Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of "Blue Sisters" by Coco Mellors. This book follows the lives of three close-knit but very different sisters as they navigate the horrific loss of their fourth "Blue" sister. I appreciated the narrative and growth as we followed how each of the women suffer the loss and deal with childhood trauma, including alcoholism and addiction. I never had a sister but I have 3 daughters of my own and appreciate how the bonds of family and sisterhood are portrayed. It was well-written and a great read.

I finally read Blue Sisters, and unfortunately although I did not dislike this book, I did not seem to love it as much as everyone else did this fall. I read this as a buddy read with a friend and really enjoyed chatting with her about it - I think this makes a good book club book or buddy read. I had complicated feelings about this one but felt that the reading experience was still rich through reading it in community.

read this book if you love—
🏠 complicated family stories
👯 about sibling dynamics + sisterhood
3️⃣ Multiple POV
💨 quick reads
🚫 unlikable and messy characters

I had a tougher time with this one than anticipated and it fell a little flat for me. Mellors is a very talented writer but the narrative didn’t really come together and I found all the sisters’ motivations difficult to understand.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: What a banger of a book, an anthem, a speech. Coco Mellors has quickly become an auto-buy author between Blue Sisters and Cleopatra and Frankenstein. She is able to describe and portray such vulnerable parts and motivations of the human condition. Plot wise this is a very slow moving story. You read books like this for the character. I feel like trying to write a review of a book this grand is impossible. It's one you have to experience.

If you are an addict or have a family member who is an addict, I believe you will feel deeply heard and felt. This story does not go down easily, it can be hard to digest. It raw and heartbreaking from start to finish. CoCo Mellors writes this story in a way that we embody each sister and get the opportunity to understand them. All four sisters are very different and have very distinct lives.

I keep going in circles trying to find the words but I can't. CoCo Mellors told this story beyond the capacity of review. I urge you to read it, to witness it's words.

Blue Sisters is a journey about grief and how a pair of sisters deal with it. Grief does in fact relate to people in different ways and it is a telling story about the differences in siblings. Mellors once again captivates the audience with real-life experiences within a fictional world that is seemingly recognizable, yet tells one how human and related we all are.

What a heart-wrenching book! Although I am in a family with no sisters this book still felt relatable and easy to connect to in regard to the complexities of relationships and family.

★★

It’s true: all the beautiful writing in the world could not save a subpar story.

Which is a bummer because I was super excited about this one.

This book follows Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky Blue as they navigate grief, addiction, and sisterhood in the year following their sister Nicky’s death. What I expected was a vivid story with moving character development. What I got was scattered storylines with no real substance. No character felt real to me, despite seeing their deepest struggles and being a fly on the wall during their most pivotal moments. A lot of plot development came out of the blue (ha), or at least it appeared that way because these characters and their motivations remained murky throughout the novel. Two of the characters would up romantically involved with/intrigued by partners with whom they were originally in strictly professional relationships with, which just felt wrong to me. The dialogue often used words that one doesn’t often hear in every day speech (“alacrity” comes to mind—I have never heard anyone use that word in conversation before) which reminded me that I really was just reading a work of fiction.

Because the biggest failure of this book was the flat characters, I’m almost tempted to believe that they were intentionally dull to make the point that we can never know what anyone is truly experiencing based on their surface-level appearance. But if that were the case, why would Mellors have given us readers access to the characters’ deepest struggles and inner dialogues?

Mellors also struggled to give these three sisters equal weight in the storytelling. It seemed more of an Avery/Lucky narrative while Bonnie was just there. Perhaps this is to emphasize their personalities (Avery and Lucky are the loud and proud oldest/youngest children; Bonnie is a quiet, peaceful middle child)? But then, what would have been the point of including Bonnie’s perspective at all? It didn’t add anything that we weren’t already seeing from Avery and Lucky aside from Bonnie’s training and love life, which really weren’t all that important to the overall story.

Also—not to be nitpicky because I did receive an e-ARC (but also, to be nitpicky because this was such a prevalent issue like I had never seen in ARCs before)—the spelling and grammatical errors were rampant in this. I can only hope those were fixed in final revisions.

Despite my dissatisfaction, I did, however, find some things to appreciate: the gorgeous writing (until it grated on me), the little character quirks (one character so obsessed with coffee she always asked at which elevation the beans were grown), and the few moments that made me misty-eyed (Avery finding Lucky on her doorstep, Pavel and Bonnie’s conversation after her last fight).

I’ll just leave you with the most scathing criticism I care to give this book, which comes from the note I kept as I read: This book tries to be deep using big words and poetic feelings. However, it only succeeds in making it feel like a John Green novel.

