Soeurs

by Daisy Johnson

" Soeurs, encore un chef-d'oeuvre de Daisy Johnson". Elle Juillet a une soeur de dix mois son aînée, Septembre. Elles sont inséparables. Mais Septembre peut se montrer terrifiante. Elle pousse Juillet à faire des choses qu'elle ne veut pas. Et, comme hypnotisée par le regard noir de sa soeur, Juillet obéit. Depuis "l'incident" , tout a changé. Elles ont dû déménager loin d'Oxford avec leur mère Sheela, écrivaine pour enfants, dans une vieille maison au bord de la mer, qui, si l'on tend bien l'oreille, semble animée d'une vie propre.
Le sommeil y est impossible et les rêves sans fin. L'atmosphère devient brumeuse et étouffante pour Juillet. Tandis que les deux adolescentes font leurs premiers pas dans le monde du désir et de la sexualité, un vent de violence se lève. A mesure que le lecteur remonte le fil jusqu'à ce fameux incident, l'auteure fait germer une cruelle pensée dans la tête du lecteur : et si Juillet n'obéissait finalement qu'à elle-même ? Daisy Johnson nous plonge dans un univers gothique, âpre et ardent où explose la fureur de l'adolescence.
Traduit de l'anglais par Laetitia Devaux

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Gothic

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2020

About the author

The author of Sisters (2020) Everything Under (2018) and Fen (2016).

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Everything Under, her debut novel.

Winner of the Edgehill prize for Fen.

She has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award and the New Angle Award for East Anglian writing. She was the winner of the Edge Hill award for a collection of short stories and the AM Heath Prize.

Reviews for Fen:

"Within these magical, ingenious stories lies all of the angst, horror and beauty of adolescence. A brilliant achievement." (Evie Wyld)

"There is big, dangerous vitality herein - this book marks the emergence of a great, stomping, wall-knocking talent" (Kevin Barry)

"Reading the stories brought the sense of being trapped in a room, slowly, but very surely, filling up with water. You think: this can't be happening. Meanwhile, hold your breath against the certainty it surely is. " Cynan Jones

"I've been working my way slowly through Fen and not wanting it to end - Daisy marries realism to the uncanny so well that the strangest turnings ring as truth. The echoes between stories give the collection a wonderfully satisfying cohesion, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I cannot wait to see what she does next." (Sara Taylor, author of The Shore)


Reviews for Everything Under:

"Everything Under grabbed me from the first page and wouldn’t let me go. To read Daisy Johnson is to have that rare feeling of meeting an author you’ll read for the rest of your life." (Evie Wyld)

"Surprising, gorgeously written, and profoundly unsettling, this genderfluid retelling of Oedipus Rex will sink into your bones and stay there." (Carmen Maria Machado)

"Daisy Johnson is a genius." (Jeff VanderMeer)

"Hypnotic, disquieting and thrilling. A concoction of folklore, identity and belonging which sinks its fangs into the heart of you." (Irenosen Okojie)

"Everything Under seeped through to my bones. Reaching new depths hinted at in Fen, language and landscape turn strange, full of creeping horror and beauty. It is precise in its terror, and its tenderness. An ancient myth masterfully remade for our uncertain times. " (Kiran Millwood Hargrave)

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew something extraordinary will come out when I see the hypnotizing, twisty, terrifying, complex cover reminded you of cubist portraits.
Wow! I’m taking a few breaths to gather my senses and thoughts. This is truly mind blowing, stimulating, confusing experience.

Another book which rips your heart from your chest and fries your entire brain cells and then leaves you with shocked expression on your face.

Keep breathing, dry your sweat and tears! This is not one of your classic readings. You may feel drain, lost, emotionally exhausted during your reading journey. The creepy, cryptic, tight bond of two sisters, their uniqueness, devotion, strange ways to prove their loyalties, completing each other as a person and their artistic mother who suffers from psychological disorders, neglecting them to live her pain, grief, anger, resentment selfishly create a heart wrenching but also weirdly disturbing, terrifying, sick dysfunctional family portrait.

Hands down, this is one of the most intriguing stories I’ve read this year. The characters haunt you from the beginning with their quirky, strange relationship patterns. You’re dragged into sisters’ mad, scary, dark world like a moth to flame. You feel upset, sad and confused but you cannot stop to read because you’re already connected with them and you want to know more about their mysterious story.

Two sisters: July and September. They were born 10 months apart. July is introverted, shy, naive, people pleaser, flexible, emotional as September is volatile, straightforward, intimidating ,controlling, wild, manipulative.They’re like ying and yang. July does anything to please her sister even though it will end up hurting herself.

