I absolutely loved this book. . . equally as much as I did “The Bridge Ladies”.
Joy, grief, and sorrow coexist and penetrates our hearts as we follow along with the Shred family.
The “Shred Sisters” examines how mental illness affects everyone in a family … and how easily one family member’s volatile conduct and flightiness can become the families primary focus.
Tension and uncertainty increase over the years for the Shreds. Relationships became emotionally draining and shattering.

Sisters Amy and Olivia, (Ollie) were four years apart in age.
Amy, the youngest narrates the story.
Growing up, Amy could be considered a nerd by her school contemporaries. Math and science came easy to her where social skills did not.
Ollie could charm others like nobody’s business. People naturally gravitated towards her. Her physical beauty, and personality allure were magnetic. However…..Ollie was not well. She showed all the signs of Bipolar disorder before her parents or Amy had any understanding of the disease.
Ollie’s erratic behaviors continued to grow over the years — ( stealing, lying, drugs, running away).
Amy was trying to assert herself - live a morale life - achieve academic excellence- (she had scholarly goals), but she also wanted to feel half the confidence as Ollie seemed to do with no effort at all.
Amy knew she could never enter her sister’s world. Ollie was daring and reckless. She slept naked, while Amy wore pajamas over underpants and undershirts.
They fought, physically, hair pulling, punching, kicking when they were little, but far worse were the name-calling insults. Ollie could always level Amy.

The details - and stories - we follow from childhood into adulthood….are funny, sad, devastating, and hopeful…..often all at the same time.
I found it as interesting learning about Amy and Ollie’s parents ….and many of the supporting characters as I did exploring the relationship between the two sisters.

A small personal share (the much longer story would be another book).
My husband and I have two daughters….four years apart. Our younger daughter, Ali, grew up around Katy’s erratic behaviors as well. Katy was hospitalized five times between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Our daughter was severely anorexic with borderline personality disorder.
Long story short….
Today, Katy is a professional actress living in West Hollywood ….(also a singer songwriter, dancer, contortionist, piano player, director, and artist). She’s successful and beautiful. My husband and I see her on TV from time to time ….but we haven’t seen her in person in ten years. She doesn’t choose to have contact with anyone in our family. I still hope for a happier-love relationship ending.
Ali is married and lives in Victoria, Canada. Her relationship with my husband and are healthy with expressive love with one another.

“Shred Sisters” was a deeply meaningful book for me (reflective and relatable)
…. I loved the ending….but I also felt those sad/ happy tears during the last third of the novel.

This is a brilliant novel with realistic characters ….realistic situations and challenges. It was hard ‘not’ to care about these characters because they were written with so much truth and tenderness….[thank you Betsy Lerner]
Also….
Hot Damn….there are some ‘funny scenes’ too! Being Jewish, I also enjoyed the familiar feelings too.

Highly recommend….especially to all sisters, Mom’s and

Quite a beautiful story about complex, damaged people. The book is from the perspective of Amy Shred, the younger sister of troubled, beautiful Ollie, and spans their childhood through to early 30s or so.

This isn't one of those books which revolves around one big dramatic event, but rather a number of smaller things happening. The challenges of growing up, trying to find one's way in the world, friendship, sex, love and loss are all covered. I liked Amy as a protagonist, she was well-developed and nuanced.
The novel explores what it is like to have a family member with a mental illness (bipolar disorder) in a way that I think is overall quite sensitive and realistic.

My main criticism would be that at times the story jumped around a bit and didn't follow sequence, cutting to different time periods but in a way that didn't flow that well.

If I had to compare the book to some other authors, I'd say a little Sally Rooney (but more happens in the story), a little Taylor Jenkins Reid (without the fluffiness), and a little Liane Moriarty

This was an interesting read to explore a skewed family dynamic and the impacts it can have on you through your life.