Sisters: Daisy Johnson

This is an excellently conceived book, burnished with body horror, repulsion and the cloying closeness of family ties. Well-written, excellently narrated and keeps readers guessing!

An unusual, beautifully written and claustrophobic story of two very close sisters and their manic depressive mother who move to an old house in the countryside after a catastrophic event. Narrated by July, the younger of the two siblings, this is a story which pulls the reader into the mind of its disturbed narrator and it's one in which discussion of the unfolding events and of the flashbacks to the characters' previous lives, the reviewer risks revealing too much of this short, yet immersive novel to those who have yet to read it. However, I will say that I was drawn immediately into the story and found myself suspecting very soon that all was not as it first appeared - but again, I cannot discuss this further. I did actually intuit what was happening to July before the denouement, but this did not spoil the novel for me and just made me even more keen to read on. An unsettling story which remains in the mind (or my mind, anyhow) after turning the last page and one I found I preferred to Ms Johnson's previous novel 'Everything Under'.4 Stars,

Halfway through the book I thought "haha wouldn't it be funny if...." and then if happened, and I was a bit disappointed. The writing is quite good but a bit "literature-y" and overwritten, perhaps trying a bit too hard to be poetic when some more naturalistic narration would have been better. The ending dragged on a bit too. I think it would make an excellent film, however. I'd read it if you like gothic literature and you're trying to get back into reading.

Another compelling read from Daisy Johnson. She seems to write in the brain's machine code, getting deep inside and shocking me while also forcing me to look, to listen, to feel, uncomfortably. I'll be thinking about this a lot.

Sisters by Daisy Johnson is an outstanding novel by the Man Booker nominated author Daisy Johnson. After an unspeakable event, sisters July and September move to an old family home. Darkness surronds the whole family and secrets lie within every part of this novel. The whole novel creates a nervousness in the characters and it leaves a unsettling feeling within the novel, a haunting book but a pulsating read. As someone who struggled with her acclaimed breakout novel I was absorbed by every page in this novel. I would be surprised if this book did not get the author on plenty more award short lists later this year and as a summer release will cause plenty of converations and uproar in summer 2020

I chose this because it was very recently published. She has been listed for the Man Booker Prize, too, for her first book. Not that I would necessarily see that as a recommendation.There are few characters – a mother and two daughters, an ex husband - off scene, probably abused her, but they separated – maybe he died? - not pursuing her anyway - and a man who fixes the internet. Someone else the mother meets in a pub and takes home for one-night’s sex. None of these people are likeable or have any redeeming features.The setting is a rural cottage near the sea where the mother takes the daughters because they have been thrown out of school. It is also where they were born. This is where the ‘gothic’ bit is meant to come in – the walls etc influence events! Does it?It is very repetitive as a story, with a slow unravelling of the daughters’ mental health issues – one is too dominant, the other too passive. The mother has issues, too, and has taken to alcohol. What the mother thought of doing to ameliorate the daughters’ behaviour, when they were younger, is mentioned at one point. But the mother decided not to do any of that. She is very neglectful and incompetent and lacks any credibility. For a while, I thought there was really only one daughter with a split-personality or something, but that’s been done so often before. Actually, even so, it might have made for an actual plot!There is a kind of resolution dragged out towards the end for one of the daughters – to say more would give something away, and there isn’t much to look forward to as an ending – except that it ends.One plus point; the book is mercifully quite short at only 184 pages in the hardback and the font is large. There’s a rather pretentious picture on the inside of the back cover,of the author’s head, turned away from the viewer and reflected, alone, self-absorbed, introverted, in the window of a train. I think when I first saw that picture alarm bells were probably ringing.

This novel reads like an exaggeration of the frightening childhood experienced by one of my best friends; a very sweet, considerate, intelligent person. So the cleverness of this novel is its basis in reality, however exaggerated.

I really don't know if I like this or not. I didn't really enjoy it but I sped through it fascinated by what was happening and what exactly the answer was. But I didn't particularly enjoy it... Very odd read.

