Daughters (or Girls? My ARC copy was called Daughters) was a picture of generational trauma. Ingrid Oelson and Edward Robb are objectively shit parents. Throughout her battles with addiction, Ingrid leaves her daughters for days at a time without food or money, coming back home with a smile on her face and confusion on what she possibly could have done wrong. Edward is barely present - a Disneyland dad who works as an actor in Hollywood, visiting once a year on average. Matilda and Nora are products of their tumultuous upbringing. Nora, an artist, has a complicated relationship with her mother. She is an artist, at times mirroring her mother's work while trying to make her own statements and create a separate persona in the art world. Matilda is a children's psychologist, attempting to balance her own childhood issues while helping the children around her.

This book was enjoyable, but it was not what I was expecting. I expected a more light hearted with macabre humor style road trip adventure, but it became clear this was more of a harsh light on the darkness of childhood abuse/neglect and the realities of being mentally ill. I see why the Dolly Parton plot had to happen, but it felt so incredibly out of left field that it broke me out of the story for a little while. The audio narration was great, and although I didn't expect to enjoy the dual narrator situation, I felt that the male narrator helped break us out of the main story and deliver us into the autobiography that Richard was writing as the story progressed.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for an advance copy of this book!

Thank you NetGalley and RB media for the ARC.

Oh, my heart. This story took a toll on me...In all the best ways. Hello Beautiful was my favorite read of 2023 and I would put Daughters right next to it. Kirsty Capes really dives into the sometimes messy dynamic of sisters. In the case of Mattie and Nora, it wasn't your normal sister situation. They were the daughters of a world-renowned painter from England and an American television star. They were neglected and basically made to fend for themselves. On their mother's deathbed, she asked them to burn it all. All of her paintings, everything she put into the world - she wanted it gone.

Two years after their mother's death, they haven't spoken or seen each other. Nora has a mental health emergency and Mattie steps up the way big sisters do. During this time, Nora is talked into letting her mother's work being in an exhibit and after having second thoughts, Mattie, Nora and Mattie's teenage daughter go on a road trip to stop the exhibition.

The story is told through the current time, looking back on their lives growing up and through transcripts of interviews for a biography that is being written about their mother. It is a funny yet heart-breaking tale of motherhood, sisterhood, and the ties that bind us all together. Another book to add to my library! (Both the UK and US versions!) Bravo Kirsty Capes!!!!!!

The audiobook kept me drawn in. Amber Gadd's narration was almost intoxicating for me. She did a great job of changing up just enough to be able to differentiate between the different characters. I will say that the accent for Aunt Caro drove me nuts. But Aunt Caro drove me nuts, so I don't know if the strong Swedish accent bothered me for that reason. Ryan Laughton also did a great job as Richard. Fabulous narrators! I will be on the lookout for other books with them.

I found this story and the relationships depicted a delight to read. The story takes twists that I did not expect and kept me guessing in parts.

The issues around mental health are portrayed with respect while delivering some harsh realities of the impact it has on those affected and the people around them.

The relationships forged between Peppa, Ivan, and Gogo are interesting, fun, loyal and life-long. As is the relationship between Brendan and Peppa in addition to heartbreaking at times.

I would like to have read some more closure on Peppa's relationship with her parents, especially her dear old Dad. However, I can appreciate the Author's honesty when it comes to the stark realities that life can be for many.

This review is sounding very melancholy which is due to the underlying topics but it was a good read and even funny in parts.

