Set against the vivid backdrop of the contemporary art world, Daughters explores complicated family dynamics, identity, and the legacy of trauma. The premise is compelling, and Capes paints the setting with a careful, creative touch. At its heart, the novel offers an intimate look at fractured relationships and the longing to belong.

Unfortunately, despite the emotional themes, I struggled to connect with the characters, which kept me at arm's length from the story. It also tackles some heavy and potentially distressing subject matter, so it’s worth checking trigger warnings before diving in. While it didn’t fully land for me, fans of literary fiction centered on family and art may still find something meaningful here.

The audiobook of Daughters features dual narrators, which helps distinguish the shifting perspectives and adds nuance to each voice. The inclusion of fictional biography interview transcripts is a smart touch—they break up the narrative in a compelling way and add depth to the storytelling, making the listening experience feel layered and dynamic.

I received an audiobook ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book reminded me a combination of Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, but with quirkier characters and a bit heavier plot.

This is a novel that explores the bonds of sisterhood and mother/daughter relationships while also touching on issues of suicide, childhood trauma, parental neglect, and drug use.

Daughters tells the story of the two (you guessed it) daughters of famous artist (recently deceased) Ingrid Olssen. Her two adult daughters, Nora and Mattie, along with Mattie's daughter Beanie are attempting to process and heal from the layers of trauma that resulted from Ingrid's neglectful parenting, while also finding forgiveness for Ingrid (and each other) as they carry out their mother's final wishes. Mattie just so happens to be in a romantic relationship with Richard, an author who is in the process of writing Ingrid's biography.

Though Mattie, a child therapist with a teenage daughter of her own, and Nora a somewhat famous artist, are now both adults, it is made clear right way that they are both carrying a significant amount of emotional baggage from their childhood. In the second half of the novel, the ladies head to the Grand Canyon in an attempt to scatter their mother's remains while en route to an art exhibition of their mother's work, which they know she would have never authorized. Nora is freshly released from mental health rehab after one of many suicide attempts, Maddie is processing the guilt of leaving Nora with her mother when she was still very young, and Beanie is trying to find her way in the world.

This book had me laughing, crying, rooting for an against all the different characters at various times. Though it does cover heavy subject matter, I wouldn't say the novel itself had a particularly heavy feel to it, other than to say I personally didn't care for the ending. The narration of the audiobook was excellent, and I'll definitely be looking for read more from this author.

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Abusive Parents, Neglect, Substance Abuse, Self Harm

Though I think many would like this, it wasn't keeping my attention and after finding I was only 33% through the book, and felt disappointed, I felt I should DNF it. To me it felt drawn out and, while the narrator was good, I was bothered when it came to the aunt's talking -- not the accent, but the inflections at the end of the sentences. I will say that I did like the little snippets of newspapers, articles, etc throughout.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity!

This was a tough one for me to get into. It never fully had my attention, and i think a big reason for that is because its so long for no real reason. Alot of bits werent super necessary to the story, and the writing felt like it dragged.

I did appreciate the connections between mental health and genetics. I also really enjoyed the dynamics of relationships between mother, daughter, sisters, aunt, niece, etc.

This one was just a miss for me.

“ The way you feel about your childhood then is very different the way you feel now. Like a complex piece of music, the memories seem to ebb away at times, soft and malleable, and rise to a horrendous crescendo at others.”

💔 This is a new all time favorite for me.

*Please check content warnings*

This book ripped my heart out and handed it back to me in pieces. I finished it in tears, not because of any one scene (though there were plenty that hit hard), but because I missed the characters the second it ended. Mattie, Nora, and Beanie felt so real, so messy and complicated and lovable, that saying goodbye genuinely hurt.

The audiobook is brilliant. The mix of narrative and interviews made it feel like I was listening to a beautifully done documentary. It added so much depth and emotion—like I was eavesdropping on real people trying to make sense of grief, art, motherhood, and sisterhood.

I have to say it: I liked this so much more than Daisy Jones & The Six. It felt more raw, more tender, more grounded. Less about fame, more about family.

If you’re the kind of reader who gets attached to characters like they’re your own friends or family, prepare yourself. This one stays with you.

[4.5 stars rounded down]

I love you books that are, in large part, biographies/character studies of fictional characters who haunt the narrative while also giving us a story about where their death leaves those they left behind.

