Name: camille paradis's review of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Item: Blue Sisters
Rating: 4.5
Author: camille paradis

Coco Mellors

The Blue sisters have always been exceptional – and exceptionally different.

Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London, is the typical eldest daughter, though she’s hiding a secret that could undo her perfect life forever.

Bonnie was a boxer but, following a devastating defeat, she’s been working as a bouncer in LA – until a reckless act one night threatens to drive her out of the city.

And Lucky, the rebellious youngest, is a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her.

Then there was Nicky, the beloved fourth sister, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling.

When, a year later, the three of them must reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home, they find that it’s only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak and learn to fall in love with life again.

Blue Sisters

Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this unforgettable story of grief, hope, and the complexities of family, from the acclaimed author of CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left the family reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize that the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from one another but from themselves.

Imbued with Coco Mellors’s signature combination of humor and heart, Blue Sisters is a story of what it takes to keep living after loss—and, ultimately, to fall in love with life again.

Srijita Sarkar 

They were not four, they never would be again, but they were starting to find the symmetry in three.

Was to be free of this love, just for a day. 

Trying to make a single glass of wine last for an entire meal, eking out tiny little sips and pretending to enjoy the taste rather than chase the effect, was worse than not drinking at all.

This is from the very first page—got me hooked in a speed of light. 

𝒦

A sister is not a friend. Who can explain the urge to take a relationship as primal and complex as sibling and reduce it to something as replaceable, as banal as a friend?

Look at umbilical cord—tough, sinous, unlovely, yet essential—and compare it to a friendship bracelet of brightly woven thread. That is the difference between a sister and a friend.

Tina ok

It was easy to love someone in the beginnings & endings; it was all the in between that was so hard. 

A sister is not a friend. Who can explain the urge to take a relationship as primal and complex as a sibling and reduce it to something as replaceable, as banal as a friend? Yet this status is used again and again to connote the highest intimacy. True sisterhood is not the same as friendship. You don't choose each other and there is no furtive period of getting to know each other. You are a part of each other, right from the start. Look at an umbilical cord—tough, sinuous, unlovely, yet essential—and compare it to a friendship bracelet of brightly woven thread. That is the difference between a sister and a friend.

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Lifted together on a tide of riotous, unapologetic joy, the feeling that to be a girl with other girls was not some weakness, as they had been told, but a power, the best and luckiest power on earth.

A lot was written about romantic love, Avery thought, about the profundity of that embrace. Bu this, too, was deserving of rapture, of song. Before she ever knew a lover's body, she knew her sisters', could see herself in their long feet and light eyes, their sleek limbs and curled ears. And, before life became big and difficult, there were moments with them when it was simply good: an early morning, still dark out, their parents asleep. Her younger sisters arriving one by one at her bedside, hair tangled, exuding their sour and sweet morning musk. She'd lifted the covers for each of them, letting them crowd into her bottom bunk, bodies pressed tight against one another, and they'd fallen asleep again like that, dropping off like puppies curled around a mother's warm belly.

Like comparing a fireplace to a forest fire. One was comfort, the other carnage.

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—washing the mugs left in the sink before bed, taking the time to run up or downstairs to kiss each other quickly before one left the house, cutting up an extra piece of fruit to share—acts easy to miss, but if ever gone, deeply missed.

I think you're the opposite of insufferable, I suffer you gladly.

But what they don’t know is this: As long as you are alive, it is never too late to be found.

Lindy

If only she could break through and return to the living moments beneath, her sisters in the kitchen making a race of peeling boiled eggs for egg salad sandwiches, her sisters pulling each other down the hallways on a towel they'd turned into a magic carpet, her sisters flopped on the couch watching TV after school, the ordinary, everyday miracle of being all together.

Who can explain the urge to take a relationship as primal and complex as a sibling and reduce it to something as replaceable, as banal as a friend? 

Ausrine Blazyte

It was easy to love someone in the beginnings and endings: it was all the time in between that was so hard. 

Inês Lemos S.

“Lucky is twenty-six years old. and she is lost. In fact, all the remaining sisters are.

But what they don't know is this: As long as you are alive, it is never too late to be found.

“She has said the words I need a drink one hundred and thirty-two times so far this year. That's more than she's said I love you in her entire life.”

“She was a carnival of feelings she never tried to hide.”

“Most people go through life never knowing what it's like to have a calling, one that asks you to sacrifice the pleasure of the moment for the potential of a dream that may not be realized for years, if at all. It sets you apart from others, whether you want it to or not. It can be grueling, lonely, and punishing, but, if it is really your calling, it is not a choice.”

mica

"Na sua vida inteira, ela provavelmente encontrara só um punhado de gente que tinha pais bons. Todos eram estranhos. As crianças que cresceram com pais amorosos tinham a mesma suavidade no olhar sonhador que as crianças criadas em lugares como Malibu, naquelas casas com a eterna luz do sol. Elas nunca precisaram endurecer. Lucky tinha uma teoria segundo a qual ter um pai mau era como crescer em um lugar onde o inverno é longo e severo. É o tipo de coisa que te deixa casca grossa. E também te prepara para a realidade de que o verão é uma estação, não um estilo de vida, e que a maioria dos homens vai lhe magoar se eles tiverem uma chance. Ou talvez fossem só as pessoas que cresceram com pais ruins que acreditavam nisso."

