Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors | Book Review

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Published by Fourth Estate in May, 2024

Genres: Adult Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Hardback

Add to Goodreads

Buy on Amazon

‘Blue Sisters’ is the second book from British American author Coco Mellors. Her first novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein (click here to buy) was, a massive success and, after reading Blue Sisters, it is easy to see why.

Synopsis

Three sisters: Avery, Bonnie and Lucky are recovering from the recent death of their youngest sister Nicky. Avery is a high-flying lawyer – why are all lawyers in fiction at the most prestigious companies and the best in their profession – and a former addict. She lives in London with her wife Chiti. Bonnie was a champion boxer who after losing a fight runs off to LA to become a bouncer at a bar. Finally, Lucky is a supermodel and a hard partying one at that. The surviving sisters join together to commemorate the first anniversary of their sister, Nicky’s, death. Their estranged mother wants to sell her old apartment, this brings up the pain of loss, the memories of childhood and how the bonds of sisterhood can be fraught but remain impermeable.

From the outside, the characters of the sisters do seem to be a little clichéd. They are all very successful, financially comfortable and white. However, I think this allows Mellors to focus on the inner conflicts of grieving very well. A major theme of this book is how we process grief over the loss of a sibling. The three women, who are beautifully written and layered, process their grief in different ways. For example, Lucky (which refers to her being born in a bathroom at home) turns to alcohol and drugs to escape her pain. Her binges and their effects are told in an unsympathetic manner. Instead of glamourising the hedonistic excess, Mellors instead shows the dissociation that can come with a quest for oblivion.

Bonnie, the professional boxer, with unrequited feelings for someone important in her life, abandons her promising career so that she can hide from the pain caused by the death of her sister. She provides a contrast to Lucky as she is teetotal but, in hiding, away from New York and her life there, she is equally chasing oblivion.

Finally, we have Avery who steals and smokes cigarettes in secret. Seemingly determined to destroy her life Avery feels an unbearable responsibility towards her sisters that weighs on her. I thought that Avery was the most interesting of the sisters and her journey – as well as a cathartic moment near the end – was engaging and brought the narrative together.

Structurally, the narratives switches character perspectives each chapter and it suits the narrative really well. Use of frequent flashbacks add more depth to the story and their lives up to the death of Nicky. In some ways, all three women idealised Nicky, their memories show this. The writing is beautiful in places and the story is paced perfectly. If I was more emotionally engaged with… well, everything, then this would have certainly engaged me. The more emotionally charged sections, such as confrontations between Avery and her sisters and with Chiti are told without histrionics which it could easily have fallen into.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and raced through it rather quickly. As an examination of grief, sisterhood, addiction and how our responsibilities to our family and ourselves change over time it was a powerful book. I would recommend the book, but I do not know if it is one that I will re-read. While, beautiful I didn’t find any of the characters or the narrative so engaging that I would return to it at a later date. That the sisters are all high flyers and accomplished in their chosen fields does mean that one is left thinking – yes, this sucks for them but they will be ok. Nicky, the dead sister, is the most ordinary of the four and her ordinariness is seen to be detrimental in comparison to her sisters. I thought the Blue Sister's parents were demonised and you didn't really get anything from their point of view. There is a conversation between Avery and her Mum which provides some insight into the Mum's side of things but not much. The father was also underutilised in my opinion. He is given a speech in a flashback which humanises him a little. Though he remains the drunken bogeyman. The sisters are also such a closed unit that they are impenetrable. I thought, in a flashback of a funeral, they just came across as rude.

These are minor quibbles I have with Blue Sister's that do not deter me from recommending it to others and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.