Ingrid Olsen was a world renowned oil portrait painter who was able to move herself, and her younger sister Karo as her manager, into the celebrity limelight as a figure reminiscent of 2000’s Britney Spears. Her portfolio of work - primarily self portraits - are considered masterful by the art world and her tabloid-pushed public image garnered her the attention of the general public. She died two years prior to the beginning of this story and left all of her paintings to her two daughters, telling them to destroy it all. They did not do that, and now the pieces just sit in storage.

When their Aunt Karo decides to put on a showcase of Ingrid’s work, alongside the commission of an biography of her life, the two sisters, Mattie (POV character) and Nora - alongside Mattie’s daughter Beanie - know that Ingrid would have hated it and that they need to stop it somehow.

“Daughters” is excellent. The writing is masterful and the scenery is described so vividly. From the cold of everyday life in London’s wet winter, to the sunny but suffocating childhood in Ingrid’s Richmond home, beyond into the vast American Southwest, Capes can craft a beautiful scene. Nearly every scene I could picture so perfectly in my head as if it were a movie. One standout is the night at the Grand Canyon. The way that the author is able to put this scene together, weaving the tension between the three women, the recklessness, desperation, care, and confusion of it all, is extremely impressive. On top of all of this, the description of standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon at night with only blackness beyond your small outcropping of stone and the way the pinpoints of stars cut off into the plain blackness of the drop off? Incredibly well done and an Oscar-worthy scene.

The core of this novel is the relationship between the two adult sisters, Matilda (Mattie, early 30s and nine years older than Nora) and Nora (mid 2os) and how their relationship exists, and doesn’t exist, in the hole left behind by their mother, childhoods, and mistakes made by Mattie in the past. Other plot points exist as well, Mattie’s new relationship with Richard, the man writing Ingrid’s biography, the sudden distance between her and her daughter, Beanie (Beatrice) who is now, at 17, the same age Mattie was when she had her, Mattie’s relationship with Beanie’s father who still remains her best friend, and a few other smaller bits. It’s a lot at many times, and I wish some aspects were removed or given less importance in order to shorten the book in parts. I understand the thought process of the author, though. Of course we need to explore Mattie’s relationship with Beanie’s father, so Beanie needs to exist. This allows another character to have a relationship with Nora, as Beanie is closer to Nora than Mattie is with Nora at this point. But, Beanie should have some struggles and a character arc of her own, so she gets here. On and on for each of these instances. They’re not bad arcs or story points, but I felt like it bloated the book a bit, especially in the middle 50%.

Though the book description gives a big emphasis on the road trip across the American Southwest aspect of this book, I would say that it only takes up about 25% of the runtime (if even!) starting after the halfway point. For me, this was great and I only picked up this book because of a negative review that stated their issue with the lack of road trip action, haha. If you are looking into this book as a fan of road trip romps and nothing else, this is not the book for you. I am not a fan of road trip books, so I knew that I would not enjoy this portion of the story. I was still hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but I wasn't. The author avoids the most obvious or cliche jokes or scenarios about three Brits on their first American road trip, but it did absolutely nothing for me. The time the two sisters spend together in this time is very important for the story and the timescale is necessary, but I was just bored. There are very standout moments of excellence - the Grand Canyon moment mentioned earlier being the best of them - but not enough to make me enjoy this portion. Boring bits of forced-in plot points that I felt were unnecessary and drawn out much too long. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your preferences, this time spent on the trip passes quickly enough to not make me hate the book.

As brushed over earlier, there is a biography of Ingrid being written as the story goes on (though it is essentially finished by the start of it). Because of this, we get short interjections of interviews and descriptions of Ingrid and her work from the biography between story beats. Every single one of these interjections is incredible and so fun. These parts have a wide range of purposes: sometimes we get a teaser to something that has not been brought up yet by any of the characters, but we know is coming (such as the story about the shotgun), sometimes it’s interviews about Ingrid to give us more background to her, her work, and the reasons for her behavior, and sometimes they are just funny. They work very well with the tone of the novel, shifting between heavy and lighthearted scenes effortlessly. Most, regardless of purpose in the story, are funny in some way. A favorite of mine goes like (paraphrased due to listening to the audiobook):

“Interviewer: So, [the late artist who Ingrid was apprenticed to] was much older, yes?”

“That late artist's wife: Yes, well, he was in his fifties while she was a teenager staying with us… I suppose it could have looked weird to outsiders but I assure you it was nothing like that.”

“[Cutaway to a different interview with Ingrid's sister] Ingrid's sister: Yeah, that man was definitely a predator.”