"Quando Lucky entra em uma sala, é como se uma enguia-elétrica deslizasse em um aquário de peixes-dourados. Ela é perspicaz e secretamente tímida. Aprendeu a tocar violão sozinha enquanto morava em Tóquio e o faz muito bem, mas é muito autocrítica para tocar na frente de qualquer pessoa. Ela ainda adora jogar videogames, adora qualquer forma de fuga, na verdade."

Phu Le Ngo

Cried publicly on my three hour flight. The depiction of grief in this book is unlike any I’ve read, and she captures the difficult intricacies of a sister relationship in the best and worst way. 

camille paradis

coco mellors is so wildly mediocre idk why I put myself through this

Grace M

hearty story about familial love, friendship and grief. was totally gripped 

Amalie

a little hard to start to be honest but after awhile i was so immersed in it?? definitely a good book to start my reading year :3 

So many emotions felt while reading this. How beautiful it is to be a sibling despite everything.

The Blue sisters have always been exceptional – and exceptionally different.

Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London, is the typical eldest daughter, though she’s hiding a secret that could undo her perfect life forever.

Bonnie was a boxer but, following a devastating defeat, she's been working as a bouncer in LA – until a reckless act one night threatens to drive her out of the city.

And Lucky, the rebellious youngest, is a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her.

Then there was Nicky, the beloved fourth sister, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling.

When, a year later, the three of them must reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home, they find that it's only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak and learn to fall in love with life again.

Blue Sisters is an enthralling, all-encompassing love letter to the devotional nature of sisterhood. 

Bittersweet and divine, it delves into the inner lives of four beautiful sisters, the family cycles they follow and run from, and the inescapable nature of their relationships to each other.

daphne

Blue Sisters is an enthralling, all-encompassing love letter to the devotional nature of sisterhood. 

Bittersweet and divine, it delves into the inner lives of four beautiful sisters, the family cycles they follow and run from, and the inescapable nature of their relationships to each other.

, eine Geschichte über drei Schwestern, die eine Schwester verlieren, und darüber, wie jede einzelne mit diesem Schicksalsschlag und Verlust umgeht. Wir verfolgen die drei Frauen in ihrem Leben sowie in ihrer Trauer und Selbstzerstörung.

Mich hat das Buch nicht überzeugt. Die Geschichte hat großes Potenzial, das meiner Meinung nach nicht ausgeschöpft wurde. Die Charaktere wirkten auf mich widersprüchlich, und ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass die Eltern, die laut den Schwestern so böse sind und an vielem Schuld tragen, eine eigene Stimme bekommen und klarer dargestellt werden, anstatt so blass im Hintergrund zu bleiben. Das allgegenwärtige Selbstmitleid der Schwestern hat mich total genervt, damit  konnte ich wenig anfangen.

Was ich gut fand, ist, dass das Buch einige wichtige Themen anspricht, auch wenn diese meiner Meinung nach stärker hätten herausgearbeitet werden können. Dazu gehören Endometriose, Kinderwunsch, 

, die Schattenseiten der Modelwelt, Sucht, Alkoholismus und schließlich Sisterhood. Mir hat das gefühlvolle Ende sehr gefallen, ansonsten gehe ich mit dem hype nicht mit.

Zainab 

Blue Sisters, eine Geschichte über drei Schwestern, die eine Schwester verlieren, und darüber, wie jede einzelne mit diesem Schicksalsschlag und Verlust umgeht. Wir verfolgen die drei Frauen in ihrem Leben sowie in ihrer Trauer und Selbstzerstörung.

Mich hat das Buch nicht überzeugt. Die Geschichte hat großes Potenzial, das meiner Meinung nach nicht ausgeschöpft wurde. Die Charaktere wirkten auf mich widersprüchlich, und ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass die Eltern, die laut den Schwestern so böse sind und an vielem Schuld tragen, eine eigene Stimme bekommen und klarer dargestellt werden, anstatt so blass im Hintergrund zu bleiben. Das allgegenwärtige Selbstmitleid der Schwestern hat mich total genervt, damit  konnte ich wenig anfangen.

Was ich gut fand, ist, dass das Buch einige wichtige Themen anspricht, auch wenn diese meiner Meinung nach stärker hätten herausgearbeitet werden können. Dazu gehören Endometriose, Kinderwunsch, regretting motherhood, die Schattenseiten der Modelwelt, Sucht, Alkoholismus und schließlich Sisterhood. Mir hat das gefühlvolle Ende sehr gefallen, ansonsten gehe ich mit dem hype nicht mit.

I liked that we never got to read a Nicky chapter (obviously), but she exists through the other sisters’ memories 

Four sisters from a family filled with addiction, destructive behaviors, and dysfunction launch into the world and can't quite escape the bond that unites them. One dies unexpectedly, leaving the other three to sort out life without her.

Reading this book was like watching a train wreck but being unable to look away. The sisters aren't likable and make lots of terrible decisions. I could see the vulnerability and desire for love and acceptance running beneath all of the behavior so that this book will haunt me for a while. If you want to read it, check out the trigger warnings first.

Cheri McElroy

Four sisters from a family filled with addiction, destructive behaviors, and dysfunction launch into the world and can't quite escape the bond that unites them. One dies unexpectedly, leaving the other three to sort out life without her.

Reading this book was like watching a train wreck but being unable to look away. The sisters aren't likable and make lots of terrible decisions. I could see the vulnerability and desire for love and acceptance running beneath all of the behavior so that this book will haunt me for a while. If you want to read it, check out the trigger warnings first.

Really appreciated the light shed on addictions in this one. 🌹

Kat Albanese

Nikki Berra

thank you barnes & noble employee discount because if i had paid $30 for this book i'd be so mad right now.... anyways i didn't like this book after the first 100 pages for a myriad of reasons and i'm shocked by the glowing reviews it has. maybe someday i'll update this but for now that's all i have to say

okayyyy i felt so nervous reading this bc they treat their lives so bad, but i enjoy each character but if i would rank the sisters it would be : nicky, lucky, bonnie, avie. i wish we could have met nicky but by the way all the sisters talked about her, i think she would have been my favorite. i love you new york

debbie <3

This was a great read, I just love the bond the sister's have in this novel. Mellors did a great job 🤍

Sheila Mae Moradas

I am a sister that is blue and a version of things happened to me. But we didn't connect. Me and this book. Just waving to each other from distant shores. I am sad. That's that.

Dora Tominic

Disclaimer: this is not a review.

I am a sister that is blue and a version of things happened to me. But we didn't connect. Me and this book. Just waving to each other from distant shores. I am sad. That's that.

this book felt like mellors went through my sisters and i's diaries and decided to put to writing how it felt like living in a cramped space, all three of us waiting for the right time to be freed from everything. 

"You are not that important." 

this book felt like mellors went through my sisters and i's diaries and decided to put to writing how it felt like living in a cramped space, all three of us waiting for the right time to be freed from everything. 

so so so good - one of my favourites from this year. this book was such a testament to the strength of sisterhood and womanhood, articulated through some of the most relatable but beautiful writing ive ever read. the writing and story was so good i actually want to go back and highlight my favourite lines and re-read it.

the prologue hooked me in right away with its unique and refreshing descriptions of the four beautiful sisters. i love the imagination pored into each of their very different essences but how they accommodate each other like plants sharing the same soil. there were so many parallels i was able to relate to in my own sisterly relationship but seriously ive never read a book that better describes the different ways to be a woman. avery's experience as an older sister also pushed me to look inwards on my own desires and subconsious pulls.

i would recommend this book to any woman in my life or anyone who has siblings and a family they care about with a story about grief, duty and love. as nicky would have said, i love you too without the too.

Ashna Nirula

so so so good - one of my favourites from this year. this book was such a testament to the strength of sisterhood and womanhood, articulated through some of the most relatable but beautiful writing ive ever read. the writing and story was so good i actually want to go back and highlight my favourite lines and re-read it.

the prologue hooked me in right away with its unique and refreshing descriptions of the four beautiful sisters. i love the imagination pored into each of their very different essences but how they accommodate each other like plants sharing the same soil. there were so many parallels i was able to relate to in my own sisterly relationship but seriously ive never read a book that better describes the different ways to be a woman. avery's experience as an older sister also pushed me to look inwards on my own desires and subconsious pulls.

i would recommend this book to any woman in my life or anyone who has siblings and a family they care about with a story about grief, duty and love. as nicky would have said, i love you too without the too.

Easy to read, a story I haven’t read before. I very much enjoyed, was immediately compelled by all the characters. 

hessensitive

Hoping for the sticky glamour of Cleopatra & Frankenstein but this fell short. The heaviness of the sister's grief came across but this almost made it even harder to read with the characters feeling so surface level. Loved scene at the end with Avery and her mum though.

g.m.

The Blue sisters have always been exceptional – and exceptionally different.

Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London, is the typical eldest daughter, though she’s hiding a secret that could undo her perfect life forever.

Bonnie was a boxer but, following a devastating defeat, she’s been working as a bouncer in LA – until a reckless act one night threatens to drive her out of the city.

And Lucky, the rebellious youngest, is a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her.

Then there was Nicky, the beloved fourth sister, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling.

When, a year later, the three of them must reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home, they find that it’s only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak and learn to fall in love with life again

Absolutely loved this. The most beautiful read of the year yet! 

Aims

grief. sisterhood. haunting. addictions. imperfections. coco mellors, the writer you are. 

Phu Le Ngo &
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

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Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors