Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK
Blurb: Families should stay together. What happened that day ripped mine apart.
A successful doctor, with a loving boyfriend, Irini Harringford is finally happy. But when Elle tracks her down, everything starts to unravel.
Irini knows only too well what her sister is capable of. However, her desperate need for answers drags her back to a shocking past.
She always thought her family didn’t want her. What if the truth is even worse?
Review: The ‘sisters’ trend in the Thriller genre is one that I’m sure you’re familiar with by now. On my bookshelf alone I can see 3 books with the word ‘sister’ in the title. But unlike some other trends which I personally got a bit bored of, the ‘sister’s’ theme always draws me in. I don’t have a sister myself (maybe that’s why I’m interested in reading about them?) but I often find the sibling dynamic between two females in a book is explored deeply and in so much detail. My Sister is absolutely no different in that respect. The relationship – or lack of – between Irini and Elle was complicated to say the least. It was weird, hurtful, different and down-right strange at times. And I loved the exploration of this relationship throughout this book all the way until the final page.
My Sister explores the family dynamic quite intensely as well, especially between parents and their children. Despite the book and the story-line being fairly dark, Michelle manages to inject an element of softness and love into her writing which genuinely, genuinely, made me tear up on the final page. The way she talks about parents and how they’re a part of us and when they go, they leave a part of themselves behind as well as taking a part of us with them is so emotive and a beautiful touch to an otherwise, quite disturbing story of lies, deceit and betrayal.
Right from page 1, there’s answers that we want. Irini was given away by her parents and sent to live with her Aunt at just 3 years old and right up until today, she still doesn’t really know why. She’s always known her sister, Elle, was a problem child but she never really knew the extent of Elle’s psychological issues until she has to go back to the family house to attend her estranged Mother’s funeral. In a small town, people talk and it’s not long before she meets people and goes to places which help her unravel the truth about her families past and why her parents gave her away all those years ago. The mystery elements of this book were brilliant as more and more unfolds throughout the story and right up until the last few chapters, we’re discovering – as is Irini – new things about her life.
Irini herself was an interesting character. I wouldn’t say she was particularly likable, she clearly had a complicated personality but that didn’t take away any enjoyment from the book. In fact, it made it better, in this case! Elle was an entirely different playing field of a character – possibly one of the most complex, disturbing an complicated characters I’ve read about in a while. You swing every which way possible in your feelings towards Elle; I felt sorry for her, then hated her, then didn’t. It was very confusing and Irini’s feeling’s towards Elle made it even more confusing for the reader! Irini clearly has a better heart than I would have in that situation. A character I wanted to mention was Antonio. Bloody hated him. What a macho, egotistic bastard. I’ll say no more.
From the array of characters and the feelings they bring up in you, the incredibly easy to read way that Michelle writes which allows you to effortlessly flow through the book to the twisty, disturbing an tragic story-line, My Sister is firmly one of the best Thriller’s I’ve read in a long old time. There’s always another element to explore with the ‘sister’ theme in a book and I think Michelle explored that to the absolute maximum. There’s no other way for me to say it really, I just bloody loved this book.
Catch up with the rest of the blog tour!