Thankyou to #Netgalley and publisher #CentralAvenue for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I understand comparing a book to another popular one or pointing out a trope is the way these days to market books, but I also think the comparisons to Daisy Jones & The Six and the emphasis on the road trip part of DAUGHTERS actually do a disservice to the reader. For one, the excerpts of interviews (that give the "documentary" style of Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel) are much more prominent in the beginning of the book, making you think the main character is Ingrid, and although the format is great at giving you an outsider view of her, it slowly stops being used as you spend more time in the present timeline with Mattie and Nora. As for the road trip "trope", it can be frustrating to realize it only takes place in the second half of the book and it is not the main event. All that said, Kirsty Capes's book is much more than those two devices to call readers attention. This is a book about two sisters that, in spite of having terrible parents and a very difficult upbringing, are still trying to connect with each other and forgive each other and themselves for how they handled their past - they were just kids trying their best, trying to survive and still believe that they are deserving of love and caring.
As you follow along the reading, the roots of Nora's mental health issues are laid: from being constantly left unsupervised from a very young age, to interactions with a narcissistic and alcoholic mother, to feeling abandoned from her 9 years older sister, and later in life being constantly compared to her mother in her work. She realizes nobody is coming to save her and more than once she is not sure if she wants to survive. Through Capes' writing, you understand how deeply Nora feels everything and how hurt she is from Mattie's scaping the house without her. But you also understand that Mattie was not much more equipped to take her sister. She was just a teenager and although she deals with her pain in a different way, she's is also hurting and dealing with a lot of guilty. It was beautiful seeing how hard they were fighting to open up to each other again, the complexity of their feelings towards each other and even harder to read about how all of the adults in their life were uncapable of taking accountability in their actions. And still, until the end the sisters were set in honoring their mother’s wishes - another demonstration on the writer's part of how much she understands human complexity. It would be much easier to just hate Ingrid.
This is a heavy read in its themes, so I don't think the humor here is enough to call it comic, it is more like life: even in the hard times, we try to find beauty and joy. And I couldn't help but wish that Mattie and Nora were able to find their way back to each other and find happiness.

Two sisters are looking to heal from their childhood trauma after their mother passes away. Told from the perspective of Matilda, or Mattie, we hear how she and her sister grew up with an artist as their mother and a father who wasn't in their lives.

This story was a slow start for me, but it did pick up. I felt as though there were areas that could've been different, but in the end it came together. It was an emotional read! I wouldn't say it was just like Daisy Jones, but I can see SLIGHT similarities.

3.5

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy.

DNF at 20%

After reading the synopsis i was quite excited to start with 'Daughters" unfortunately the production of the audiobook let me down.
Found it difficult to engage and follow the story.
The narrations just isn't working for me either - its confusing to follow, too monotone and the attempt of a Norwegian accent got tiering pretty quickly

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the audiobook.

The complicated mother/daughter and sister relationships that were front and center in this book were incredibly thought provoking and will be a significant take away for me from Daughters. I was pleasantly surprised by the hopefulness that ended the book.

After a bit of confusion and having marked this yesterday as currently reading Girls by the author, I went into to mark it as want to read and realised it’s actually a re release under the new title Daughters.

I feel like this will be a marmite of a novel, I hate marmite, I loved this. There is a content warning at the outset, but to reiterate the novel almost entirely works around addiction. Self harm. Suicide. Mental health and child abandonment and neglect.

Initially I didn’t think this would be for me but almost an hour in I was hooked. Following the death of their mother, a notoriously troubled and world renowned artist. The novel sees Mattie and Nora reunite on the brink of a legacy exhibition of their mother’s work, an exhibition that neither sister wants, their mother certainly didn’t want but organised by their aunt. Cue a road trip together with Mattie’s daughter Beans on a mission to stop the exhibition and scatter Ingrid’s ashes along the way. The sisters rehash their whole lives, the terrible traumatic childhood they endured, and Nora’s own mental health journey. I won’t forget these characters. Beautifully written.

The story is frank, raw, brutal at times and the ending was devastating and hopeful. It was at times hard to remember I was reading fiction, I believed this story,

The audio narration was perfect.

Huge thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook, available now.

This book started out really strong and I just loved the writing and characters. The author beautifully delved into topics of family, addiction and fame. At first, I couldn't put this book down and really just enjoyed getting to know each character and experiencing their lives. I was convinced starting out that I would give this book 5 stars. However, about half way through the book it got really slow and I lost interest in the book. I do think the author is very talented as these topics are not easy to write about and she really did beautifully, but I think a change in the overall storyline or pacing could have kept it as a 5 star book. This one didn't completely land for me, but I can see why it resonated so deeply with others. I recommend it for those who love a good slow paced character-driven story!

This complex, heavy family drama deals with some substantial and important topics such as mental illness, trauma, suicide, addiction and parental neglect but is told in such a clever way that it never felt too burdensome. The sisters unstable upbringing with an unwell but famous single mother, who is a renowned artist but a terrible parent, successfully transports the reader to a past coming-of-age timeline that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The detailed examination of the relationships between characters (i.e.: mother-daughter, sisters, romantic, etc.) were so well written that they were impactful, raw and real. The characters themselves were wonderfully developed and evoked empathy (in the case of the girls) or anger (in the case of their father) making them feel genuine and believable.

