Member Reviews
“Blue Sisters" by Coco Mellors is a story that fosters deep connection and empathy with its characters. You feel their pain and, even if you don't fully agree, you can grasp the reasons behind their actions. The novel delves into the dark side of addiction and explores the various ways we can self-sabotage. However, amidst these heavy topics, the book also exudes themes of love, hope, resilience, and the importance of learning to lean on and trust those who love us most.
I’ve been sitting here after finishing Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors for a hot minute now, and I have to say I’m in total awe. What an incredible read.
Sisters. Addiction. Loss. Hope.
While this book was emotionally heavy for me, the writing was so beautiful it also felt like a balm to my soul, making me not want to put it down.
The story follows three of the four Blue sisters in the aftermath of losing their beloved sister to an overdose. While two of the other sisters struggle with addictions themselves, they each are struggling as they face their loss, grieving and trying to find the joy that they felt snuff out with their sister’s life.
This is a book for anyone who themselves have struggled with addiction or has had someone in their life battle it. Yes, it’s a hard story of loss, but it’s also a beautiful tale of hope.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I can’t wait for y’all to read this one!!
Thank you NetGalley & Random House for the chance to read this masterpiece.
And most importantly, thank you Coco Mellors for writing this- I can’t describe how incredible this book was and how deeply it struck a chord in me.
Blue Sisters tells the story of 3 sisters, who had become estranged over time. Through the story they try to navigate their complex relationship and personal lives in the wake of their sisters death. The heart of this novel is the bond these sisters share. There are so many moments within this story that reflect the true sisterhood they share. Although, this book contains heavy subject matter (addiction, and the determination to break the cycle of addiction within a family. This has "fun" setting as it rotates between Paris, London, New York, and L.A. Each of the different settings illustrates the emotion of each of the sisters as they try to find a sense of belonging in there respective locations Blue Sisters contains the emotional results of grief and the reconnection of siblings.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! Blue Sisters out Sep, 3, 2024.
“Now, when she closed her eyes, she saw every mistake she had made leading up to this moment. Her inner weather, once a calm, had become stormy again.”
What an incredible character study of three sisters who lose one to overdose, and how they each deal with their grief separately and together. The writing was incredibly intimate, fresh, and heartfelt. Following three separate POVS, we follow each sister as they are not only trying to come to terms with their sister’s death, but also their childhood and the decisions they made to get to where they are. The characters seemed incredibly real and individual from one another, while still having similarities as sisters. This book deals a lot with grief and addiction, but I really enjoyed how it also touched on children being a product of who raised them, and the complex feelings that can come along with that. Are we predestined to make the decisions we do, due to our childhoods, or are we always in control of the person we are? Does that keep us from being who we want to become? I absolutely recommend this one when it publishes September 3, 2024.
“Blue sisters” from the genius mind of Coco Mellors, who did impeccable work on Cleopatra and Frankenstein. The captivating novel is about the tumultuous interconnection between sisters against family dynamics and personal growth. Mellors meticulously etches out the themes of sisterhood, identity, the hones in one the complexities of human relationships. The Blue Sisters truthfully are one of the most complex and soul-crushing characters I’ve ever encountered in a piece of literature. Mellors is an expert of creating a compelling body of work which highlights the raw nature of sisterhood and family ties. I will be stuck with this in my head for a while.
Besides some small typos throughout the book, I believe it was written very well.
I enjoyed that it touched on so many REAL issues: love of all forms, addiction, grief/loss, family dynamics, etc. This felt like a story that very much could be a legit family. The only part that doesn’t fall into that would be the ending, which I felt came off (to me) as a forced happy-ever-after.
The whole family dealing with the (assumed) genetic addiction in different ways and for different reasons was someone I haven’t seen much. The trope of one “black sheep” struggling with addiction is so overplayed and in reality, what happens in Blue Sisters is more likely to be the case.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors was also so good! If you liked Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, you’ll love this one – it feels like it basically picks up where Hello Beautiful ended but with a different cast of wacky sisters. At the start, one of the sisters has died and the three others are working out their lives while carrying this heavy grief. I found these sisters to be messed up but also very fun to read about! 4.5 stars
Blue Sisters is a tragic, but beautiful story about grief, addiction, and sisterhood. The dynamics between the four sisters, each with their own hopes and burdens, felt so real; it made me wonder what it might have been like to grow up with siblings and to have our lives intertwined from the beginning.
