Great emotional YA fiction.
Loved how emotional and raw this story was.
Really dove into to topics of suicide, drug abuse and mental health. Really enjoyed.

I had a really hard time with this one. When I first read the blurb I was hooked. It's not a storyline I had read before and I felt like it could be a really emotional and thought provoking read. Unfortunately it just fell flat.

My biggest issue was the, what felt like, theatrics. Everything was so over the top dramatic throughout the entire story. There were no ups and downs, everything was just at like an 8 the entire time. The drug use was a bit over the top and everyone's reactions/interactions felt forced.

The pacing, however, was my favorite part. Even with all of the drama it really didn't feel rushed. Things could have been fleshed out a bit more but the speed at which we were taken through the timeline felt really good.

I set this down and came back to it several times hoping that maybe I was just not in a mood to read this sort of book and unfortunately that just didn't seem to be the case. I would read something else by this author, though. I enjoy the way that they write even if I didn't enjoy this particular book.

Note: This 2024 edition seems to be a re-release of Ramey’s 2015 debut novel and I do not know if there was anything changed between the first release and the second,

Allie and Leah are two sisters living in a dysfunctional household-constantly bickering parents, a cheating dad and a depressed mom who self-medicates. Older sister Leah is strong and at first glance, seems to lead as well as protect her younger sister. Allie is insecure, hides in the shadow of her older sister’s bold personality. As the family deteriorates, Leah and Allie make a pact to stay together always, in life or in the death that both are contemplating. After dad leaves permanently, Leah encourages Allie with the thought that home will become a better place and makes her promise to forget about suicide. Allie complies but 3 weeks later, Leah kills herself. The bulk of the book focuses on Allie’s spiral downward into her own self-medicating using cough medicine and a variety of other drugs, bad choices in friends and refusal to take her prescribed anti-depressant or take her sessions with a couselor seriously. Ultimately, mom rises to the occasion and Allie appears to be on the road to recovery from grief as well as the drug use and focuses on the positive relationships in her life.

I found the whole book to be depressing and the drug use completely overdone and while I have great respect for the use of medications for treatment of depression, mania, etc., it seemed that everyone wanted to through some sort of drug over Allie’s problems. Ramey’s cast of characters were nearly all self-destructive and unsupportive of Allie in her grief and need for help. I did keep plugging through to see what relief Allie would find and sister secrets revealed, but I will not be recommending this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Allie is dealing with the suicide of her sister. The only thing worse than losing her sister is knowing that they were supposed to go together.

There were so many times in this book that I wanted to reach out and shake Allie. She's not looking for answers so much as trying to drown them out. There are a lot of messed up family dynamics in this one that I wish were explored a little more but the focus was mainly on Allie and her struggle. It's a tough book to read.

Warning! This book is about Suicide! If that is something you or your young adult struggles with you may not want to read this book. I think this was done in a really wonderful way. In my college book club, we read a different book on the same topic and this reminded me of that.

"Sometimes it felt like she was drowning, even though she wasn’t in the water.”

I wholly feel this statement, and as an older sister who struggles with her own mental illness, I felt for Leah and Allie. I loved the closeness between the two, and I hated the gut-wrenching feeling when Allie was struggling to understand why her sister would break their pact and leave her behind.

I won't lie; for me, the beginning of the story starts off slow, and just about every character I was suspicious of, as I wasn't getting great vibes from a lot of the characters, especially the parents. Her friends tried to be there for her, but in my opinion, they were also kind of bad friends for keeping secrets and not letting her parents or any other adult know that Allie was struggling, and they were worried about her.

In the end, I found the story well written and easy to read, and I was able to relate to the main characters, Allie and Leah. I'm open to reading future works from Ramey and would most likely recommend this book to other readers if they were looking for this kind of theme. 

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.

A thought provoking story of a young woman who makes a pact with her sister, who then struggles when her older sister doesn’t include her. Allie and Leah are teenagers struggling with having parents who aren’t really there. Their dad is controlling and left the family for another woman and their mom is addicted to pain pills. When she finds Leah on the floor after overdosing, everyone is watching her closely.

One thing after another happens and Allie has blocked some things out and can’t remember what led up to Leah taking her own life; just that she heard her walking around and feels guilty for not checking on her. Allie struggles with missing her sister, loving her, disliking her and wondering how Leah actually felt about her. She has some friends, although I use that term loosely and one young man who is there for her and wants to be with her.

I wish we could have had some other pov’s, but being able to see Leah through Allie was nice. I felt bad for a couple of characters- one that was involved with Allie and one that was involved with Leah throughout the book. I enjoyed this book, but it is a heavy topic. I received an ARC and this is my honest, voluntary review.

While this story was really emotional, I just couldn't seem to connect with Allie like I thought I should. What she went through is something no one should ever have to go through, and it was very raw and real. I think it was beautifully written, there was just something missing for me.

I've actually had this novel on my Goodreads TBR for several years, so I didn't hesitate to request it when I saw it was being republished with a new cover this year. However, it fell a little short for me. While some of it was heart wrenching and echoed a lot of my teenage depression filled years, the characters fell flat in a lot of ways and it became really repetitive. I liked the exploration of depression, suicidal thoughts, the aftermath of suicide in a family, and grief but it fell short. Nothing was fleshed out enough and it ended up taking me a long time to get through the novel. 3/5 stars unfortunately

Thank you Net Galley and Sourcebooks fire for this e arc,

This was a very emotional book and I highly suggest checking trigger warnings before reading.

This story follows Allie after the death of her sister. It deals with topics like , drug addiction, grief, suicidal thoughts, suicide, and a sister suicide pact.

It was at times hard to read because of the heavy topics.

Leah, Allie’s older sister, kills herself. But they had made a pact to do that together. Allie becomes unhinged, full of grief and guilt. She turns to pills to ease her pain which does not help but it does bring Leah to her. Allie desperately wants to know why Leah killed herself but the more she finds out the less she understands. She also realizes that she never really her sister. This is Allie’s journey through her pain and grief.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was lovely. It was so sad and had so much emotion, and I loved seeing the main character learn to live without her sister, and I really enjoyed seeing how all the characters grew and changed for the better. Overall, this was a beautiful book that I would definitely recommend.

I really wanted to like this book. Like rooting so hard for it to have overcome its past issues and knock it out of the park… it didn’t.

I do want to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When I requested this title I was not aware that this was a rerelease of the authors debut novel from 2015. But I was struggling to get through it and sought out positive reviews to help galvanize me. And it worked albeit in a strange way.

I was met with a lot of negative and mixed reviews which is what made me root for this book. That the issues it faced originally would be corrected in this second chance. While I have not read its first edition to know what has changed there is plenty that hasn’t as per my feelings that match others from the past.

The premise is great! It hooks you in to want to read the story however the execution is hit or miss. On the positive side there is a lot of realism in watching a family struggle with mental illness, substance abuse, death of a sister and daughter and misogyny . There will be teens that can identify with Allie in various ways.

However, that is always where it’s problematic because the book still doesn’t do a good job of handling the mental health aspects. Maybe it’s my personal belief that YA books have a duty of sorts to go that extra mile when dealing with triggering topics. To allow the reader to have hope and learn a bit about the subject matter in a healthy non ableist way, something this book does not do. It still has an air that romanticizes mental
Illness.

I don’t want to get into spoilers so I’ll stop there.

This book has some potential and some may really enjoy it. It just wasn’t for me socially as a disability advocate which I find the book completely succumbing to ableism not to mention a slew of other stereotypes as well as over used tropes.

My rating system since there are no partial stars and I rarely round up. However, I was generous with my rating as I tried to put myself in other peoples shoes and give it a fair chance.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

"The Sister Pact" does a beautiful job at sharing how grief takes a strong grip, especially when we're faced with unexpected loss. If Stacie Ramey has any claim to fame, it's how well she can write her characters. My heart broke for Allie the entire time, and I think her story will resonate with many teen readers in helping them feel less alone. While I loved the characters, I wish there was more to the story - I guess the lack thereof makes it more realistic, but it felt a bit unfinished at the end without a big conclusion. Thanks so much for the ARC - I'll certainly have my eye on Ramey's future works!