These moments of humor are not overused and are utilized well in places that need it. If you are not a fan of the formatting, they are honestly pretty infrequent and do not disrupt the flow of the story (about one every few chapters in frequency) If anything, there are still long periods of just the story happening between these segments from the book. I wish there was more, even just short snippets, in a few moments. This especially goes for during the roadtrip, as there were times that it felt like forever since our last bit.

I need to talk about The Richmond house. This is Mattie and Nora’s childhood home where they lived with Ingrid. It is also the location of Ingrid’s studio. The Richmond house feels so real. It is described as so extremely lifelike, good and bad. Each moment described, each relationship building or breaking within its walls, and every little physical description is done so vividly. It is heartbreaking to read every scene taking place here. We meet the house only through flashbacks, mostly from Mattie with a few mentions in the interjecting interviews. This is done so well that most scenes from the main plot end up feeling weak in comparison, despite being very well done on their own. It just doesn't have the opportunity to get the same treatment, though there are moments that match the Richmond House’s glory of prose.

I liked most of the characters well enough, Ingrid being a strong favorite followed by Mattie, but some fell flat for me. Everyone was realistic and well written, but some fit too into character types that I just have never been a fan of. Nora and Beanie are the biggest offenders here. I did like them! But, they both are characters that I just am not huge fans of. I like how they were written, but each had a scene or two that made me really dislike them at the moment (though nothing that ruined them for the whole story) or even just were a bit annoying for too long.
Ending was handled well. I spent my time reading going back and forth of “will the author do it or not?” and had a lot of fun debating with myself between periods of reading. I think it avoided my common issues with books that have similar endings and ends up coming out as sad, but almost cathartic? That's not the right word.

When I was enjoying the book (most of the time), I loved it so much. When I was bored(<20% of the time), it was dull beyond belief. Definitely a great book to pick up if you love family stories about regret, resentment, healing relationships from actions that can never truly be taken back, sisterhood and daughterhood, the absence left behind by the death of a relative and how she’s never truly gone, how hard it is to care for someone you love who is struggling so badly, and plain funny bits about tabloid celebrity action happening in the art world. An excellent read.

I received an audiobook ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

CN. Suicide, Abusive Parents, Neglect, Substance Abuse, Self Harm (Referenced)

OK. A couple of days have passed and I've already consumed another audiobook, but I can't stop thinking about this book and how much I absolutely adored every single moment of it.

There are no ghosts in this story and a large portion of the story takes place in the blazing sunshine of the American dessert and canyon country, but this is one gothic-arse story positively haunted by a dead mother, childhood trauma, and vultures that circle the eponymous daughters to the point where I would go so far as to say it feels equally as supernatural as sublimely similar in tone Private Rites by Julia Armfield.

I would also go so far to say that Armfield is one of my absolute favourite authors of all time and that I think I enjoyed this book more than Private Rites, a book I absolutely adore.

Daughters is primarily told through the perspective of Mattie, the eldest daughter of the incredibly famous fictional author, Ingrid Olssen, as well as excerpts from interviews and a biography of Olssen being written by Mattie's boyfriend, Richard. The, often conflicting, accounts of the tumultuous and unreal life of the artist jar beautifully with the hard and incredibly authentic and moving reality of Mattie's own life and memories.

The book opens shortly after the death of Olssen with the first half introducing her daughters, Mattie, a child therapist who had her own daughter, Beanie, now a teenager, when she was very young, and Nora, the famous artist in her own right, carrying a colossal weight of childhood trauma and mental illness. We learn about the lives and circumstances of these women and their mother, punctuated with fanciful and dissonant interviews and opinions on Olssen's life and work. The second half follows the trio as they travel to America and get into all kinds of trouble, some highly amusing and whimsical, others truly heartbreaking and tragic, as they try to honour their mother's wishes to have her ashes chucked in a canyon. Leading a tragic a bittersweet finale.

This book made me feel all of the emotions! I laughed. I cried. I felt the pain and trauma and joy and love and hate these women experienced. It was a full euphoric and cathartic experience, especially with my own C-PTSD from emotional abusive and neglectful parents.

I wish I had words to describe just how much I loved this book and the fidelity and authenticity of the characters. I'm absolutely blown away and shaken by how much I adored this bloody book.

I will absolutely read anything and everything Capes writes from now on!

***

Stayed up late finishing this because I couldn't put it down.

I am the queen or recency bias, but this is absolutely one of the best things I've read this year and of all time.

I absolutely, completely adored every second of it and will now read anything Capes writes.

Proper review to come.

Not exactly what I was expecting from the description. I struggled to get into it. The voice narrators were very good. I just struggled to understand some of the things said because of the accent.

"She liked to be alone. No...that's not right...she "learned" to be alone as a mechanism for survival..."

"She loved deeply and she didn't know how to show it..."

3.5 stars...

Huge thanks to RBmedia, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. I’m so glad I got to listen to this one — it’s a beautifully melancholic story about sisterhood, identity, and the quiet pain of growing up while carrying invisible wounds. Mental health, art, and culture pulse through the core of this novel, giving it so much depth.

I connected deeply with Nora — her journey, her longing, her heartbreak. She went through so much, and just when she finally had the people she always needed… it felt too late. Still, I couldn’t help but root for her with all my heart.

The writing? Stunning. The storytelling? So engaging, I didn’t want to pause. This is a book that lingers with you — raw, thoughtful, and full of feeling. A really great read.

Ugh, I loved this book and will def be recommending it to everyone. We follow Mattie and Nora, daughters of a very famous artist. Through this family, Capes explores themes of inter generational trauma, mental illness, family, fame, and money. I would check for trigger warnings before, but if you need a book about sisterhood and that is incredibly well written, highly recommend picking this up.

thank you #netgalley for the audiobook!

4.5 stars

A heart-wrenching, layered, beautifully written story.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and really enjoyed it. The narrators did an excellent job of keeping me entertained from start to finish. The plot is heavy, but it’s interspersed with humor throughout, which keeps it from feeling too dark. Kirsty Capes created characters that are deep and relatable in their flaws, but also in their loyalty and love for one another.

This book really casts a light on the complexities of sibling relationships and shared trauma. I also appreciated the added layer of internal conflict surrounding a young mother, trying to create boundaries between herself and her daughter, whom she had as a teenager. I thought that that added theme was so real and human, a different take on the typical mother/friend dynamic often used in storytelling.

The only thing that kept me from giving this a 5-star rating was the formatting. There are interviews throughout that didn’t seem integral to the plot and distracted me from the meat of the book. I think the book would have flowed more seamlessly without the interview portions and been less confusing for audiobook listeners.

Definitely check the trigger warnings before diving into this one, as it is heavy.

My full review is posted on www.momsthatread.com.

Look for Daughters by Kirsty Capes on May 6, 2025!

Thanks to RBmedia and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I listened to the audio version of this book and I think I may have enjoyed it a little more in print form. It took me a while to get interested, but then at times I was very much engrossed in the story. However, there were some parts where I just wanted things to hurry along. Overall it was a good basis for a story, but just ok in the end.

This book was dark, but the humor and moments of joy kept it from feeling too heavy. What stuck with me most was the honest portrayal of older sisterhood—how hard it is to balance protecting your younger siblings from your shared trauma while also trying to live your own life.

Considering how central Nora was to the story, I really would’ve loved to hear her perspective. Her presence loomed large, but it was all secondhand—I wanted to sit in her head and understand her choices more intimately.

Overall, i really enjoyed this and make me want to explore more of this author’s work.

A quiet, emotionally layered story about mother-daughter relationships, trauma, and the messiness of healing. The writing is delicate and introspective, sometimes feeling more like a journal than a novel. I appreciated the raw honesty, but I needed more consistent pacing as some chapters left me feeling a bit disconnected. Still, there were moments that hit hard and stayed with me. Beautiful writing by Kristy Capes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars for this well written, but overall heavy

I enjoyed listening to this one. The narration was well done. The book starts out with the interview style like Daisy Jones and the Six. I feel this style does well on audio.

The story, writing and characters are all great too. I think this will be a favorite of 2025.

Publication date is 5/6/25. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

At first, I was genuinely intrigued by the storyline. The book tackles some heavy and important topics like complicated relationships, mental health issues, and substance abuse — all of which I deeply appreciate seeing addressed in fiction. However, as I continued reading, the pacing became a real issue for me. The plot dragged on so much that I slowly lost interest in the characters and their outcomes.

Regretfully, I DNFed the book at 47%. I simply didn’t have the will to continue any further. While I admire the author for shedding light on such meaningful themes, this book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Daughters is a well told story about a dysfunctional family. As far as the reader can tell, putting everything together, Ingrid Olssen never wanted her two daughters. Lots of evidence supporting this comes through in this story that takes place two years after Ingrid's death but involves a lot of stories from many perspectives about Ingrid in the past. There are two daughters: Nora was born seven years after Matilda (Mattie). Mattie got pregnant at 15, the father being her high school boyfriend Gus. Ingrid's fury drove Mattie away to raise her daughter Beanie, first living with and then coparenting with Gus.