Coco Mellors’ descriptions of life in New York are entrancing, just as they were in Cleopatra and Frankenstein. I loved catching a glimpse of life in Los Angeles, London, and Paris in this book as we switched between each sister’s perspective.
Seeing the remaining three sisters slowly grow and forgive themselves after their fourth sister’s death was bittersweet, and I found myself rooting for all of them as they took tentative steps to move on and live lives their sister would be proud of. The one drawback for me was that the ending felt a bit too tied-up-with-a-bow and too perfect to be believable given everything the sisters have gone through.
Heartbreaking, beautiful, raw, and real. It’s hard to articulate how much you will feel when reading this book. Coco Mellers made an impact with her amazing debut novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein. Who would have thought that her second would add to her depth as a writer and storyteller?
I LOVED this book. The prose is beautiful, the characters well-developed, and the story heartbreakingly real. I have been a big fan of Mellors after "Cleopatra and Frankenstein," and this novel did not disappoint. In fact, it completely exceeded my expectations. This is in line to be one of my very favorite novels of the year. Thank you for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC!
I was excited to read Coco Mellors sophomore effort after loving her debut, Cleopatra & Frankenstein. Mellors returns to form with a rich, deep exploration of character - this time in the form of a family, specifically the Blue sisters. The four girls could not be more different, yet their shared history, which includes a healthy amount of trauma and anguish, and their unwavering love for one another unite them throughout the years and across the globe. When one of the sisters passes tragically and unexpectedly, the remaining three are left to navigate the puzzle that is the world with their shared missing piece. Tracing all three sisters over the course of the year after the death and highlighted the complex nuances of grief, addiction, shame, and, ultimately, love - this novel's beating heart shines throughout each chapter. Mellors' talent lies in her ability to make her characters full individuals, despite their broken pieces. By the end of the novel, I felt like I had truly spent a year getting to intimately know each character and their motivations and actions made complete sense for their personalities. For fans of Sally Rooney, Dolly Alderton, and Ottessa Moshfegh. This one was a winner for me!
<blockquote>"She was home, the only one she knew, not because she always lived in it, but because it always lived in her."</blockquote>
Oof. That line hit me hard.
Thank you Random House for giving me an e-arc of this book. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
This is a very introspective novel about three sisters grieving the loss of their fourth. In a multi-POV novel, it's expected that you'll feel more connected to some characters than others. I really enjoyed reading Avery and Bonnie's POVs, especially Avery's. I thought she was flawed and realistic and I thought the journey with her relationship was the most dynamic. Bonnie was also an interesting character, though the "romance" with her story I didn't like as much. Lucky was my least favorite of the sisters.
The novel had a lot of beautiful lines about sisterhood and feeling lost in life. One thing I felt oddly missing was Nicky. She's dead, but she's "on the page" a lot through flashbacks (maybe too many flashbacks? I thought some could've been cut). However, I didn't really feel like I got to know who Nicky truly was as much as I would've liked. Basically, even though this is meant to be a very emotional novel, I didn't feel too many emotions regarding Nicky because she wasn't as fleshed out as the other sisters in my opinion.
<spoiler>*SPOILER*
I did not like how Bonnie's arc with Pavel ended. I was hoping, because he gave zero signs of being interested in her, that Bonnie would've had to learn to deal with loving someone who doesn't love her back, at least not romantically. But nope. She admits she's always loved him and bam, next thing you know they're having a baby. Firstly, it's very hard to convince me this relationship is cute and wholesome when this man knew her when she was 15 and he was pushing 30. </spoiler>
This book is set to release September 3, 2024 and I'd recommend it for lovers of literary fiction who enjoy slower paced, character studies.
Link to review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6411771111
we follow the four blue sisters: avery, bonnie, nicky and lucky. nicky died by an accidental overdose; leaving her sisters behind. each extremely different from one another. avery is the eldest; who acts as a second mom. she struggled with addiction in her youth but since then followed a program and is in active recovery; she becomes a successful lawyer. bonnie is super sporty and tough but deep down she is the most tender of the sisters. she was a rising boxer but after nicky's death she moves to california leaving behind her promising boxing career. lucky is the youngest and wildest from the bunch. launching a successful modeling career at 15, she's always been a wild child but she finds herself lost and wanting to find another path that isn't modeling.
the girls all had a difficult relationship with both their parents. their dad struggled with alcohol so they didn't have a stable life at home; finding solace in each others' company growing up. now a year after nicky's death, their parents decide on selling their childhood home which brings them to an unlikely reunion that's filled with pain, suppressed anger and ultimately love.
i have been looking forward to this read especially after reading the description. coco mellors has a way of writing that's very current to this generation without trying too hard. it was easy for me to imagine all the characters and scenes with the detailed description. i was drawn to bonnie's story the most! such an easy character to love. i also appreciated how coco mellors wrote about the fellowships and rooms so well; this book tugged on multiple heartstrings for me. the acknowledgments section was also so heartwarming to have read, especially the section acknowledging the rooms of aa.
