Summary:
“Sally Hepworth, the author of The Mother-In-Law delivers a knock-out of a novel about the lies that bind two sisters in The Good Sister.
There’s only been one time that Rose couldn’t stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be…dangerous.
When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.
Fern’s mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of what families keep hidden.”
From: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250120953/thegoodsister
Overview:
Whereas most books like The Good Sister rely on misdirection and plot twists to draw the reader into the work, Hepworth defies this convention by allowing the reader to see where the story is going. Instead, she takes her time getting there, creating tension through the reader’s ability to see what is happening and their inability to do anything about it. The success of Hepworth’s approach hinges on her capacity to impart the nuance of neurodivergence and the complexity of mental illness while refraining from making caricatures of characters.
Thoughts:
In a time when twists and third act reveals have become an almost compulsory component of popular fiction, The Good Sister is a breath of fresh air. The book is not without its fair share of modern conventions, but it doesn’t waste energy purposely misleading the reader. Neither does it give the reader everything up front, though. It withholds just enough to keep the reader engaged but gives just enough to create a satisfying culmination of events and an acceptable conclusion to the anxiety and anticipation it has inspired.