Now they’re teenagers and July’s fragility attracts mean girls’ attention at school. September is so adamant to stop those girls and sisters summon them to meet at the tennis courts. There’s something happens there which forces the girls leave their lives in Oxford and move to Settle House ( their aunt’s house located near the North York Moors), a dark, claustrophobic, abandoned, dilapidated place where sisters create their own world with their games, daily routines to spend time when they’re trapped in the place, feeding themselves with the cans they find at the cellar as their mother locks herself in her room and leaves the place at the middle of the night not to meet with the girls at the corridors.

The girls might have done something that cannot be changed to deserve this kind of punishment. But what have they done? And what will happen to them?

September gets more violent, threatening at each day as July slowly breaks into pieces mentally and physically.

Get ready to join this dark, dazzling, outstanding, stimulating journey of the sisters!
But don’t say I didn’t warn you: this is one of the stories will haunt you for months and your mind will keep going there to think about the sisters and you keep sighing several times till another mind blowing story makes you its captive.

It’s one of the books deserve entire stars of the galaxy but unfortunately I can only give five stars!

This is purely brilliant, impeccably written and one of the best books of the year!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover of this book is EVERYTHING!!! And it couldn't be more fitting for this slim mind fuck of a novel.

July and September are sisters and best of friends. They don't need or require anything from anyone else but each other. The book begins with them moving to an isolated house with their depressed single mother after something sinister transpired between the girls back in their hometown.

"This the year something else is the terror."

I can say no more plot wise.

This book cast its spell on me. It was hypnotic and hallucinatory and gave me that surreal mind bending experience that I absolutely love. Celeste Ng described this book as "weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling" and she couldn't be more spot on in her description. Daisy Johnson has impeccable writing skills and she uses words in the most glorious of ways. Let's just say I'll drink her Kool-aid any day. 5 stars!

Thank you to Edelweiss and Riverhead Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[MarilynW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published August 25th 2020

July and September are sisters, born ten months apart but so intertwined in all they think and do that it's as if they are closer than even identical twins. July, younger than September, looks like her dark haired mother, while September is fair like her late father. The girls have always been in a world to themselves, not even seeming to need their mother. They've always looked and acted younger than their age, seem very naive and unaware of the world around them, not fitting in with others but not caring to fit in. 

September has an extremely mean streak to her, verbally abusing her mother and sister and physically abusing her sister, just like her father used to abuse their mother. Still, July would do anything for September, anything at all, despite sometimes wondering what her life could be like if she had never had a sister. Their mother knows her two girls are different, troubled, and not quite right but she suffers from severe depression and can barely help herself, so has no strength to help the girls. 

We know something isn't right from the beginning of the story. Something bad has happened, maybe several bad things. At no time did I feel comfortable with this book because there is a strong sense of dread, darkness, and despair, as the girls and their mother have just arrived at a rundown, desolate, beach house, to get away from whatever happened at the girls' school. I can't say more without giving things away but the scattered, troubled, sometimes incoherent narration of the story never let me settle down into it. I think the author achieved her goal with this dysfunctional story.

Thank you to Riverhead Books/Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss for this ARC. 

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book written by someone very talented indeed (see: youngest person to ever be shortlisted for the Man Booker prize). Daisy Johnson wrote a book that holds interest, is easily consumed, and pulls you along with a very delicious looking carrot at the end of a stick. But (and I'm sorry, there's a but) something about this didn't quite work for me.

I felt the spectre of the author looming above the pages. Little puppet strings dancing. I felt her amusing herself with bits of pretentious writing and a gimmicky plot twist.

Really, I can't say much in this review about plot because I have no desire to spoil anything. Let's just say that the book is about a very complicated, co-dependent relationship between two sisters, September and July (already, are you seeing what I meant by pretentious?).

Everything's terribly mysterious. We don't know much, but we do know (through a narrator who seems distinctly unreliable) the two months and their mother, February - okay, I'm kidding, her name is Sheela - have moved to a miserable, ramshackle house after something horrible has happened. We have to wait to find out what that horrible thing is, of course.

I had a foreboding feeling early on what that might be - and I worried. Worried it might feel gimmicky, might be too Fight-Clubby, a lesser version of I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Turns out I was right, and it DID feel gimmicky, like the author was playing with her readers a bit, having a grand time. And I felt mixed, because while I didn't like that whole puppeteer bit, I did sort of admire the truth of the ending, and Ms. Johnson is an excellent writer even if she does veer into grating pretension here and there ("...there were months when she told us she was living in a sadness the color of rust and leather." Really, she told you that, did she? "sleep is heavy, without corners" - what does that even mean?).

