[4.25 stars]

Shred Sisters is a story about what happens when there’s one person in the family who sucks all the air out of the room. One incredibly complicated, damaging, toxic person who permeates everyone and everything around them. The Shred family is rocked when Olivia, their daughter who suffers from mental illness and has always gotten the limelight, starts to behave erratically. Her younger sister, Amy, who is super smart and quieter, butts up against Olivia for much of her life. Shred Sisters opens with a literal bang, but not a gunshot-type bang. You’re pulled right into the story and I read it in a couple days. Shred Sisters will be deeply relatable to anyone who has lived in close proximity to and/or been responsible for an extremely chaotic person, whether a family member or not.

Shred Sisters is a heartbreaking and bingeable tale about two sisters and their tumultuous relationship from childhood into adulthood. I love stories that are centered around the protagonist’s relationship with one other person and how those two people evolve while coming and going in each other’s lives. If you like messy stories about messy family relationships and sisters, this one's for you!

Sibling relationships bring their baggage, now add mental illness to the mix and things get complex quickly. Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner tells the story of Amy and Olivia (Ollie) and how their family and their relationship with themself, with one another, and with the extended family are impacted by Olivia's manic depression. Having a sibling with mental illness this story definitely resonated with me and was quite thought-provoking.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of Shred Sisters in exchange for an honest review. Shred Sisters is available now.

Shred Sisters is a moving if uneven tale of two sisters, one with mental illness. It’s about family and sibling relationships, it also about how mental illness can affect more than just the person with the diagnosis. It was a quick and worthwhile if not easy read.

Thank you Betsy Lerner, Grove Press, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I love Betsy Lerner’s newsletter so I was very excited to read 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, her first novel. Lern­er is also a memoir writer and seasoned literary agent and editor. It's a captivating coming of age story about sisterhood, mental illness and family relationships. And also, this cover is perfection!

The main character Amy Shred has tried all her life to be the smart, “good” daughter in part to make up for her older sister’s Olivia’s tumultuous life. Olivia spends much of her adolescence in an institution that the family refers to as “The Place”. Beautiful, wild and always the center of attention, Olivia is later given a diagnosis of manic depression.

As the story unfolds, the seemingly perfect Shred family from Connecticut starts to fall apart. Olivia drifts in and out of the their lives over the years and Amy eventually realizes that her family’s drama is not solely the fault of her sister.

Lern­er's writing style is sharp and engaging. This poignant coming of age story is a heartfelt exploration of how our closest relationships shape and change us.

Thanks to the publisher for the #gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

2.75/5: I really wanted to like this book but as an eldest sister I cannot get myself to like the characters of this story. I never liked any of the decisions any of the characters made. A self-destruction/self-sabotage plot is very cringe to me. Overall, it was pretty slow-paced and took me a couple months to get through.

Thank you again netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Any story about sisterhood, found family, and coming of age, does in fact captivate me. The story is poignant, yet sometimes slow in parts, but overall a compelling read.

Wow, what a great book...it resonated as someone who has a complicated relationship with her sister because of her choices. It is poignant, funny, honest, and well-written. Highly recommend.

This book does an excellent job discussing about familial problems. Despite not having a sister myself, I feel like I understand Amy and sometimes even Ollie. I, too, understand the parents. At the end of the day, no matter how much a family has hurt us, they are still a family member and the love will always be there. Finished this one so quick so this is definitely a page-turner for me.

Shred Sisters is a beautifully written, emotionally rich novel that explores the nuances of mental illness, familial love, and the struggles of self-acceptance. Through the lens of Amy’s journey, the book delves into the heart of what it means to be a sister—someone who will always love you and hurt you in ways that no one else can. It is a heartfelt and deeply moving story that will resonate with anyone who has experienced the complexities of family relationships.

Two sisters coming of age when one experiences mental health issues, and the rippling effects of illness on the family. Shred Sisters follows Amy and Ollie through preteen years to adulthood as Ollie deals with complex mental health symptoms, various attempts at diagnosis and treatments, and substance abuse and codependence. As Amy tries to make sense of what is happening to her beloved sister, her parents seem to diverge on point and purpose of helping Ollie, and Amy is lost in the shuffle.

Codependent relationships at it's heart. I thought this was very well written and showed the depths of psychiatric illness has on the full family. The sister bond is unbreakable, but not always strong. Amy seems to accept her place in the family of living in Ollie's large shadow, and this detached and enabling role follows her into her young adult life and impacts other relationships she tries to form in her small world. Books about sisters are a top pick for me, and Shred Sisters did not disappoint. Highly recommend!

“Olivia and I fought as if the world existed to fuel our rivalry.”

Shred Sisters is a beautifully devastating exploration of sisterhood, mental illness, love, loss, and the complexity of family dynamics. Although the Shred sisters were polar opposites, neither felt exaggerated or reduced to a trope. They were both messy, imperfect, raw, and very, very real.

I’ll admit it: in the first few chapters, I related to Amy to a painful degree. I highlighted whole passages, feeling seen as the quiet, studious, “good” one compared to the hurricane that is my older sister. Luckily, as the sisters grew, their stories evolved into something less relatable but equally captivating. I can’t remember the last time I devoured 200 pages in a single sitting. All in all, a great read!

“No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.”

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The publisher’s blurb for 𝗦𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 by Betsy Lerner ends with a line I love: “𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.” I think that resonates for a lot of us. The love between sisters is so special, but that also comes with a lot of vulnerability. Sometimes even an innocent, passing remark can cut to the core. For Amy Shred, the younger of the two Shred sisters, that line is even more apt.⁣
⁣
Amy grew up in the glow of her charismatic, confident older sister, Olivia. Bookish and outcast at school, Amy longed for a little of what her big sister had. That is until Ollie began to go off the rails with increasing frequency. Then, Amy only wanted a return to normalcy for her family.⁣
⁣
While 𝘚𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 is a story of family, siblings, and mental illness, it’s really Amy’s story, told by Amy. We follow her as she comes-of-age, progresses through different jobs and relationships. Through her, we also meet Olivia over and over as she moves in and out of Amy’s life. In this complex relationship I hurt for both sisters. One who’s healthy and often overlooked, and the other bipolar, unable to self-regulate, but still charismatic and the sister who both needs and gets so much more.⁣
⁣
I thought this was a really solid debut. Knowing families with a bipolar child, I also know Lerner got both Amy and Olivia exactly right. I’ve watched families go through very similar times as the Shred family did in this novel. The author’s notes don’t mention any personal connection to a bipolar family member, but throughout the reading experience, I felt as if there had to be one. Whether or not that’s true, this book seemed exceptionally real. In that and more it was excellent! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨⁣
⁣
*𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @groveatlantic 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read! The characters were so believable; it felt like reading about someone I knew through association with someone else. A quick read, because I was so invested in finding out what happened next. Would recommend to any and everyone.

I didn’t like the writing. The whole book looks like a long introduction to the story, but actually it’s the story itself and therefore it was quite boring.
It is a story about two sisters, one is a good, quiet girl and another one is the opposite, wild and dangerous. Parents were more inclined toward the bad daughter (the trope I couldn’t stand). The story is told from the perspective of the good sister, but the way the story is narrated is repetitive and distant (she did that and then I did that, and then that happened….)… I was just waiting when we would witness some action, but it never came to that and therefore I gave up reading it further.

Shred Sisters is one of the most lifelike pieces of media surounding loss, famil, and mental illness I've come across in the past year. It follows the story of two sisters, one mentally ill and dealing with bi-polar tendencies, and the other forced into a role of parental responsibility because of this. I found it incredibly touching and moving. I've read few titles that reflect such a realistic and almost controversial point of view of someone struggling with another's illness that are as good as Shred Sisters is. This is one of my favourite books of the year.

Shred Sisters is a surprising debut novel about family dynamics and mental illness. The story follows two sisters over the course of two decades, Amy and Olivia Shred, and how their lives were and are affected by Olivia's erratic behaviour and bipolar disorder. The characters and pacing are well written and it's a very interesting choice to put the narrator as the younger sister, who is often forgotten and cautious in personality.

There was a lot pulling me towards this novel. The minute I read about it on Netgalley (where I got my copy courtesy of Grove Atlantic) I was drawn by the story of two sisters because I am fascinated by sibling relationships and all the forms they can take over a lifetime. In this novel, the story is told from the viewpoint of Amy Shred, the younger sibling to Olivia Shred whose personality and eventual mental illness dominates the dynamics in the entire family. The questions propelling the reader through: will Amy surface and claim her own issues and self by the end of the story? Will Olivia ever reach a point of relative stability?

I found a lot to appreciate in this novel: fine writing, well-drawn characters, and a real feel for pacing. Betsy Lerner's Amy is the kind of narrator you root for until you realize she is having a hard time facing how her own responses -- shutting down, turning away, making questionable decisions -- are coloring the narrative. I empathized. It is tough to be the forgotten sibling. It is tough not to feel resentment on her behalf towards Olivia who sucks the oxygen out of any room she is in. Still, my sympathy for Amy ebbed on occasion -- the remoteness and self-sabotage was just not always fun to be around even as a reader. And we are with her for twenty years.

I found it fascinating to observe Olivia through the eyes of her younger sister who is in grade school/middle school when the book opens, and how this view evolves as Amy herself comes of age. I thought it was striking when Amy complains at one point only to be told by her mother "who said things were fair?" Olivia controls the household. Even when she runs away for longer and longer stretches, the attention of her family remains on her and what might happen next. As Olivia grows older and her illness asserts itself, Amy gives us what that looks and feels like to her and how it affects her parents' decisions and behaviors towards both of them, and each other.

My main concern with this novel was that, fairly or not, I was always waiting for it to truly begin, to feel it turn towards the change that we are inherently promised with any piece of fiction. Amy is stuck for a long time. Her relationships with others and with her therapist are used to show us her "freeze" response to threats as well as experiments with self-sabotage. Despite eventual success in her career and attracting the kind of husband that delights her mother, she allows or seeks disruptive forces. At one point, one of her closest friends is an unstable addict who, like Olivia, can walk into a room and disrupt everything. Olivia herself comes and goes in Amy's life. It just felt very late in the game when the Amy took that turn I was looking for. But then, as I think about it now, most of us never make a clean break with our families, our pasts, and how we carry their imprint into the future with us. Maybe it is enough just to see it all clearly, as Amy does, and carry it with her forward into whatever the future brings.

The title and cover caught my eye, and the writing held my attention - nonstop, in fact. I have read a couple of books recently that had the word "sisters" in the title, and I've liked both of them. After having the fortune of reading this via NetGalley, I subsequently purchased a copy to give as a gift to another avid reader.

You don't have to be a sister to enjoy this book about the relationship between two sisters, four years apart in age, from an upper middle class family in Northeastern USA. Older sister Olivia (called Ollie) is quirky at first but increasingly descends into a world of mental illness. Set in the 1970's- 1980's, modern-day readers will know that these are decades of less knowledge about and less acceptance of mental illness. The Picasso-esque cover design hints at the subject matter, and although Ollie is the undiagnosed mentally ill family member, her life has an effect on the parents as well as younger sister Amy. I think Gloria Gaynor's 70's era disco song "I Will Survive" would be a good anthem for Amy.

This is a powerful book ! I highly recommend it.

Why aren’t more people talking about Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner!?!

Saw this on @netgalley and I love books about sisters and the cover jumped out at me and was so glad I got approved.

Then life happened and I was working through a backlog of galleys 🤪 When it made the @center4fiction debut novel list I knew I needed to prioritize again.

Shred Sisters follows the sisters Ollie and Amy who couldn’t be more different. Ollie is charismatic, beautiful, reckless, and solipsistic. She is also mentally ill battling what her family eventually thinks is severe bipolar disorder. Amy is the younger sister, a bookworm, plain, late bloomer, who is forced into playing the role of the stable one for herself and her family.

The family dynamics in this book are so real. While I’m lucky to have sisters who are healthy, stable, and safe (and I know where they are physically in the world), the dynamics of competition, parents with their own issues, and challenges of differing life choices were so compelling and rang true to my own experiences.

I lived that Lerner also explores the issues of family choices of marriage, divorce, single womanhood and child bearing in this novel. Amy’s reflections on her choices in her life and career over marriage and children made me teary.

The prose was so precise and vivid. I am very glad I read this gorgeous and dynamic novel on family, sisterhood, and growing into adults though separate always in some way entwined.

It made me very grateful for my sisters @sar_restless_ricks and @tmillii and reminded me how lucky we are to have each other even when our relationships have been rocky and we’ve made choices for ourselves that we didn’t always understand. I know that through it all we are in each others corners.

Now go read this book please! Also tell me your favorite books about sisters!

Thank you @netgalley and @groveatlantic for the e-galley!