Book:
THE SISTER PACT by Stacie Ramey
Thank you SourcebooksFire and Netgalley for this arc: Out May 7
Review:
4⭐
When I requested the THE SISTER PACT, I hadn't realized that I read it before and that this version is a new edition; nonetheless, I did read this again and let me tell you: this book is just as heartfelt and emotional as ever, but I don't know what I feel about it. The book was okay, but it was not my favorite and honestly I don't know why.  Enough of that, though.  I couldn't help but feel bad Allie for as she navigated her newfound life without her sister, Leah. This book focuses on mental health and the strain that it causes as the characters must pick up the pieces and continue living though every part of them is hurt, heartbroken, and wishing to move on or go back time, etc. If you’re looking for an emotionally draining, but at the same time empowering book, then THE SISTER PACT is something you should read, but do be forewarned that this book has strong themes involving mental health, su**ide, and dr*g ab*se.

What I Liked About It:
*Without giving much away, I liked the ending: Allie, Nick, Allie's dog Sophie and letting go.

I really enjoyed reading this story. As someone who also struggles with my mental health, it is good to see the flawed main character, flawed family and support system because that very much reflects the real life. I was very much interested in seeing the main character wrestle with her struggles in her own mind and her internal struggles.

Honestly for the first half of the book I wanted more, it was blah and I was a little tired of hearing the same kind of things over and over. While you didn't get a big reveal or any drastic reasons or story as to why, the ending and feeling of peace about the characters was good and satisfying.

Thank you Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"The Sister Pact" by Stacie Ramey is a raw and emotionally charged exploration of loss, grief, and the complexities of family dynamics, centered around the tragic aftermath of Leah's suicide and its profound impact on her younger sister, Allie. I highly recommend looking at content warnings for this book before going into it as this book does focus on some controversial subjects.

From the very beginning, the book grips you with its powerful premise: two sisters bound by a pact, yet one ultimately takes her own life, leaving Allie to grapple with feelings of abandonment and guilt. I was so invested in this book just from reading the summary as I wanted to read about Allie overcoming her grief and learn to live on her own. Ramey’s writing is so full of emotion and beauty when she delves into the depths of human suffering and resilience. Allie's journey is marked by moments of despair and hope as she struggles to come to terms with her sister's absence, and the emotions displayed by Allie throughout the entire book were so raw and realistic.

I thought Allie’s character felt very authentic and that there was a realistic portrayal of grief. Ramey doesn't shy away from depicting the harsh realities of Allie's world, from her dysfunctional family dynamics to the pervasive influence of drugs and peer pressure in her social circle. Some of Allie’s actions were misguided and some aspects of the plot seemed a bit unrealistic, like the actions of other characters as well as the prevalence of drug use in the book. Allie's quest for closure and understanding resonates deeply with me as it drew me into her tumultuous journey of self-discovery and healing.

Overall, "The Sister Pact" is a thought-provoking read that offers a poignant exploration of loss, resilience, and the enduring bonds of sisterhood. This is definitely a book that I will be thinking about for quite awhile.

I have never cried reading a book the way I did with The Sister Pact. I have read A LOT of books that deal with suicide and NONE OF THEM have been as raw and reel as this one was, especially when it comes to how it affects those around them. As I sit here trying to form a proper review, I am having a hard time forming sentences because this book has literally left me speechless. It shows the reality of broken friendships in high school and within one’s family, it deals with being broken hearted at a young age, and also shows the fact that you never truly know what someone is going through. This book was INCREDIBLE and I don’t even know what else to say about it!

I’ve been struggling with reading recently, I have been preoccupied and not been particularly bothered to find the time. Unexpectedly, The Sister Pact brought back that passion and love I once felt towards books.

We meet Allie just days after her elder sister, Leah, has killed herself. Allie is extremely fragile, spiralling, she and Leah had had a 'pact' that they would deal with their problems together. Allie deals with her feelings of abandonment and guilt by isolating herself, self medicating, all while failing to process her sister’s death healthily.

I adored Allie, she felt extremely real and raw. The author bared her ups and downs fully, never shying away from showing her spiralling. Allie's search for herself was truly wonderful to read, and I am unbelievably happy with the position she was in at the end of the book.

Ramey deals with a very controversial subject, and I feel as if it was done very, very well. I honestly can say I am looking forward to more of her work. I knew I was reading a book as I was reading this, but it felt like a real, non-fictional book - as if it was a biography. I was a part of the story, and was invested in Allie's well-being. Allie was the best thing about this book, and I can only hope a lot of people would love her as much as me. I definitely recommend this book, especially for lovers of angsty, real contemporary books.