So, here I am, with my 3 star review of a book you likely won't want to put down. Make of it what you will!

[Roman Clodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear, I'm fully expecting to be an outlier here: I didn't like Everything Under but was curious to give Johnson another try with this book: but nope, sorry, she just isn't a writer I can get along with.

I'm sure mine will be a minority opinion but for what it's worth I disliked the prose which often feels pretentious and sometimes plain meaningless: 'sleep is heavy, without corners', 'my insides are filled with bees', 'alarm grows in my bone marrow and swans up my throat'. It just grated constantly, as the author over-reaches to find a novel way to convey something immediately understood already by the reader.

Then there's the 'twist' which arrives with all the subtlety of a hammer-blow - it's crude, it's a staple of popular psychological thrillers, and it's not delivered with nuance. A book which is built on a tear-the-rug-from-under-the-reader's-feet structure carries the risk of some readers shrugging in a seen it before manner - I rolled my eyes: I mean seriously?.

The book is packed with issues symbiotic sisterhood tempered by competition, distant or lost parents, social media/sexual bullying, mental health, grief but they're skimmed over rather than treated with depth. For me this is superficial and shallow, stating the obvious and skimming all kinds of surfaces - but I expect many readers will disagree. Great cover, though!

Thanks to Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Q:
The last time we were in this house was the year I did not sleep. We came for a season. (c)

And that reason is not revealed until much later in the story. A ghost journey, a memory trip, a sibling rivalry and connection deeper than anything, a grieving mother, just a touch of mental illness, bullying, social media dependency & a touch of catfishing (maybe?). The plethora of meaningful tidbits is a giant plus.

The giant minus is that someone somewhere was trying too hard to pull off a JC Oates on me. And they didn't succeed at that. All those mid-though, half-sentence premature finished phrases of hers, jumping between different subjects all the time, both too short and too long phrases neighboring on the same page. Attention to all kinds of minuscule details… JC is usually managing to entangle the reader into a web she weaves with all of that. This one - nope. The end result is just inconsistent writing.

Everything else is a lot of giant minuses:
- Jagged delivery, this could not have been any more irritatingly written.
- A lot of meaningless chatter that clouded the text and made it unnecessarily obscure.
- This probably was supposed to be high lit. It wasn't, instead we got a text packed with strange stuff mixed into a giant mess. There wasn't enough structure to enjoy it. Maybe, this was supposed to be a poetic effort. Some of the tidbits I actually enjoyed. But things like these made me want to burn this book.
- The plot was unnecessarily foggy. Are the readers supposed to make up half the meaning for themselves? What we've got here: a ghost possession, a grief internalised, a case where a person deals with loss via reenacting the lost person's life, a schizophrenia onset, some people having hallucinations, etc etc etc? While I can do that, I think, it does not mean that I'd enjoy it.
- The most horrible things about this horror were the ugly cover and the style.
- The style was very much like Joyce Carol Oates' one (an influence?) but this novel did not quite pull it off like she does most of the time.
- Some phrases were unfortunately formulated:
Q:
Her feet tangling in the cord of her dressing gown and nearly felling her, grabbing the glass on her bedside table in case she needed a weapon. (c) Feet wielding her bedside table as a weapon? I'd like to see that.

So, the overall rating: 1 star.

The stuff destined to be burned:
Q:
There are crusts of moths growing and spiders in their wintry sacks. There are the bones of tiny animals in the foundations. There are nettles in the garden, their roots tangling labyrinthine in the dirt. Ursa fights her brother in the house and loses a fingernail beneath the kitchen counter, her teeth stained with blood. Sheela dreams of her unborn children in the house, sees them as tiny smudges of charcoal on the walls. When the house is empty—as it often is—the villagers sometimes break a window and drink in the low-ceilinged living room, drop their beer cans into the fireplace, conceive their own children in the beds, leave their footprints high up on the walls. Peter is a child turning his binoculars toward the sea, looking for drowning boats. Sheela is giving birth in the still bedroom, the house frozen around her, watchful as a child. Sheela and Peter are having sex in the bath, the water soaking the floor, Sheela’s fingers bent at an angle in his mouth. Peter and Ursa’s parents are having sex in the bedroom, the duvet pulled over their heads, the light filtered red. Sheela and Peter are fighting in the kitchen, a glass hits the wall and explodes outward, their eyes are closed, the glass is caught in the moment before breaking, Sheela is holding it in her hand, raising it up to drink. The house is straining to see down to the beach, where September and July are up to their waists in the sea, the fire on their faces. (c)