Wow. I'm not sure if I can review this book. I'm not even sure if I liked it or disliked it. Unlike some other reviewers, however, I am sure of what happened. I became aware of what was going on pretty quickly, which is unusual for me.I know I liked the prose. It was poetic prose, very lyrical and filled with metaphors. It was hallucinatory, almost as if the narrator were feeling the effects of a drug or suffering a feverish dream. If that's something you dislike, you probably should stay away from this book. I love it. (One of my favorite books is Robert Jones Jr.s' THE PROPHETS.) I didn't mind the phrases, the ambiguity, the lack of quotation marks, the jumble of thoughts. I thought they added to the overall effect, since our narrator, a female named July, was like a phrase herself, only half-present, a jumble of thoughts and not all of them her own.The structure of the book was fine, but I thought, in some ways, the narrative could have been better. It didn't build as much as it could have; it telegraphed its ending far too close to its beginning. It's a dark and depressing book, and I wanted to feel it building toward that shattering climax, that final showdown, that rending of one sister from the other, but I felt a stasis, instead. That didn't ruin the book for me, but if the build, the suspense, had been there, the book would have been so much better. I also wasn't too fond of the setting, or, I should say, descriptions of the setting. I just didn't get a clear picture of the North Yorkshire coast, which I have visited many times. For me, this book could have taken place anywhere: Canada, the Northern US, the coast of Norway, Northwest France, etc. Any place where it's crumbling and, at times, dreary, would have worked, and I wanted a clear picture of the North Yorkshire coast and the crumbling house, which, for me, didn't rise to the level of a character as it did for many other readers. But that's okay; the place didn't really matter. The book is definitely a character study. It's not a plot-driven novel at all, and the failings I felt may have been my own rather than the author's.The cover art is perfect, because this is the story of two sisters, September and July, named for the months in which they were born. September, the oldest by ten months, is the dominant sister in every way. July is the sister who goes along with everything September suggests, whether she approves of it or not, and it is July who is our narrator. (The only other character of any importance is Sheela, their East Indian mother, but she's little more than a ghostly presence in the book. Like a few high school girls, and a group of young people on the beach, these characters are there only because they need to be there.) It is July and September whose lives are so intertwined that we barely know where one girl's thoughts end and the other's begin, though the girls do have their differences. September is fair and blue-eyed, like her long dead Danish father, while July is dark and olive-skinned, like her Indian mother. Despite the difference in the girls' looks and in their personalities, neither can live without the other. They are always together. They don't act in tandem so much as they act as one. They have no friends other than each other; they do not socialize, even at school; they are not part of the world outside of themselves.Two people cannot live forever as September and July live; hence problems do arise, one huge problem in particular that threatens the girls' very existence. September and July and Sheela find themselves fleeing Oxford, their home, to the beach cottage of Sheela's sister-in-law on the North Yorkshire coast. Or do they? That's one of the book's biggest questions. I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I keep thinking about the book anyway, trying to work out exactly when the huge problem, the threat, the rending, the move to Yorkshire from Oxford took place. Johnson plays very fair with her readers; the clues are on the first or second page. The reader has only to put them together.There is one thing I'm absolutely sure of: Daisy Johnson is an enormous talent. Absolutely enormous. She's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. In fact, I think more people will dislike her book than like it. But that doesn't mean it isn't superlative. And other readers felt quite differently than I. Many other readers felt that the house did rise to the level of a character, and many other readers did feel the build of suspense. Neither Ms. Johnson, nor any other author, can please all of the people all of the time, with every little detail, which is why I awarded this book five stars rather than four, even though I felt a few things were missing, at least for me.If you decide to read this book, be warned: It is dark and it only gets darker. Ms. Johnson seems to want to remind us that sometimes there is no redemption. Sometimes there is no hope. Sometimes we live our lives in the midst of darkness, of annihilation, and the light is forever extinguished. I like books like these, but others will feel put off. The sense of unease this book engenders will be more than they want to bear.I will read Ms. Johnson's previous novel, EVERYTHING UNDER, which made her the youngest person ever shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and I'm sure, deservedly so. If you choose to read SISTERS, I hope you like it, but know it will get under your skin, and it will change your life forever. So, please don't say you haven't been warned. You have.

