likes a completely tied up ending in these books - there should be some things left unsaid between the sisters. Things only they know.