Sisterland

by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rebecca Lowman (Narrator)

*****PRE-ORDER CURTIS SITTENFELD'S GRIPPING NEW NOVEL, RODHAM, OUT THIS SUMMER*****

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF RODHAM and AMERICAN WIFE
'A work of psychological genius' OBSERVER
_______________________________-

Identical twins, Kate and Violet are about as unlike as two peas from the same pod can be. Except in one respect - they share a hidden gift. But after Kate inadvertently reveals their secret when they are thirteen years old, their lives are set on diverging paths.

Twenty years later Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. Violet is single, and lives a much more flamboyant and eccentric life. Then one day Violet ignites a media storm by predicting a major earthquake in the St Louis area where they live.

As the day Violet has announced for the earthquake draws nearer, Kate must attempt to repair her fraught relationship with her sister, and to face truths about herself she has long tried to deny.

• ISBN10: 0307736628
• ISBN13: 9780307736628
• Publish Date: 25 June 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Books on Tape
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 15 hours
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jane]

DNF @ 34 pages

This book reads like a long-winded biography. There is so much filler in here, and the main character of whose point-of-view is the focus—Kate—is unlikable. She falls into the category of "old, traditional, conservative" ideas.

I wanted to give this book a better chance, but the following stopped me in my tracks to that point:

- Vi is bisexual; Kate doubts and questions her twin sister's sexual identity in disbelief
- Kate touts the reader that she knows best for those around her and aim to live as mundane as possible, all the while complaining her life is boring.
- The scene in Chapter 2, page 20: Vi is on a local news station discussing the recent earthquake and her predictions as a psychic, alongside a seismologist who is a family friend. Vi is obviously exhausted. Kate explains how embarrassed for Vi she feels—because she's drawing attention to herself instead of remaining some small town chick the world would've otherwise ignored, because she went on television without makeup, because she's doing things Saint Kate would never do.

I have enough of this closed-mindedness happening within my own family. I don't need to read a book about it to know what it's like.

Had this novel been written from Vi's POV, I might've had a fairer chance—she's likeable and relatable.

[dpfaef]

I ended up not liking any of the characters in this book. I did finish it - but it was a strange but not in a wonderful way book.