At its center this novel is about sisterhood, but it is also about the universal hurt that we will all experience at least once in our lives: grief. How do we respond? How do we live our lives carrying this hurt around?
Told from the perspectives of the Blue sisters, in the wake of tragedy, this novel is both cerebrally tender, and achingly melancholic.
Having no sisters myself, I put my trust into Mellors to bring me forth into the messy web that is sisterhood, and she delivered.
A beautiful and brilliant book about familial bonds and how misfortune is dealt with within the family dynamic and beyond.
I was spellbound, completely desperate for the next page as I was turning them.
(Many thanks to Random House for the eARC of this wonderful novel)
Heartfelt and beautiful, I couldn’t put it down. Mellors’ stunning prose will stay with me for a long while
this was one of my most highly anticipated books of the year! blue sisters follows avery, bonnie, and lucky reuniting a year after the death of their sister nicky.
i think where this book shined the most was in the character dynamics. the relationships between the sisters and those around them was extremely raw & real. it was super fascinating to see the different ways they dealt with the grief and pain, as well as how they paralleled one another. they frequently thought the same things verbatim, sought out the same addictions, and made the same connections back to nicky.
for a lot of the book i was a bit confused about where it was going. or rather, i had a sense of where it was going and I wasn’t sure i’d enjoy it. on that note, i do think the ending chapters were wrapped up a bit too neatly in a all-was-well-happily-ever-after bow for my taste.
overall, i enjoyed my time with this one! coco mellors has a knack for writing really interesting and complicated characters who are going through it — and i’m here for it :)
Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Coco Mellors for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Blue Sisters was my most anticipated read of the year and wow, Coco does it again. while I didn't love Cleo and Frank, I loved how they made me feel. the blue sisters did the same thing, I think. heartbroken, hopeful, and troubled. I think each one made me cry in a different way. Bonnie, with her love. Lucky, with her loneliness. Avery, with never feeling good enough. and finally, Nicky, with her hidden pain. to what extent do you truly know what another person is going through? even if you are the same blood. Coco touches on these subjects so softly, yet so hard and truthful.
I also admire the perspective we saw the sisters in. the reader was an outsider, but was also in on their darkest secrets. we could form out own judgements, but not without a bit of empathy.
this is all to say I had every single one of my heart strings pulled in a different direction. I hope the Blue sisters are existing together, somewhere in the afterlife. where Nicky could join them as say, "you are not that important."
'The Blue Sisters' is like a rollercoaster ride of emotions, just like 'Cleo' and 'Frankenstein.' You're hooked from the get-go, following these sisters through their ups and downs, and let me tell you, there are plenty. But what really sets this book apart is how it taps into the power of family. If you are in to family relationships 'The Blue Sisters' is your jam!" #bluesisters #netgalley
Blue Sisters is about four sisters - Lucky, Avery, Bonnie, and NIcky (who has since tragically died). The entire book discusses how they've recovered from her sudden death and the pain of it all.
Lucky - a successful model since the age of 15 (dealing with drug abuse)
Bonnie - a successful professional boxer (who loves the pain)
Avery - a now successful lawyer living in London with her wife, also a former drug addict (painful)
While I love a good family centered story, one that dives into the past and now present, I found this one to have back stories that tended to drag, and some present scenes that didn't even need to be in the book. They did not need to make or break the entire premise of the novel - which is to unite the three sisters in their former apartment in NYC. I would have loved to skip some of Lucky's partying scenes, have more emphasis on their broken relationship with their parents, and I found Bonnie's professional boxing life neither here nor there.
All in all, Coco Mellors is a good writer, but Blue Sisters was just another simple book on family relationships.
Thanks Netgalley for the advanced book review!
Posted on GoodReads April 5, 2024
Blue Sisters follows 3 sisters navigating the loss of their 4th sister while working through their own grief, relationships and addictions. This book is absolutely STUNNING. I was laughing, sobbing, and absolutely feeling the pain of each sister.
As the oldest sister of 3 siblings, I saw so much of myself in Avery. Absolutely fantastic read by Coco Mellors.