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Book Review of The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters
The Weird Sisters
Author: Eleanor Brown
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5


The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown is about three sisters who move back home to care for their mother who has breast cancer. Rose is the oldest and had already moved back to tend to both aging parents, whether they needed help or not. Shes the mother hen, the one who takes control, the one who willingly and begrudgingly heaps responsibility on her own shoulders. Bianca, aka Bean, is the middle sister. Shes a self-centered thirty-year old who sucks up attention much like a smoker inhales a cigarette. She also a thief, an embezzler. But wait! Theres more. Youll have to read about her other alluring attributes, but I will tell you that I would vote her least likely to choose as a friend. She irked me. Finally, theres the twenty-seven-year-old baby, Cordelia. Cordy is a free spirit, a nomad, a wanderer. Shes also pregnant, something she picked up along her travels.

The sisters are so different that they dont always get along. Brown writes, See, we love one another. We just dont happen to like one another very much. While the differences grate on their relationships, they are all bound by one thing; they love books. They grew up reading anything and everything. Books are like oxygen and they will pick up any book just as long as theyre reading. Their dad is a professor of English who has devoted his life to Shakespeare. He only speaks Shakespearean, a language Im neither familiar with nor really tempted to learn right now. But in their family its somehow endearing to the girlsfor me, not so much. I prefer to converse with my parents in non-riddles. All three sisters are named after Shakespearean characters, and the weird sisters refers to the witches in Macbeth.

The good news is, you dont have to be a Bard fan to like this book. Its about the sister dynamics and their individual struggles. I wasn't so sure I was going to like the book, since I cannot truly relate to any of the characters. But I did like it, probably for just that reason. It brought me into an unfamiliar world. I think the novel would be a good candidate for a book club selection, because the discussion could center not only around sisters in general, or these particular sisters, but also about each of their personalities. Read other reviews at http://readinginthegarden.blogspot.com