SISTERS by Daisy JohnsonFirst - We have to talk about this cover! It is stunning. Gorgeous. It also holds so many clues to this psychological thriller as it foretells your inevitable captivation with the tale ahead.The cover hints at the dysfunctional, complex and interconnected relationship between sisters September and July. Born 10 month's apart, the two girls are inseparable both physically and emotionally. Over time a subversive, dangerous, enmeshed dependency develops between the girls, one which is impenetrable by outsiders and serves to completely void July's autonomy.That is until one day when they and all around them are irrecoverably changed.While a reader might be able to forecast the fate of the sisters early into the book, the way in which this story is sculpted and presented is literary perfection!We become tethered to September and July despite ourselves. Readers will be hard pressed not to travel with them through their unravelling and ultimate refashioning.Daisy has crafted a masterful tale that is immersive, propulsive and unputdownable - all in just over 200 pages!

Outstanding prose and superb talent for narrative

I read the book in 2 days. I found the plot of the book so thrilling that I could barely put it away. I would definitely recommend it.

A taut, twisty, mind-bending read that is so superbly written, so lyrical and tragic.Something unspeakable and unbearable happened between sisters July and September. What presents as not-quite a thriller, not quite-a novel, not-quite horror or prose poetry, it is but all of those things, and that's what makes SISTERS (Riverhead, August 2020) such a slippery one to pin down. Reading this story is strange and fantastical, a bit like a folktale with dark vibes, a fever dream.If you are looking for something more conventional, SISTERS, probably isn't it. If you're hoping for an intriguing, highly troubling characterization of two teenaged sisters being raised by a despondent mother--likely suffering from at least depression--you're in for a treat.Desperate for a fresh start, July and September's mother, Sheela, moves the family from Oxford to the coast (North York moors), to an old home that has been in the family for years. Already, I'm hooked. The house has it's share of problems, and a dark, looming history that immediately lends to a great feeling of unease.Here, these sisters are caught in a taut web of lies, envy, love, dark impulses, and more. . But it also speaks to dysfunction and perception. Are all relationships cyclical? Are they constantly chasing one another? Are we part of each other, or our own separate beings?There were so many darn good lines in this slim novel; ones about the house completely gutted me:''This the year we are houses, lights on in every window, doors that won't quite shut.''''The house is going to float away and take my darling girls with it.''The house becomes a character, a significant, misty presence looming over the small family. No one in the family is 'quite right.' Depression looms, so too does death (the father died before the last sister was born). The house seems alive, full of sounds and shadows, memories and lurking threats. The rain doesn't stop, the birds are menacing, the ants are crawling inside the walls, whispers and cracks.''The Settle House is load-bearing. Here is what it bears: Mum's endless sadness, September's frightful wrath, my quiet failures to ever do quite what anyone needs me to do, the seasons, the death of small animals in the scrublands around it, every word that we say in love or anger to one another.''Everyone here is a little fragile, a bit unbalanced. What has happened to this house? What has happened to this family? The twist--the answer--may surprise you. In fact, I'm still chewing on 'just-what-happened,' myself.SISTERS is a mind-bending read that will have you either in awe, or perhaps scratching your head, maybe both. I have theories, but don't want to spoil it. Let me know your thoughts if you read it.I was reminded, in part, for various reasons, of: THE NEED (Helen Phillips) meets well, FEVER DREAM (Samanta Schweblin) along with Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and touches of Alice Hoffman's BLACKBIRD HOUSE. You might also want to look at the work of Karen Russell, particularly her collection ORANGE WORLD. But also! Laird Hunt's IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS.L.Lindsay|Always with a Book