*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

I really like the Brontë sisters' œuvre and was quite excited to read this book which was supposed to have an interesting narrative approach. Sadly, and in part due to the terrible formatting of the eBook I received, I could not enjoy it at all. I felt disconnected from all characters throughout, I did not find it enjoyable at all, and, as an English Lit academic, I found the connections to the siblings to be somewhat underwhelming. The various approaches annoyed me and I never managed to really stay immersed or interested in what I was reading. After 40% I started excessive skim-reading and even that couldn't make it better.

I think "Half-Life of a Stolen Sister" has a lot of potential, the majority of it unused sadly. I'm sure this book will be liked by some, but I found it terrible tedious and unimaginative and disconnected. Again, the formatting was horrible and it was really hard to read and understand where chapters began and ended too (the same picture again and again? Why?), but the content also did not convince me...

1.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I initially requested this ARC because I saw "Brontes" so I didn't read the blurb that closely. And ooh boy, what a surprise! Loosely based on the author sisters, this eclectic little take incorporates prose, transcripts, letters, scripts, and more to follow the girls from the death of their mother to Charlotte's death. I would say it's about 50 pages too long, and is definitely not for the purists, but I found the experiment delightful and charming.

I loved the experience of reading this book. A brilliant and inventive work of biography using a variety of methods, prose, journal entries, a play, letters, transcripts, interviews, a home movie, and more, to tell the story of the Brontes - do-gooder and biased father, mother and older sisters who die young, the famous three sister-authors, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their spoiled and ne'er do well brother. Family life, sisterhood, its tight binds and competitiveness, poverty, shortened lives, aspirations, loneliness, creativity, story-making, world-making, and more sort of set in the 20th century, perhaps in NYC, in an apartment, rather than in an English village in the 19th century, though the language is often that of the 19th century, but not always, and the depth into the brains and hearts of these extraordinary people is done so well and is a rush. The Brontes' story is an eccentric one, and here, that eccentricity is spun out in the ways it is told, getting close to them all, especially the sisters. Though some seem to think that familiarity with the Brontes and their novels that are still read today helps readers of this one, I don't think that's true. I think you can come to this fantastic novel without knowing a thing about the Brontes. It might take some readers a little bit of adjustment to the methods used, but it is worth it. My only quibble, and perhaps I missed what it refers to, but I don't understand the title.

Thanks to Soho Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

I thought I would give this book a shot, but I should have listened To my gut instinct. I’m not a fan of the Brontë sisters’ writings but I thought I could read a novel based on their lives.
I was wrong. I couldn’t get into the book at all. I found the writing to be disjointed and I found it difficult to follow it.
I’m sure legions of English literature fans adore this book and that’s great. It just wasn’t for me.

I really wanted to dive into this book and imagine more of the lives of the Bronte sisters and one brother beyond what we already knew from history and literature. This book tries to delve into what might have gone on in their minds as they try to process the grief and loss associated with the death of their mother, their sisters, and their absentee father. However, as I progressed through the book it felt a bit disjointed as though we were presented with an immature stream of consciousness and bouncing perspectives. The chapters did not feel as though they tied together very well and it seems large portions of time would pass between chapters as well. Part of the synopsis says "form shattering" but it does not help me understand the story any better. I'm not sure the Bronte's would be very pleased with the style over substance techniques applied to their lives. For me, it's a bit too avant garde and I will say it's not really my literary taste.

There were moments reading "Half-Life of a Stolen Sister" when I just had to smile. As Cantor writes within a historical space that is both the Brontës' 19th century and our present, she manages to make some bleak material delightfully, irreverently witty. There is, for instance, an ad written by the father that feels like a mix between a dating profile questionnaire and a letter. This novel is a triumph of playing with form and register to reimagine the Brontë family -- not just one of the sisters, but the whole family -- within our modern context. My only criticism is that this feat is hard to sustain over the length of the book (372 pages), which might be prohibitive for some readers.

An unconventional intriguing look at the tragic lives of the Bronte sisters. The time period is ambiguous, so I wouldn't call it historical fiction, but they're still all dead by their thirties, which seems less plausible in the present day than in the early 19th Century.

Amazing premise that lagged a little in the execution. I'll be keeping my eye out for Rachel Cantor's future works.

Loved this premise, love this family, and the writing (my god, the writing!)... HALF-LIFE OF A STOLEN SISTER was inventive, well researched, and richly detailed, and I think many fans of the Brontës will see their love of the sisters expand as a consequence (re: reward) of reading it. The tone of it was just constantly perfect.

I set this one down halfway through because it felt SO LONG. I love the idea, and the structure, but felt like the references to computers just shattered the dream for me. I was ready for something more to happen! Love the idea but got bored halfway.

An inventive work of genius, reimagining the lives of the Bronte sisters (and their brother.) Mixing genres, using emails, plays, scripts, and more, Cantor creates a riveting portrait of sisterhood, family, creativity, and the choices we make to keep that passion going. Just so moving--and funny--I loved this.

This book is what every Bronte fan has been waiting for and needing desperately. How did the Brontes manage to write such passionate stories with such small lives that they lived? Poverty, illness, death, seperation, and yet they manage to create such masterpieces as Mr. Rochester and Heathcliff. This book fills in those gaps of how it may have come about. Although fiction, Rachel Cantor did remarkable research and a wonderful job and I highly recommend this novel!