I featured The House of Two Sisters in my June 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q31xhbo1tE, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

Have you ever wanted to cruise up the Nile river, exploring ancient sites along the way? The House of Two Sisters fulfills the dreams of Victorian and Modern-day Egyptologists alike! Clementine “Clemmie” Attridge is the daughter of the late Egyptologist Clement Attridge and has just arrived in Cairo. She has come to break the curse placed on her family when her father unwrapped a mummy with two heads and an amulet of protection. She has come to Egypt to return the amulet in the hopes that the curse will be removed, but due to the Egyptomania gripping the Victorian world, many are hungry to capture any ancient object or mummies that they can!

This book switches back and forth from Clemmie’s time in Egypt to the past where she and her family are feeling the effects of the curse on them. For most of the book, it feels like there’s some part of the story missing, because there is. The build up is quite slow. While I think a lot of people would enjoy the sumptuous descriptions of Egypt, it made the book drag for me. There is also a lot of interweaving the Egyptian myth of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Seth, which is a myth I didn’t know too much about. It is definitely interesting, but maybe a bit too heavy-handed in this story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, Ballantine Books, and Rachel Louise Driscoll for my review copy!

3 stars

This is honestly a fun and engaging late Victorian-era Egyptology adventure book, about a hieroglyphist Englishwoman struggling to undo the curse she believes has plagued herself and her sister ever since her father desecrated the mummy of ancient Egyptian conjoined twins. I think for anyone who fondly remembers 1999’s <i> The Mummy </i> movie, this will be a fun time. Unfortunately I’m just too picky; I spent the whole book longing to re-read the <i> Amelia Peabody </i> series by Elizabeth Peters, which I think did this concept somewhat better; Clementine would fit right into that series as one of the charming but foolish young people that Amelia and the Emerson clan find themselves assisting.

Newcomers to Egyptian mythology will appreciate that Clementine, our narrator and protagonist, is an expert in Egyptian myth and tells her favorites to her travelling companions, which is both edifying and interesting. As a reader already somewhat familiar with the stories, however, I found myself annoyed that Clemmie’s version was never qualified; it draws heavily and almost exclusively from Plutarch rather than from actual Egyptian sources, which ran counter to the Egyptian-culture-belongs-to-Egyptians message the story was ostensibly trying to get across. To that end, there was also a scene with a blind fortune teller beggar woman that seemed entirely uncritical of that trope and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Ultimately, this story seems to struggle with whether it wants to be about sisterhood (biological and/or cross-national) or about Clemmie as neo-Gothic heroine. I think the UK title, <i> Nepthys, </i> serves the story better by putting the focus on the overlooked Egyptian goddess around which the story thematically centers. There’s a lot of good material in this book, but it never quite satisfied me with its execution.

4.25 ⭐️
The House of Two Sisters by Rachel Louise Driscoll is a story rich in Egyptian mythology, dripping with gothic atmosphere, full of mysterious twists and turns, and above all a story of sisterhood.

Set in Victorian era Egypt, Clemmie, the daughter of an Egyptologist, has spent her life working alongside her father interpreting the hieroglyphics that are unearthed in his findings. Believing her family to be cursed after reading an unusual message on an amulet, she travels to Egypt in an attempt to make right her father’s mistake and break her family’s curse. Along the way she makes new friends, and encounters new challenges with the possibility of deadly consequences.

The lyrical prose in this book was absolutely beautiful and there are so many lines that have stuck with me, for example, “Grief is the Nile River that floods and recedes but never dries up.”. I really appreciate mythology of any kind, so of course this book spoke to me. I also found the commentary on illegal dealing of artifacts, Egyptomania, and how these aspects affected the characters in this story very compelling. I found the romantic plot between two of the characters to be very special and tender, even if a tad underdeveloped. As a sister, specifically the youngest sister, I felt a special connection to Clemmie and Rosetta’s sisterhood bond. Sibling relationships are at the absolute forefront of this story and I really appreciated that aspect.

While the first half is slow moving, I feel that the pay off was worth it. I definitely recommend this one!

