Perfectly perfect Victoria has everything Eleanor could ever dream of. Loving childhood, luxury home, devoted husband. All of it stolen from Eleanor, who plans to take it back. After all, good sisters are supposed to share. And quiet little Eleanor has been waiting far too long for her turn to play. (Pub Date: May 26, 2020)
Sister Dear is the story of finding a perfect sister and getting too mesmerized by a fairy tale, which turns out to be more Grimms' than Disney's.
When Eleanor finds out she has a biological father and loses the one who raised her soon after, she just wants to know a little better her other possible life, in which she'd have a perfect sister, Victoria. But the snowball only grows bigger and she little by little manages to infiltrate Victoria's life to almost a best-friend status, without ever telling her sister about their real connection.
This was one dark trip. It partially reminded me of some 80's? 90's? movie in which the character pretends to be the other's best friend but she actually hid a secret. That and a few other details really misled me on what to think about Eleanor, our own main character here. Which was great because the plot twists almost disintegrated oblivious me.
I don't think it's a spoiler to say Eleanor is nothing like what you may think from the summary. She's actually one big klutz, doing things even she can't explain, like online-stalking her sister, stealing her ring from a restaurant bathroom, when she actually means no harm. Her actions would make me anxious, because we readers have read it all before, we know the stolen ring in the beginning will come back to bite her, and we can only wait to see how. At the same time, even when I couldn't relate, I did feel for her. Her mother, who is really her mother, isn't motherly at all, nor is her other (half-)sister, the one she was raised with, sisterly at all. Her one ally was her father and he not only has been lying to her but he dies before she knew what to make it of that big secret. Going after her biological one was only natural. This paragraph already got too long but I meant to say that I don't condone how Eleanor acted, but she did get a place in my heart, the poor thing.
The book is filled with characters I couldn't trust. Even though the beginning already tells us Eleanor will do something so extreme that will get her in jail, the others were the ones that made me wary. Which was fantastic, of course. But it was also how the writer played with me. I trusted so little her "cast" that she took me for a ride.
At the same time, I can't say the big plot twist came out of nowhere. Perhaps, I was so with Eleanor, I confess that maybe I didn't want to see what I had already felt. Nonetheless, it was a great spin and put all the dots in their places.
This is a book that will make you continue to read but I also feel it dragged. Maybe some of the twists could have happened sooner. What happens is you know hell is coming but it takes almost the whole book for that, and then everything happens at the same time. This was good because while you were still absorbing the first big revelation, the next hits you, but I feel the book would be more evenly exciting were they more spaced, maybe. I feel a lot happened but it was mostly in the final quarter, too much room building up before that.
This said, this was another great work by Hannah Mary McKinnon. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers that take their time weaving their traps on the readers, this is it. I can guarantee you the final blow(s) makes it worth it.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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