Published in Chicago Review of Books:

The first two-thirds of Sisters is filled with allusions to the event that lies at the crux of the story; these sprinkled tidbits of information slowly work to clear the dirt away from the truth of what happened. When you discover the details of that event, you might be shocked, like I was, or you might have seen it coming all along. But this book is no cheap thrill – whether you anticipate the twist or not, you’ll still be wowed. 

Read the rest of my review here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/chireviewofbooks.com/2020/09/04/sisters-daisy-johnson/amp/

SISTERS is a magnificent work of literary suspense that examines the complexities of motherhood, sisterhood and toxic relationships. A haunting story that dives deep into the human psyche. Johnson’s writing is hypnotizing and the plot is propulsive. I loved this creepy little book and I highly recommend.

This book has everything I want in a novel: stunning writing, a transporting setting, an eerie tone, and deep examination of human fragility. Daisy Johnson is a master writer and anyone who cares about the literary landscape should keep their eye on her.

The sisters of the title are September and July -- named for their birth months, less than a year apart. This slim novel takes you for a ride as you try to decipher what has happened -- the girls and their mother retreat to a borrowed seaside home to regroup after the teenaged girls are kicked out of school. To say the girls have a complicated relationship would be an understatement, just look at the book cover. We read this slim book for bookclub, despite it's size the twisty tale gave us a lot to talk about.

"She does not come gently or with peaceful intentions. My sister is a black hole my sister is a bricked-up window my sister is a house on fire my sister is a car crash my sister is a long night my sister is a battle my sister is here.”

I am always up for a twisted, evil sister story and Daisy Johnson delivered in this unsettling, gothic tale. July (the younger sister) is our narrator and it becomes quickly apparent that something terrible has happened concerning the girls - but exactly what took place remains a mystery. Their mother suffers from crippling bouts of severe depression which has left the sisters fending for themselves for most of their lives. July and September are incredibly close: speaking their own language and navigating life together in such an inseparable way that at times it feels like they are one person. September’s ability to manipulate and control July is incredibly disturbing and the games that they play and actions they take are unsettling, to say the least. “Does September make you do things you don’t want to do?” a teacher asks July at one point in the story. “I said no no no no but underneath the no there was a maybe.”

The unknown permeates the pages and a heavy feeling of dread never left me as I kept trying to figure out what exactly was happening. Was it all in their head? Were the girls having mental breaks from reality? Were they ghosts? July’s unwillingness to address what has happened head-on and her selective recall of the events over the last year finally comes to a head towards the end and I was taken by surprise when the mystery was finally revealed. Many thanks to Riverhead Books for providing an egalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book just wasn't for me. Maybe the dysfunctional family trope hits too close to home, or maybe the sheer uncomfortable feeling I got from July and September was too much, but I tried to read this for months. I started and stopped, but I finally finished...I still wish I wouldn't have put this much effort in, but I wanted to love this book. 
I can see the value to the genre and the appeal for other readers. I have recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN for this free ARC.

Shirley Jackson would have been proud of this book.  It was such a relatable and haunting story.  I should have known something was wrong when September never wanted to eat. I would love to go back and read it again so see what I missed the first time.

I didn't realize this book would be so moody and thrilleresque based on previous experience with this author. There are a lot of questions about what has happened, why the family has relocated to this moldy home, but it's clearly something with ("Irish") sisters September and July. The entire novel is a bit circular in storytelling so some pieces are left out and some are repeated. The setting and emotions evoked are good for a spooktober read!

Oh, I loved this!  The writing was different but beautiful. At times I thought hmm this might be a little too strange for me but then it all came together for me.  Haunting but lovely.

Dazzling, puzzling, sharp and thoughtful, Sisters is a tour de force. It's challenging and extremely agile in its ability to make you think even as you find yourself sinking into Daisy Johnson's assured and brilliant writing. This isn't an effortless read; it's challenging and challenges you, but it's absolutely worth it! Brilliant!

Suspenseful is this eerie tale of sisters in a toxic relationship. September and July are bound by  The cruelty of high school bullying, the distance of their mother and the absence of the father who died many years ago. Povs change from the girls, their mother and the house they flee to. The denouement is eerie and though it didn’t 100 percent work for me, fans of gothic literature would be quick to read this.

the cover of the book really had read the book and understood the essence of the story. It is a puzzling story, where you see the parts but its not until the end that the reader understands what is going on. The second thing is that the Daisy Johnson is a master at foreshadowing. From the beginning you know something terrible happened to teenaged September and July. Their single mom, Sheena, has moved them to a remote house on the coast, leaving their former home of Oxford behind. You know it is so terrible, that July has totally blocked what happened. The third thing that stands out to me is the author’ ability with language. In only 224 pages, Johnson is able to convey the sinister mood of the story through the descriptions of the disgusting house they’ve moved into, their mother’s mental state, and July’s thoughts. Yes, at times the book is confusing, but that is by design. The reader needs to feel the confusion July feels as she narrates the story.  The gaps, the spookiness of the story and the location are all there by design.

Another book whose artwork spoke to me and made me want to read it.  This short novel is highly  unpredictable, which is always a plus.

Sisters by Daisy Johnson is a slim but powerful novel. July and September are extremely close sisters born less than a year apart. They've recently moved with their mother due to bullying issues at their former school. Plenty of twists and drama to keep you glued to your seat while you finish this book. Read and enjoy!

Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Daisy Johnson’s Sisters in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, August 25, 2020.

Daisy Johnson’s Sisters is a gorgeous, mind-bending sliver of a novel. Though it’s only 220 pages long, it immersed me in a world as disorienting to me as it is to its protagonist, July. At the beginning, here’s what we know: July, her sister September, and their mother Sheela have escaped to a home called The Settle House near the sea in North York. They’ve been driven there by the outcome of a mysterious incident at the girls’ school.

July has been the victim of bullying, and September--ten months older--is her constant protector, a shield for whom vengeance is routine. It becomes clear, however, that September also wields power, that her strength can be diminishing for July, who always gives in to September’s dominance.

As Johnson unveils the history of this family, including the absent father whose behavior may have been the model for September’s actions, I was drawn into July’s understanding of the world. She often has trouble separating her own perceptions and experiences from September, and though she occasionally tries to assert her individuality, she is drawn again and again into September’s influence.

The course of the novel, told in gorgeous prose, is winding and surprising. Daisy Johnson’s development of her characters and their perspectives--she occasionally alternates points of view--is both surreal and real, portraying vividly the minds of these women. After loving Sisters so much, I will definitely be visiting her backlist!

"If there could be only one of us it would be you."

September and July are sisters with a symbiotic relationship. September, older by ten months, is the ringleader, simultaneously cruel and caring towards July. The girls are always together, wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, playing hide-and-seek and "September Says." Their mother, Sheela, struggles to connect with them, put off by September's erratic behavior and worried about July. Then something disastrous happens at school and the family moves into an aunt's run-down beach cottage to recover. There, the sisters' relationship takes on a new dimension. Johnson's latest book is both unsettling and enthralling.

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Wow. Wowowowowow. Daisy Johnson has done it again. This book fills your stomach with dread and then knocks the wind out of you. Johnson is a master at writing a story infused with a creeping sense of terror, like when you see something out of the corner of your eye in an empty room or hear creaking upstairs when you think you are alone. With Sisters she looks at the connections between bodies, houses, hauntings, and an all-consuming relationship.

"If brains are houses with many rooms then I live in the basement."

This book reminded me of a talk I attended by Carmen Maria Machado on "The Haunted House." Machado compared stories to houses: both are enclosed spaces that a person can step into and explore. And all the people who have passed through those spaces leave a sort of ectoplasmic trail behind, luminescent and lasting.

Johnson wanted to write her own haunted novel, and in Sisters she compares women's bodies to houses: cavities for lovers, children, identities. The literal house in the book, Settle House, is full of luminescent trails, including those of September, Sheela, and the girls' father when they first lived in the house. Johnson plays with time and space in the narrative, slowly escalating the pressure as she returns again and again to the incident that prompted the family's move. She also probes the bonds between siblings, asking how far one can push the other before they break. The result is both satisfying and deeply disturbing.

"There has never been anyone but September. There has barely even been me."

Artistic and lovely writing. I understood what was happening very quickly in the plot, but knowing didn’t undermine the impact of the ending reveal. I enjoyed this tumbled, multi faceted duo, these unbearably intertwined sisters. I felt so much for the mother, Sheela. Her chapters, though few, impacted me greatly with her sorrowful voice.

I did not like this at all. Not even a little bit. I can usually find something redeemable in a book, but this one is not for me.

The story is primarily told from the perspective of July, the slightly younger sister of September. The reader learns early on that the sisters and their mother moved from Oxford to a creepy place called The Settle House after some sort of accident at school. The mother goes into a depression and remains out of focus for most of the story. Her perspective is used to narrate a couple chapters, which adds absolutely nothing to the plot. I don’t understand the choice to switch from July’s point of view when she narrates 95% of the book. The mom’s perspective feels out of place. The reader spends the rest of the book trying to figure out what the accident was, as July can’t remember what happened but is obviously traumatized by it. 

Nothing really happens in this book and that’s my biggest issue. The lack of action made it hard for me to stay engaged. I read this on my iPad and I noted when the action started—with 40 minutes left in the book. The plot is mostly July internally wrestling with the vengeful wrath of September, and that is hard to read about for an hour and a half. Then the reader goes from knowing almost nothing to everything all at once. It’s anticlimactic with no build up. This is supposed to be a psychological thriller, but not enough goes on to mess with your mind.

Another issue for me is the writing. Johnson’s prose was extremely difficult for me to follow, partly because she is British and there are some words and slang terms I just didn’t know, but mostly because her descriptions are superfluous. I quite literally spent over half of this book completely confused about what the author was saying and what was even happening. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who like this book, but I’m not one of them.

Thank you to Net Galley, Penguin Random House, and Daisy Johnson for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sisters July and September are very close, but school problems cause them to move with their single mom to an isolated once-abandoned home to start new.  What happens when September no longer needs July....

July and September are two improbably named sisters, Irish twins, who have moved to a secluded house by the sea following a school bullying incident. Their mother, a children's book author, is depressed and only comes out at night, leaving food for them but otherwise leaving them alone to make their way in the house and countryside.

Something is clearly off here, but only at the end does it become clear what happened and how things ended up the way they did. The house and the atmosphere inside are described perfectly, with the encroaching rot and decrepit building adding to the emotional suspense. No spoilers, but this is a great fast read with just enough "huh??" added to make it a real page turner.

eARC provided by publisher.