A huge thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In 'The House of Two Sisters', Clementine "Clemmie" Attridge believes that her family has been cursed after her father unwraps and desecrates an unusual mummy. After five years of suffering, Clemmie has no choice but to travel to Egypt in an attempt to return what was stolen and break the curse.

The pacing felt a bit slow for the first half but by the second it picked up and was fast to finish. I really enjoyed when the story leaned into the gothic elements! I was also very interested in reading the actual bits of Egyptian mythology woven throughout the story.

Rachel Louise Driscoll obviously has a lot of love and passion for Egypt and it shines through. She also really made sure to emphasize the damage that foreigners/colonizers have done to Egypt and its artifacts and reiterated that these items should remain in and be returned to Egypt.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with an advance copy.

I really enjoyed getting to read this, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed about the Victorian Egyptologist. The concept was everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed the overall feel of this book. The characters had that feel that I was expecting and enjoyed from this type of book. Rachel Louise Driscoll has a strong writing style and was glad I got to read this. It uses the historical fiction element that I was expecting and glad I got to read this.

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

Thanks to NetGalley Penguin Random House for the ARC. This book was a delight by the end. It took quite a while for me to get into the plot with the slow start. But once I got to the point where the plot started moving faster I was HOOKED. The history I learned was unmatched. I loved the imagery and the stories of sisterhood. I could feel like I was present with them. The stories of friendship that went deeper than surface level and the twists and turns really kept me on my edge. Overall highly recommend.

I had really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. The paceing was very slow, with almost nothing happening in the first 60 percent of the book. I also felt no connection to the characters and had a hard time caring what happened to them. I eventually gave up on this book because it wasn't holding my attention.

This cover is stunning! Read this if you adore anything to do with Egypt. I loved that this book was set during the Victorian era. This book made me catch Egyptomania like the characters in the book. It makes you want to board a Dahabiya and float down the nile and explore. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to more work from this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I've been fascinated by Egyptian history and mythology for as long as I can remember - THE HOUSE OF TWO SISTERS hits on both.

Clemmie, the story's protagonist believes that her family has been cursed due to the offenses of her father, an Egyptian antiquities collector. It's this belief that compels her to embark on an Egyptian expedition that she hopes will end the curse.

This book is beautifully written in the way that it evokes vivid imagery while simultaneously weaving a tale of intrigue and suspense. It is, however, a slow burn type of read, which utlizes a lot of flashbacks. That said, if you enjoy a bit of history, mythology, and suspense, you'd likely enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House
Publishing (Ballantine Books) for the advanced digital copy of this book, My reviews will be posted to my socials on June 2, 2025, (Fable and Goodreads).

Set against the shadowy grandeur of Victorian Egyptomania, "The House of Two Sisters" is a tightly woven historical novel that interrogates the boundaries between myth and memory, science and superstition, grief and guilt. Rachel Louise Driscoll's debut recreates the past and exposes its tensions, excavating personal and cultural reckonings from the sands of 1890s Egypt.

The novel follows Clementine "Clemmie" Attridge, a gifted hieroglyphist haunted by the legacy of her father's macabre fascination with ancient Egypt. In an era when mummy unwrapping parties passed as polite entertainment, Clemmie's father, a showman-scholar figure dubbed "Mummy Pettigrew," was part of a generation that treated the dead as curiosities. But Clemmie's journey into Egypt is not a voyage of spectacle. It is a quiet confrontation with her family's entanglements, a reckoning with stolen artifacts, and an attempt at restitution. However, whether she seeks forgiveness, redemption, or truth is left to the reader's interpretation.

Driscoll shuns melodrama in favor of psychological subtlety, allowing emotional truths to emerge through detail and silence as much as dialogue. Her portrayal of colonial Egypt is rich in specificity but unsparing in its depiction of the exploitation of land, culture, and bodies. The novel is not another adventure tale set in an exotic locale; it is a slow reveal of moral decay masked as scholarship.