Ingrid and her sister Karo were literally the dirt poor daughters of a nasty Norwegian pig farmer, almost a metaphor for how low one's roots can be short of living unhoused. As a teenager, Ingrid ran off to London and apprenticed herself to a famous British painter. Ingrid soonevolved into a world famous painter whose work rose to high acclaim, unimaginable value and was rarely sold or exhibited anywhere. Now, Ingrid and Nora are grown and Beanie is a teenager. The sisters are both the daughters in the novel but also the daughters in an Ingrid Olssen painting that she painted when they were young, making them look a bit monstrous. Ingrid painted herself in like photoshopping or photobombing the painting of her two girls.

The story evolves in part through narratives from Mattie and in part from a biography by a man who had written prior articles on Ingrid and interviewed her a few times. Mattie is involved with him. (Having read the audio book, I'm sorry that his name escapes me…) They seem to be getting serious, although she has not let him meet Beanie. Mattie and Nora are estranged. Nora is in graduate school in art. Her work is presently performative, but I'm not telling more. Beanie talks to Nora on the phone a fair amount. They seem close.

The story of what led to the sisters' estrangement partly largely involves all the times Nora, tried to kill herself, but lived. When Ingrid died two years ago, the daughters both with her, she told them to burn all her paintings. She left half of them to each daughter and their halves are together in a storage locker. Many are self portraits, often nudes. There is much interest in them.

The daughters have the same father, Ingrid's husband, who left but remained a visitor to London "with benefits," thus producing Nora. They eventually divorced and he remarried. He's a well known actor in the USA. His relationship with his daughters is almost that of a visitor who drops by and pats them on the head very, very occasionally, although when she had a breakdown while in school in California, Nora stayed with him for awhile.

In the course of the story, a huge dispute arises between Mattie and Karo, who has been pushing to exhibit the paintings Ingrid told them to burn. Nora, as the advance blurb of the book notes, has a serious mental health crises that brings the sisters together. She cannot live alone for the time being. Meanwhile, Karo finagles a way to show a huge amount of Ingrid's work in California, shiipping it off to California in a huge betrayal. Ingrid, Nora and Beanie head to the USA from London to try to stop the show. In the course of this, they have quite an adventure, renting a camper for a road trip from Arizona to California. Along the way, their relationship evolves as little by little Mattie owns ways she hurt Nora and Nora comes to connect with Mattie as a human being.

Capes is a truly amazing writer, capturing the experiences that shaped the sisters in their chaotic childhood and different trajectories. It is not a happy book but it is a lovely book. Sometimes, it is a very warm book. Beanie is important and is, of course, another daughter here. Often Capes opens to us the way anyone might think about parenting a teenager and thinking how they used to connect and wondering why that changes. The book has funny moments, especially on the road trip. And it has many moving moments. If the ending is not the one I would have initially preferred, I came to really admire the choice made. it was authentic and moving.

The narrators for the audiobook, Ryan Laughton and Amber Gadd were excellent. I highly recommend this novel. I think about it quite often and recommended it to an artist friend recently. It comes out May 6, 2025. So look for it!

4.5 / 5

This was such a cute yet sad story. I should’ve expected that ending but I honestly didn’t and it made me tear up. This book is very reminiscent of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors, so if you enjoyed that book, I’m most positive you’d enjoy this one. The only reason I knocked off .5 is because I wish the story flowed a tad bit better but that’s just me. Overall I loved it !

This is definitely one of those reads that leaves me struggling to find a way to put into words just how incredible it was, and how much it impacted me. Such a tender, complex, emotional exploration of life, family dynamics, grief, and mental health. There's so much love, and so much pain in this, and the characters are so vividly portrayed it all just jumps off the pages. It feels like these are real people, going through very real issues, and I am right there with them, feeling it all with them.

Every single character was so distinctive and so complex in their own right, and they have left such an impact on me, this is definitely a story that will stick with me for a long while. It has some silly moments, but I find them to be a really nice addition to the story and a great way to contrast the heaviness that's constantly lingering in the background. I also really enjoyed the snippets of the interviews that were scattered around in between, I really think they added a lot of perspective to story, and gave a wider insight into the characters' lives.

It felt a little slow at moments, and it was dragging quite a bit in the middle, while the ending felt somewhat rushed, but it didn't bother me that much nor did it really impact my enjoyment of the story overall. I really loved the writing, and found it to be extremely engaged. I listened to the audiobook for this one, and it was phenomenal. Both narrators did a great job bringing these characters to life, they all felt very distinctive, and it made the story that much more engaging and compelling.