The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

"There's no problem a library card can't solve."

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown tells the story of Andreas sisters, Cordelia (Cordy), Bianca (Bean) and Rosalie (Rose) who grew up in a small college town where their Dad teaches Shakespeare. When the girls got older they went their separate ways but a series of events beginning with their mother getting breast cancer means that all three girls end up back at home under the same roof- a situation just begging for trouble.

I had been looking forward to The Weird Sisters for quite some time, featuring it in a Waiting on Wednesday post last October, so when I received the book I was eager to find out if Brown's debut lived up to my expectations. Thankfully, it did. The novel is clever and engaging, and although it took me a little while to get used to the first person plural ("we") narrator, I came to appreciate it as a way to show the connection between the sisters, even when they bicker and fight sometimes. As a girl with a twin sister and two stepsisters myself, I appreciated that the relationship between the Andreas sisters was not all sunshine, but instead filled with ups and downs which felt genuine and relateable. In addition to simply being an enjoyable book to read, The Weird Sisters offers interesting insight into topics like a woman's role- the girl's mother never worked- and what family really means. Also, having personally spent the last four years in exactly the kind of town that The Weird Sisters takes place in, a little university town which is basically dead over the summer and doesn't even have a gas station, I found Brown's setting completely realistic and in fact it actually made me quite nostalgic.

There were a few awkward patches, mostly involving the conversations between characters. Brown ties in actual quotes from Shakespeare in dialogue throughout the novel and occasionally I felt that the connection was a bit tenuous. I also felt that some of the male characters in the book were weaker, and I didn't feel the same attachment to them as I did to the female ones. Even minor characters like the female librarian seemed more dimensional than Rose's fiance for example. However the sisters themselves were completely warm and real. Ultimately, I do think it'll be mostly female readers drawn to the book, and I am confident they will find a lot to love. The Weird Sisters not only fills the reader with warmth but manages to be intelligent, funny and clever as well; it is certainly worth the read.

Release Date: January 20, 2011
Pages: 336
Overall: 4/5
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This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own.