If you want to read this, read it. I however will not be touching this or Mellors’ works again. Simply not for me.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the arc!

Blue Sisters is such a beautiful, real, intimate story of sisterhood, addiction, and grief. No one does it the way Coco Mellors does it. This novel creates such a deep connection between family and paints an emotional picture of loss and understanding. I just absolutely adored this book and I felt so captivated by the lives of this family.

Wow does my heart break for the Blue sisters. This book was full of heart and complexity. I loved the POVs for each sister and how we really got to know them so well. This is my first coco Mellors book but wow does she have a way of telling a beautiful and engrossing story! I deeply related to this as my sister has chronic illness and wish so badly to take her pain.

A wealthy family drama? Yeah, sign me up. With strong themes of grief and addiction in its many forms I was hooked by Blue Sisters from the jump. As an only child, it's not that I struggle with stories of sibling-hood, but it is naturally harder for me to relate to them sometimes just based on my lived experience, however I am always fascinated by the dynamic. Mellors writing did a good job of keeping me engaged in the characters and their special bond really forces them to endure their complex relationships. With multiple POVs, Mellors does a great job of writing in the lens of these different characters. For fans of books like Hello Beautiful and Worry or shows like Succession and Euphoria.

Five stars as it is that good. Such sadness but joy that the sisters share. Ending was tied up well.

Blue Sisters is a beautiful and moving story about three sisters navigating the loss of their fourth sister, and family dynamics made even more complicated by her absence. I loved this book and these sisters from start to finish.

Thank you Coco Mellors, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors examines the intricacies of identity, sisterhood, self-discovery, and emotional development. This story delved deeply into the interwoven lives of its protagonists with its rich, multi-layered characters and plot, which spans personal and familial difficulties. Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death, and we are taken on a journey of self-discovery for each of these women. An entirely character-driven story.
I found this story entirely about addiction. All the people in this family, including the sisters, have an addiction in one way or another. The Author examines the different sides of addiction in one family because, she says, it’s something that doesn’t feel like “a choice” to write about. “I really want to expose something in addiction, and it’s just something I know. I have from birth: I was raised around addiction. I’m an addict myself, an alcoholic, so I feel it is important to write about that.”
Mellors has written of struggling with imposter syndrome in her 20s and drinking to feel like a “somebody”. “I drank to escape that feeling and, once drunk, behaved in ways that reinforced this view of myself: gossiping about my talented classmates because I was insecure; sleeping with strangers because I was lonely; starting fights with friends because I didn’t know how to communicate my needs. And I was hungover so frequently and so wretchedly that it was impossible to do the one thing that did make me feel like I had something to offer: write,” she explained in a recent essay in a British Vogue magazine.
I was in the mood to read this story and, therefore, enjoyed it, but it is sad, depressing, and hopeful at the same time. I would check your trigger warning if this topic is sensitive to you. I would recommend this if the topic is of interest to you. I gave it 3.5 stars.

This was so beautiful. I loved the writing and the characters... I loved following the sisters and their relationships. I loved watching the family all deal with their grief differently, and all unravel in their own ways. It was a beautiful and heartbreaking slice of life. Already have bought the other title from this author to be able to experience more of her words. I also purchased a physical copy of this book to annotate as well as an audiobook copy. I can't get enough!

Thank you so much for letting me have an ARC. I couldn't get into this at the time when I received my ARC (i'm a huge mood reader) and am going to save it for next year when the timing is right. I started it a bit and loved it though. Can not wait to read more soon.

This novel is unfortunately just not for me. I was looking forward to reading it, but the writing quickly became a huge obstacle. I found it saccharine and contrived, jolting me out of the novel's moments because it just felt so heavyhanded. I think a novel is only as good as its writing, and sadly the writing here absolutely missed the mark for me.

What a strong story about sisterhood. As someone who has a sister themself, I could relate to so many aspects of this story. Sadly, that includes the addict part as well. I loved this dysfunctional family and spending some time with them.

This sister saga started slow, but paced its way into my heart. Beautifully written, the author takes us through deep pain, fueled by familial angst, addiction, and grief. While each surviving sister has a tale, the common threads throughout weave together their bond. Not an uplifting read, but heartbreakingly satisfying. 👀

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! This was amazing and made me cry multiple times. The sister relationships in this were so special and each of the characters were so complicated and real. 10/10 recommend!!

This highly anticipated new novel from Coco Mellors did not disappoint and had me teary quite a few times. As an only child, the sibling dynamics always intrigue me.