The story follows three sisters who return to their childhood home in NYC after losing their sister. Each is grieving in her own way, and as they sort through their memories, they begin uncovering family secrets and truths about themselves. It’s highly character-focused, exploring their perspectives and complex emotions around grief, addiction, and loss.

The characters feel so real; they leap right off the page. This story is emotional, beautifully written, and had me in tears by the end. I’m already missing Lucky, Avery, and Bonnie.

If you’re in the mood for a powerful, moving read, add this to your fall TBR. You won’t regret it!

Blue Sisters is the story of 3 sisters arriving at the one year anniversary of the fourth sister’s death. While the characters were developed as well as the plot, this book was a big miss for me.

Every character was harshly distinct from one another with fantastic jobs and unique traits that felt tremendously cliche to me. A family of four sisters all so wildly different from one another felt so forced and like a box was ticked. It wasn’t just with their careers but their sexuality, fashion, living situation, and everything in between. All the side characters were forced into this distinction as well, with their unique identifiers being pushed to the forefront. This completely took me out of the story and felt like a checked off list more than a naturally diverse fictional world. I took multiple notes throughout when a new bauble of a character would appear because it just baffled me.

While the hodge podge variety of characters took me out of the story, what turned me against it was the treatment of addiction and the power within an age gap relationship. Addiction was clearly a struggle within this family yet it doesn’t tie together demonstrably. The best way I can say it is, icky. Although I’m not looking for a fiction book to promote a healthy way of handling a disease like addiction, this one read too flippant and discombobulated to appreciate it.

The last quarter was so much stronger than the first half or so but the epilogue was such a disappointment.

What Mellors did masterfully though was make each of the characters clearly alive on the page, even if they were weighed down by cliches. I’d like to read from her again in a story where the characters aren’t forced to fill out every possibly diverse aspect of a human being.

I keep being fascinated by the book covers of books by Coco Mellors books but then never actually picking them up.

I’m an outlier here but at 60% I did something out of character for me and DNF. I received this book as a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. I will also note that I mostly listened to this on audio book and needed to increase the listening speed beyond my normal 1.5 because the narrator’s pacing was sooo slow.

Blue sisters is about 4 sisters and the challenges of their lives and the dynamics of their relationships with each other. The book takes place primarily a year after the death of one sister, Nikki, and gives you a multi-character perspective on how the sisters cope with her loss.

Considering I actually DNF, you can tell I really hated this. The content was sad/depressing which as a whole is fine and sometimes those books can be amazing but in this case my dislike of the characters made it unbearable. I have a really hard time connecting to characters who repeatedly self sabotage and then seem surprised when their life blows up around them. As someone whose sibling struggled with addiction I have first hand knowledge of what a strain it puts on family/sibling dynamics but the depiction here just felt ingenious. There were also many problems with racial depictions, and stereotyped personas but I don’t have the energy to touch on all that. Some reviews said the epilogue tied the book together so I did read that and it actually made me more mad. Somehow after all this tragedy and self destructive choices all 3 sisters end up happy and thriving? No, just no.

A friend read a very early copy of this and raved about it. So happy she told me to request it! I loved this family drama. The chapters were longer than I like but I loved how the story of their family and each sister unfolded. I wish the end of their story didn’t wrap up so quickly.

Thankfully, I enjoyed this novel much more than her first (Frank made me see red). I wasn’t necessarily riveted from the get-go, but it slowly grew on me. These sisters are raw and real, as is their storyline. I most enjoyed Bonnie’s POV, but I most related to Avery. In fact, I related to her to an eerie amount. And her conversations with her mother were all too familiar. It’s a melancholy tale, but it didn’t bring me down, and the ending is realistic in the most blissful way. My review doesn’t do justice to the insight and beauty of Mellors’ words, but I will end with this: I truly recommend this book.

A stellar read about the complexities of family and sister relationships. Academic, emotional and thrilling. Deeply flawed characters come to life on the page. Not to be missed.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on September 3, 2024.

Thank you Netgalley & Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an Arc in exchange for an honest review!


"Blue Sisters" by Coco Mellors is a beautifully crafted novel that delves into the complexities of sibling relationships and personal identity. The author’s lyrical prose captures the emotional depth of the sisters' bond, weaving together their shared memories and individual struggles with finesse.

While the character development is strong, some pacing issues arise in the middle of the story, which can momentarily disrupt the flow. However, the rich settings and poignant moments of connection more than compensate for this.

Overall, "Blue Sisters" is a compelling read that resonates with anyone who has navigated the intricacies of family ties. It’s an engaging exploration of love, loss, and the journey of self-discovery. Highly recommended for those who appreciate character-driven narratives.

While I appreciated Mellors' grappling with grief, pain, and addiction, ultimately the characters felt too flat and "typed" for me to connect.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors captivated me with its raw and beautifully layered characters, making each page feel alive with emotion. Mellors' storytelling had me invested from the start, and I loved how the novel explored the complexities of sisterhood and self-discovery.

I enjoyed this lively saga of sisters. It felt very contemporary and was much like a streaming serial I'd love to watch on television for the escapism and family drama! I also appreciated the fact that each sister was so different and OH SO DRAMATIC! Please keep us posted so that we can be sure to watch for it to sell. But not Nicole Kidman, Ok?

Beautifully written and poignant. Domestic drama, slice of life contemporary that deals with life, loss, and love. Deeply relatable and moving. Just a beautiful, memorable story that was equal parts humorous and heartfelt

I knew how unbelievable this book would be well before I even started the first page. It in no way disappointed. I was raised with all brothers, and these characters have so much depth that I could be convinced they're my own sisters. I also lost my younger sibling years ago, so this really picked at a scab and left me raw. I cried and I also felt like maybe a few things healed, too. I will come back to this book so many times.

“Avery had previously thought love was built on large, visible gestures, but a marriage turned out to be the accrual of ordinary, almost inconsequential, acts of daily devotion..." ⁣
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This book was the perfect example of loving a book of unlikable characters. I don't need to loooove each character in a book in order to love a book. What I do need is to have the 'why', why is this character making these poor choices, 'why' is this character the way they are - and Coco Mellors does that. By the end I considered these sisters people I knew and I understood why each of them was so different and complex.⁣
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Blue Sisters made for so much to discuss in this month's #ReadWithToni chat: sibling relationships, sibling order playing a role in their core conditioning, parental neglect and abandonment, coming of age, addiction, endometriosis, grief.⁣
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Have you read anything by Coco Mellors? How do you feel about unlikable characters?

Loved this book about sisters....how they are different and the same, and how their relationships are complicated and fierce. There is a lot of truth here about their relationships, but also about parenting, love, substance abuse, and how unfortunately, we often hurt those that we hold closest. Highly recommended if you love deep character studies.

Holy moly this is a BOOK. This book follows 3 sisters after the death of their baby sister and how they navigate understanding their grief, grappling with their upbringing, struggling with addiction, and finding themselves in a very broken and sad story. You feel so much compassion and sadness for these flawed but amazing characters and are truly rooting for each one’s success. The ending had me tearing up and was a perfect sappy bow to a very sorrowful story. The Blue sisters will touch you - can’t recommend this enough. Lots more to discuss too, would be a great book club book

Coco Mellor’s has mastered not only writing beautifully, but fleshing out characters in a way that’s messy and real, while allowing you to fall in love with them at the same time. Flaws and all. I liked how we jumped between sisters and were able to learn about and experience Nicki as a sister even though she had already died by the start of the book.

This is a family I loved to experience and also felt like I was a part of. My only complaint is that I wanted more, I felt like I could’ve read another 300 pages about this family and where they all ended up.

I think having more limited characters than Cleo & Frankenstein made Blues Sisters even more successful because we were able to connect with the sisters more fully than we did with the characters of Cleo and Frank - that being said I loved both books for different reasons and am now for sure an auto buyer of anything Coco Mellors writes.

Coco Mellors is a truly gifted writer. Her newest novel honestly covered some heavy topics, and subject matter but after reading it I feel so much lighter! Addiction, loss, self sabotage and manipulation; just to name a few. This is a beautiful story that everyone can relate to in someway or another and I hope everyone reads it!

I received an E -ARC of this title from NetGalley. This review is honest, unbiased, and completely my own.

A year after the death of their sister, Nicky, the remaining Blue sisters are brought together to empty her belongings from their childhood apartment. As they navigate their grief they begin to realize how their relationships with each other, and with themselves, have changed over the past year.

This book was absolutely beautiful. Mellors created characters with incredible depth. All three sisters were completely different and fit perfectly within their little group. They were each filled with flaws, but had grown so much by the end of this book. If you don't enjoy character driven books, you might not enjoy this one as much, but if you do enjoy them, this is basically a masterclass.

The chapters alternate pov's between each sister, but you still get to know so much about the intricacies of each Blue. You could really feel their emotions alongside of them. Even though they weren't always super likeable, you could still understand why they did they things they did.

Obviously this book will be relatable to those with sisters, but I think there's a little something for everyone in this book even if you don't have sisters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC!