Book Review: The Sisters by Claire Douglas

The Sisters by Claire Douglas
Release Date: 13th August 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
Buy: Paperback | Kindle
Rating:

One lied. One died.

When one sister dies, the other must go to desperate lengths to survive. Haunted by her twin sister’s death, Abi is making a fresh start in Bath. But when she meets twins Bea and Ben, she is quickly drawn into their privileged and unsettling circle. 
When one sister lies, she must protect her secret at all costs. As Abi tries to keep up with the demands of her fickle friends, strange things start to happen – precious letters go missing and threatening messages are left in her room. Is this the work of the beautiful and capricious Bea? Or is Abi willing to go to any lengths to get attention? When the truth outs, will either sister survive?

 

When we first meet Abi she is struggling to come to terms with the death of her twin sister, Lucy. At first it’s unclear how Lucy died, but what is clear is that Abi is carrying around an enormous amount of guilt and blames herself.
Abi has moved to Bath in an attempt to move forward with her life; only she keeps seeing Lucy everywhere she goes. She then meets Bea – a girl who is frighteningly like Lucy and Abi feels an instant connection with her, despite the fact that she’s a virtual stranger. Abi strikes up a friendship with Bea and when she discovers that she is also a twin she is certain that Bea has come into her life for a reason. It’s not long before Abi is invited to move in to the house that Bea shares with her brother, Ben, and her arty friends, but it soon becomes apparent that almost everyone is hiding a secret in some shape of form. Is anyone really who they seem?

The Sisters is one of those novels that I have been looking forward to reading since the very first moment I learnt of its existence. The synopsis and cover will grab your attention right from the offset and I can’t realistically see anyone picking this book up and not wanting to drop everything and start reading it this VERY SECOND.
I have been loving thrillers more than ever this year and there have been some cracking releases during the past eight months. However, I can say with complete certainty that The Sisters is officially one of my favourites. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. This book really is something special and I’m sat here with sweaty palms at the thought of writing a review to do it justice. It was THAT good.

The whole story is just unbelievably tense and things start to turn strange incredibly quickly. As soon as Abi moves in with Bea I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach – all completely created by Claire Douglas’ brilliant, atmospheric writing. You know immediately that something is up, but of course you have no idea why – or what.
There are two protagonists to this story as you get to hear the story narrated by both Abi and Bea. I thought that this was such a great format, however it will have you tearing your hair out at times as you start to doubt as to whether you can trust either of them. I just LOVE novels where you never know who to trust and you think the story is heading nicely off in one direction and then suddenly everything is on its head and you need to re-read the last few pages to make sure you haven’t imagined the latest turns of events. This was The Sisters all over.

The characters were amazing, especially those of Abi and Bea. You can’t help but feel for Abi at the start of the novel. I found myself worrying for her before I had even found out what happened between her and Lucy. She just seemed so vulnerable and lost. Then you have the enigmatic Bea. Vibrant and outgoing but she just seems too ready to accept Abi – who is to all extents and purposes a total stranger – into her life. The whole cast were well drawn and fascinating, each coming into their own just when the time was right and surprising me in ways that I never would have imagined.

I never would have guessed in a million years that this was a debut novel. Claire Douglas writes in such a sophisticated and established style that will leave you wanting more. I love the way that you immediately feel involved in the story. As soon as you become introduced to the characters you feel as if you properly know them and then your involvement in things is just a natural progression. You become so wrapped up in this story that you don’t even realise…

I could use lots of fancy adjectives to describe this book, but I fear that none of them would truly do it justice. It’s just one of those books that will completely captivate you and have you frantically turning the pages to find out what’s going to happen. It’s perfectly paced and has such a clever plot line. Nothing is given away, even the most superior of sleuths will be flummoxed as this story plays with your head and makes you feel just that teeny bit claustrophobic.

A must-read whether you’re a fan of psychological thrillers or not. Just don’t under any circumstances attempt to read this if you have plans, because I promise you will be otherwise engaged…

A huge thank you to Louise at Harper Collins for sending me a review copy of The Sisters. ♥

Claire Douglas always wanted to write novels and, after many years of trying to get published, her dream came true when she won the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award in 2013 with THE SISTERS. It has been selected for the Amazon Rising Star 2015 list.

♥Claire Douglas♥ | Twitter | Goodreads |

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