Sister Light Sister Dark

by J Yolan

[nannah]

(3.5)

Jenna, a white-haired babe orphaned three times, is taken in and raised by an all-women community who worships a white-haired goddess named Alta. There, she learns about dark sisters - shadow women called out from a great mirror who only appear during the night. She also discovers that she might be the subject of a prophecy that foretells the goddess's rebirth on earth.

Folktales, ballads, and history lessons interrupt each chapter, told from sometime in the future looking back. It really reveals how corrupt history can become with each retelling and from who's telling it (the historians are all men, lecturing about what they thought they knew about the all-women communities, while what's shown to the readers real-time in the chapters tend to differ).

I ended up enjoying the book, but it took until halfway for the story to really get moving. And I felt the entire book was written up to set up its sequel, which bummed me out. I wished the book had a complete beginning, middle, and ending. I might pick up the sequel, but we'll see . . .