The historical framework is anchored in real events and figures such as Amelia B. Edwards and the Egypt Exploration Fund. Driscoll's use of ancient Egyptian mythology, particularly the story of Nephthys, deepens the novel's exploration of sisterhood, concealment, and memory. The novel's heart lies in Clemmie's bond with her sister Rosetta—wounded, fractured, yet enduring. Their relationship is rendered with the kind of insight born of lived experience. Driscoll's close relationship with her sister informed this dynamic, lending it an authenticity that grounds even the novel's more symbolic gestures.

Although it explores the supernatural through Gothic tropes and ancient omens, "The House of Two Sisters" is ultimately a novel of human consequences. The so-called "curse" haunting the Attridge family is not some mystical force but the all-too-real specter of exploitation and betrayal—personal, familial, and imperial. Clemmie's mission resonates with contemporary urgency in an era still grappling with the legacies of colonial looting and museum ethics.

Driscoll's prose is assured, vivid without showiness, and attentive to the textures of place and body. She even reportedly wrote sections while wearing a corset to better inhabit her protagonist's physical world, an anecdote that, rather than serving as a gimmick, underscores her commitment to historical embodiment over historical embellishment.

Driscoll's debut succeeds because it refuses to treat colonial history as safely distant. "The House of Two Sisters" positions itself firmly within contemporary debates about museum ethics and cultural repatriation, yet it never sacrifices narrative momentum for moral instruction. Driscoll delivers thoughtful historical fiction and genuine adventure by using the intimate story of one family's reckoning to illuminate broader questions about what we owe the past and to whom. This debut offers both satisfaction and depth for readers seeking a novel that combines intellectual engagement with the pleasures of mystery, danger, and discovery.

Do you believe in curses? Might you be convinced of their reality if terrible things befell you and your family after an unheeded warning?

In Rachel Louise Driscoll’s elaborately woven debut, Clementine Attridge, daughter of an Egyptologist, was already inclined to accept the power of curses’ dark magic. Introverted yet strong-willed, Clemmie grew up immersed in myths, acting out scenarios about the sister-goddesses Isis and Nephthys during childhood playtime, and developed an expertise in hieroglyphs. At eighteen, she assists her father during his famous mummy-unwrapping parties: macabre entertainment for Victorian society gripped by all things Egyptian.

But after Clemmie translates the threatening inscription on an amulet found with an unusual mummified specimen, and her father disturbs the remains anyway, their lives are destroyed bit by bit. Five years later, she arrives in Cairo, desperate to hire a dahabeeyah – river barge – to carry her up the Nile and make amends before it’s too late.

The novel’s symbolism, drawing parallels between ancient deities and Clemmie’s family, is deep, rich, and extensive. It’s especially meaningful as it addresses Clemmie’s self-identification with the less-familiar sister: “For she is the Nephthys of her story, invisible and forgotten, and had she been a little more like Isis, then maybe her father would have listened to her.”

The storyline alternates between 1887 – the year of the “unwrapping” – and Clemmie’s journey in 1892, as she and a group of English visitors (whose company she reluctantly accepts) head upriver to Denderah. With the frequent circling back to five years ago and the time needed to establish context, the plot moves forward at a slowish pace, at least in the first half.

While the background detail will be catnip for Egyptology buffs (and cats are important characters!), the novel is as much an interior adventure as a voyage through the country and its storied culture. The characters, English and Egyptian, are a diverse sort, some more fully sketched than others. To allow for greater surprises, few specifics about the cast will be mentioned here, but the mythology provides hints.

For readers wanting to be transported into an earlier time, The House of Two Sisters places you amidst the Egyptomania craze of late 19th-century England and the exploitation of relics from the country’s past, both material and human. Moody and unsettling, this is a well-wrought Egyptian gothic with an echoing message about the ethics of people’s obsessions.

This fascinating novel tells the story of one brave woman's journey through Egypt to break a curse that was put onto her family. This novel is truly remarkable as it weaves such a remarkable trail of advancements in the nineteenth century. This book qill surely havw ypu begging for more.
Our main character Clemmie is an Egyptologist with her father. Although her fathers idea of making of name for themselves is unwrapping the mummies and taking the treasures. However one day he makes the mistake of unwrapping a mummy that has ominous hieroglyphics and after that several members of his family end up falling ill.
Clemmie takes this as a sign that the mummy was cursed. She then takes a journey back to Egypt to make things right and hopes that her family will make out all right. Along the way she meets some very interesting people.
Overall a very wonderful story.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.