Tragic with a touch of dark comedy, this story stayed with me long after it was finished.

In regards to the audio, the only complaint that I have is with the dual narration. I would have preferred to stick with Amber Gadd exclusively, removing all of the interview components. I found them to be somewhat jarring and at times completely pulled me out of the story but that, of course, is just a personal preference.

Overall, this was an excellent novel and production. If you are a fan of moving yet complicated dysfunctional family dynamics than I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars!

What an epic, beautiful, poignant, and oh so real depiction of two sisters, Matilda and Nora, who had to endure an extremely dysfunctional upbringing with two highly narcissistic parents, one an artist, the other an actor. While this might sound like a potentially dark and depressing book, the author skillfully turns this origin story on its head by placing the two on a "road trip," with Matilda's teenage daughter Beanie along for the adventure, from London to Arizona, to LA, to San Francisco so they can ultimately attend their deceased mother, Ingrid Olsson's, exhibition at the San Fran Museum of Modern Art - an exhibition that she would have hated.

A book that can both manage to make you deeply feel the desperation and anger of being a child with such neglectful parents, while at the same time adding so much hilarity throughout the road trip (was it really Dolly Parton, or wasn't it?), and such overwhelming love between the main characters (even when yelling at each other in a tragicomedy scene that I will be chuckling about for a long time) is one that without preaching it, subliminally and expertly exemplifies what all of our lives are about - some parts outrage, some hilarity, many times filled with love even when we least expect it or realize it.

I loved this book, rewinding it numerous times because I wanted to hear again how expertly it was written, with details of the settings, emotions, and connections that made you really see and feel these characters, their inner struggles to do better, to find peace, to find love, even after some of the hardest things one can imagine enduring in a family and with one's sibling. Highest recommendation.

I think author Kirsty Capes, NetGalley, and publisher RBMedia for the opportunity to hear this audiobook ARC. This is my honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC copy of this audiobook. I don't know if it was the author's writing or if it was the narrator's performance, but I didn't find anything that I necessarily enjoy. I didn't find the characters likable.

It wasn't bad. However, I don't think I would've missed out on anything coming across this book. Which is such a hard thing to say because I usually try to find something that I could add. Something to show what insight I could gain from this.
Nobody likes to give a bad or subpar review. Especially when you know how hard an author has worked.

This story was not for me. Heavy themes of mental illness, child neglect, and suicide. In my opinion I think this story romanticizes suicide and it was really off putting to me.

As far as quality I do feel that this book was technically well written and I really like the format of interviews throughout the storyline.

I listened to this as an audiobook and the production was good.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. It took me a chunk of time to finish this book. It was heavy compared to a lot of the books I’ve read lately.

Daughters is a poignant exploration of familial bonds, legacy, layers of grief and the complexities of sisterhood. The story follows Mattie and Nora, sisters picking up the pieces after the passing of their mother, a renowned painter, who asked for her artwork to be destroyed while she was in her final days. Two years after their mother’s death, the sisters embark on a road trip up the West Coast, accompanied by Mattie’s teenage daughter, Beanie, and their mother’s ashes, confronting buried secrets and unresolved tensions along the way .

Daughters captures humor and heartbreak, presenting characters that are deeply flawed yet profoundly human. The novel’s structure, interspersed with interviews from Ingrid’s biography, giving some resemblance of a deeper Daisy Jones & The Six. There are themes of mental health, loss, grief, resentment, and redemption.

The narrative was compelling but I found the pacing of the book to be extremely slow at times. There were also some areas I feel predictable. It’s definitely a great book to read when you’re in the headspace for something more serious with the feel of Daisy Jones meets Firefly Lane.

This is a multigenerational family drama with heavy themes. The narration is excellent with a cast of voices. I did not connect well to the characters, and at 12.5 hours, it was a little too long.

This is a story of a woman's reckoning with her past and family relationships. Mathilda and Nora are the daughters of renowned artist Ingrid Olssen. It was interesting to see the consequences of Ingrid's art and struggles on her children. I found Mathilda to be a wonderful narrator leading us through this story. Kirsty Capes did an excellent job of balancing the reveals of the past and Mattie's current developments. Mattie was dealing with her changing relationship with her teenage daughter as well as reconnecting with her sister, Nora, who struggles with mental health. I loved how realistic and layered the family dynamics were in this book. I look forward to reading more from Kirsty Capes. I also enjoyed the small excerpts from the biography and interview moments throughout the book. The audiobook was a great way to enjoy the story, especially as the different narrator set aside the biography excerpts.

Content warnings: suicide, child neglect/abuse, and drug use.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for providing an eALC in return for my honest thoughts.

just in time for mother's day (crazy work, by the way) we have a story of sisters mattie and nora, only children of their estranged and eccentric mother, ingrid olssen, who was in her lifetime a renowned painter. ingrid has passed, but mattie remembers her mom's deathbed request - all of her work, her art, her paintings, they should be burned.

this story details a long history of their mother's neglect and abuse, perhaps partially contributing to nora's inability to deal with the world and partially contributing to mattie's inability to make wise choices - her latest bad idea was to date her late mother's biographer who seems interested in her only to use her as a vending machine for more and more information that mattie hasn't been been willing to tell. when nora is bullied into giving up her half of the art to an exhibition that her mother never wanted by their aunt karo, the sisters and mattie's daughter beanie (and ingrid's ashes) end up on a road trip out west to stop the event from happening.

there was something here about our obsessive need to consume information to the point of dehumanizing individuals. ingrid did it with the creation of her infamous work of her two daughters, girls. richard, the biographer, is doing it by pressing mattie for more and more information about her mother. people standing in a room consuming the artwork of an artist that never wanted her worked consumed did it. this feels like a book about limitations and boundaries and how people constantly cross them and how our choices are to escape these cycles or suffer.

this was a very thoughtful, reflective book that i enjoyed reading. i don't like stories about motherhood as i've said multiple times before (no idea why i picked this one up), but it turns out an intense recollection of the ways the most trusted people in our lives can and do hurt us appeals to me. that said, mattie calling her daughter "beans" through half the book and still doing that creepy thing of talking about how good babies smell like still existed in this book and drove me insane. i hate hate hate hate hate how mothers are written in books like this. STOP IT.

I love a complicated story about women so this is right up my alley. It was much darker than the cover suggests but I do love the layers and familial trauma as well as sister bond that is so strong. Beanie is a testament to a mom protecting and changing the cycles to make her life better than hers was. The story was a bit cluttered but the writing style was so believable and raw. Loved the journey

This is a multigenerational novel that explores the complex relationships between mothers, daughters, and sisters. At its heart are sisters Mattie and Nora, the daughters of renowned painter Ingrid Olssen, and Mattie’s own daughter, Beanie. The novel delves into heavy, layered themes—trauma, abandonment, complicated motherhood, and even suicide attempts. (Content warnings are noted at the start of the book, and listeners are encouraged to take them seriously.)

Capes’ prose is undeniably lyrical and often quite beautiful, making the audiobook a rich listening experience on a sentence level. However, even by the halfway point, I found myself struggling to emotionally connect with the characters. While Mattie, Nora, and Beanie have compelling backstories, the narrative didn’t fully draw me in, and the dark humor didn’t quite land for me.

The audiobook narration is strong overall. The male narrator was particularly excellent—his pacing delivery were excellent. The female narrator did well with most accents, though her Eastern European accent occasionally felt forced or unnatural. That said, the emotional tone throughout was handled with sensitivity and respect for the material.

Daughters will likely resonate with listeners who enjoy literary fiction that explores identity, generational trauma, and family legacy. While it didn’t fully engage me, I can still appreciate its ambition and craftsmanship.

Thanks to Netgalley and RB Media for this ALC . This is my honest review.

This was such a unique, heartfelt read. I had no idea what I was walking into with Daughters, but I ended up really enjoying it. The writing was smart, layered, and so full of personality. There’s wit and warmth, but also a raw honesty that caught me off guard in the best way.

I loved Mattie and Nora’s dynamic. it was messy and complicated, which made it feel real. The writing was beautifully done, and the dialogue felt authentic. I loved the mix of road trip chaos, emotional reckonings, and a little bit of dark humor.

It’s a story about sisters, grief, identity, and letting go (or not). I especially loved Beanie, she added such a fresh, honest voice that balanced out the heavier moments.

This was a solid 4 star read for me. Emotional, funny, thoughtful and just quirky enough to stand out. If you love complicated family stories with heart and honesty, this one’s worth checking out.