Sail down the Nile and untangle a curse in “The House of Two Sisters.” A blend of historical fiction comes together in a beautifully immersive story. Clemmie and her family unwrapped an Egyptian mystery one day and curses seem to follow them ever since. She decides to take a trip to Egypt with a mission to break the curse. I enjoyed the cast of characters and the twists in the plot. I truly felt like I was traveling with the group on the dahabeeyah and I learned so much about ancient Egypt along the way.
I didn’t always agree with Clemmie’s allusive behavior but I understood her motivations and why she was not very trusting.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

“The House of Two Sisters” is by Rachel Driscoll. I am a sucker for nearly any book about Egypt - especially when it focuses on the myths and/or archeology. This book focuses on the story of Isis and Nephtysis (Egyptian g-ds - sisters/sisters-in-law). This book also focuses on grave robbery, plundering of tombs/stolen goods, and basic uncaring about the dead and their belongings. This book also touches on the “British Invasion” and Imperialism. Those, I think, were the best parts of this book. Where the book fell flat for me was first in the pacing - it starts out slowly and doesn’t really pick up speed for a very long time. The second place it felt flat was regarding the characters - they’re one-dimensional and a bit flat. I think this book would be enjoyable for those who like historical fiction, Egyptian mythology (and some magic), and dual timelines.

In The House of Two Sisters we follow Clementine as she makes her way through Egypt to break the curse on her family. Clemmie and her father Clement made a name for themselves unwrapping mummies for treasures. Despite her protests, Clement unwraps a unique mummy with ominous hieroglyphs and a beautiful amulet. When her family falls ill, Clemmie can’t help to think there was a curse protecting the unearthed mummy. Clementine sets off by herself to right their wrongs, before time runs out.

I really liked the atmosphere and setting of this book. The author did a great job taking you back to Egypt in the 1800s, you can almost feel the heat and sand on your face. The history and myths of the sister gods were interesting. I liked the symmetry between the sisters in both stories throughout.

The book has a great opening hook and mystery to draw in the reader. While the pacing faltered in the first half, once the antagonist is introduced after the halfway mark, we finally have more tension to propel the story forward. I felt for Clemmie and her journey to help her sister, however, the characters overall didn’t stand out to me as I had hoped, they seemed very generic and underdeveloped.

Picking up the pace towards the end, some of the story puzzles fall into place. Clemmie’s struggle to get the amulet back to its rightful place and her change of mind regarding Egyptomania become the main story. I recommend this book to fans of historical fiction with slight magical elements, and a tiny hint of romance, the writing and research were enjoyable.

Thank you to Ballantine Books for the free review copy.

"A young Victorian Egyptologist traverses the Nile River on a mission to undo a curse that may have befallen her family in this spellbinding novel.

Essex, 1887. Clementine's ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at her father's Egyptian relic parties, which have become the talk of the town. But at one such party, the words she interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. As her childhood games about Isis and Nephthys - sister goddesses who protect the dead - take on a devastating resonance in her life, and tragedy slowly consumes her loved ones, she wonders what she and her father may have unleashed.

Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Cairo desperate to save what remains of her family back home. There, she meets a motley crew of unwitting English travelers about to set sail down the Nile - including an adventurer with secrets of his own - and joins them on a mission to reach Denderah, a revered religious site, where she hopes to return the amulet and atone for her sins.

With each passing day, she is further engulfed in a life she's yearned for all along. But as long-buried secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Clemmie must reconcile the impossibility of living in the light while her past keeps her anchored to the darkness."

I mean, obviously I'm over the moon, because Egypt! But also, I'm oddly drawn by the Essex of it all.

I love anything Egyptian and this novel is such a wonderfully written adventurous story that you will feel like you are transported into the late 1800's along with the characters. Highly recommend and cannot wait to read more by this author!

very fun book which has its weakest point being the characters themselves, which were rather mediocre, although just about everything else was excellent. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.