The bit I almost dismissed as some sort of crazy dream everyone shared (spoiler red alert!):
Q:
She goes into the tennis court and kicks at the deep water, throwing it upward so that it seems to hang frozen for a moment in the fizzing beam from the floodlight and then falls back. There is a noise like wood breaking and I look up.
★ ★ ★
The rain is pelting down and the trees are swaying, beaten, around us, and above—
★ ★ ★
above there is the shudder of imminent movement. One of the trees on the far side of the court, just beside the fence, is shifting, its roots emerging from the earth as if it might walk away from that place. September is laughing and laughing, her blond head tipped back, her mouth open. I shout her name, September, watch out. She turns toward me. The tree—
★ ★ ★
falls silently, sideways, and into the largest of the floodlights, which is heaved unceremoniously from the ground, the squeal of loosening metal, the tree’s trailing, dying body bringing the floodlight crashing down through the old fence into the water on the court, which for a moment is illuminated, charged with—
light. There is the smell of dampened fire, smoke. Someone is shouting. September’s body is bent backward by some force that only later I will know is electricity. And I am trying to run forward but the shed is buckling around me, the walls caving in, and I am trapped and someone is shouting and shouting and it is—
★ ★ ★
someone is shouting—
★ ★ ★
and it is me.

Bits I loved:
Q:
This the house we have come to. This the house we have left to find. (c)
Q:
How could it be that one moment you knew nothing and the next you knew everything? (c)
Q:
That was the day I promised her everything a person could promise. (c)
Q:
Do you feel like you’ve been in space and only just come down? I say.
Sure, she says; yes. All the time. (c)
Q:
If brains are houses with many rooms then I live in the basement. (c)

[Anna Bartłomiejczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nieodkładalna doskonała moja do szpiku kości. Zazdroszczę Daisy Johnson, że ją napisała, bo sama chciałabym ją napisać.

[Ceecee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent novel is the story of sisters September and July and their mother Sheela. The girls are so entwined it’s hard to know where one starts and the other ends. Following an incident in Oxford they go to Settle House near the coast of the North York Moors and what happens there is emotional, powerful and full of intriguing questions. The story is principally told by the two sisters.

This story is beautifully written and full of atmosphere provided mostly by the house. To Sheela the house is a living organism as it’s somewhat creaky, it has cracks and flaws which sums up her disastrous relationship with the girls father Peter who died several years ago. The girls personalities come across strongly, September is disruptive and dominant but she fills the gaps in Julys more fearful personality with the two making a whole. It’s like the girls are pieces of a jigsaw that fit together and conjoin. The girls are both outsiders but it’s bothers September less and she copes better than July.

There are many themes in this story - there’s destruction which is symbolised by Sheela and Peter’s relationship; there’s isolation which is what happens to the girls at school but also both girls isolate Sheela as they don’t need her like they need each other. There’s control - September of July and their mother and there’s also grief and sadness. The end is extremely overwhelming in its power and it’s also unexpected.

Overall, I love this beautiful and very different story. At times it’s a bit weird and you don’t see the big picture until the end which I really like. The cover is stunning and a terrific reflection of the story. Just noticed the above isn’t the cover of the book I read??? That was way better than this one!! Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for the ARC.

[Henk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Identity, codependency and grief packaged in an addictive read. Oddly reminiscent to Stephen King his work
I am not a person without her.

July and September are two sisters moving into an eerie home with their mom, after some incident happened in Oxford. There are shifty memories, one chapter the sisters download stuff and listen to an album and a later chapter someone is repairing the internet so that they can download stuff and listen to an album. Settle house, that seems ghostlike and unfamiliar at first but later on is mentioned as the birth house, plays all the tropes of a creepy mansion.
We have some indication of something being off, multiple personalities style like, with people saying "you" when both sisters show up.
This while September is the much more active and forceful sister compared to July who narrates the book. September mirrors an absent abusive father in an all controlling, sadistic, energetic childlike manner. Quite disturbing.
Also we have some brief sections from the perspective of their mother Sheela, who isn't doing all right either (I wondered, in that moment, what it was like to be a mother to children who did not need you) and who is called an ever present absence by the New York Times in a review.

Creepy children games, cyberbullying, some shoplifting and kind of supernatural sibling sensing each other’s thoughts are thrown into the mix in a suspenseful manner by Daisy Johnson.
In terms of feeling Sisters reminded me a lot of I'm Thinking of Ending Things and the Under the Skin movie (didn't read that book yet). And surprisingly, or maybe due to the horror tropes put to use by Daisy Johnson, I almost felt like I was reading a Stephen King book at times.

In the end we have a fever dream scene, with almost a Dali like moving into full on psychosis (Something is screaming in the wall) and thoughts about depression and medication.
I found Sisters to be an addictive read: I finished the book in two sessions.
The language is quite plain but effective and the underlying themes of identity, codependency and grief are interesting.
Glimmers of hope, but no sweet escape are offered in the end, and this book proves once again that the biggest things to fear are in one's head.

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

As she has already proven with Everything Under, Daisy Johnson is simply a master when it comes to evoking an enchanting, haunting atmosphere and subtly portraying complicated family relationships. In her sophomore novel which can be read as a family tale, but also as a gothic, if not even a ghost story, the focus is on an almost symbiotic pair of sisters and on another major theme which only becomes clear after a major twist - you think you see it coming, but then it turns out to be not quite what you expected. Our teenage protagonists September and July are born only ten months apart, and with their Danish father Peter dead, their mother Sheela, a writer with Indian roots, raises them by herself in Oxford. When July is severely bullied in school, September attempts to retaliate, and tragedy ensues - as the family moves to a remote house in the North York Moors, they try to come to terms with what happened.

Johnson works with a strong sense of place: While the almost magical river determined the flow of Everything Under, it is the old house that functions as an additional protagonist in "Sisters". Much like Poe's House of Usher, the building seems to permeate the people and vice versa, while also representing mental states with its crumpling walls, decaying structures and onslaught of nature that tries to take back the space. In this novel, houses and people can be inhabited, they can offer shelter, but also disintegrate. And the house is not the only slightly twisted mirror image / doppelgaenger: The sisters are closely connected and reflect each other, but one resembles Sheela and one Peter. Sheela suffers from depression and is still struggling with Peter's death, although they had a complicated relationship (as, in some ways, do the siblings), and the writer also reflects images of her daughters in the books she creates.

And then there's the intricate portrayal of the multi-layered relationship between July and September, a connection that is full of love, but also marked by cruelty, manipulation and possessiveness. Johnson might have chosen a structure that is not always convincing when it comes to the composition of different parts and chapter breaks, but the narrative decision to offer the alternating viewpoints of July (in the first person) and that of Sheela (in the third person) effectively conveys shifting mental states of these unreliable narrators.

And for those of you who can't live on without knowing what the theme conveyed by the twist is, here are some clues hidden in spoiler tags: First I assumed it would be kind of this Fight Club , but turns out it's much closer to this Grief is the Thing with Feathers . All in all, Johnson's new novel doesn't disappoint, and I'm already more than excited to read whatever she will write next.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

devoured this in one sitting. the vibes were unmatched! witchy and moody and spoopy. really enjoyed the dramatization of sisterly bond, as well as the passages that introduced the mother's perspective/familial jealousy into the mix. though i am not the expert, i wouldn't necessarily categorize this as a thriller, but more of an exploration of familial dysfunction that's propelled by tension and uncertainty.

[frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

don’t piss me off

[Skyler Autumn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

Daisy Johnson reads to me like a slam poet that everyone seems to be taking very seriously and calling brilliant. And I feel like I’m coming in like Jonah Hill in Jump Street 2 thinking this is what it reads like:



Short sentences brisk and with an air of uncertainty mixed with meandering descriptions of mundane actions. It’s like Jesus, this woman has not found an overly descriptive narration she didn’t dive head first into. Every movement had to have an allegory tied to it nobody could make a simple arm gesture without their limb being compared to some aspect of Mother Nature. It's pretty when used occasionally and just kind of grating when used constantly.

It's almost as if Daisy Johnson wanted to throw enough pretty words at her readers to distract us from the fact that her story is pretty thin. This is my second book I've read from Daisy Johnson and I think we're going to have to part ways from here. To quote Schmidt from Jump Street 2 "Bop Boop Beep."

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published today - 13th August 2020.

She had always known that houses are bodies and that her body is a house in more ways than most. She had housed those beautiful daughters, hadn’t she, and she had housed depression all through her life like a smaller, weightier child, and she housed excitement and love and despair and in the Settle House she houses an unsettling worry that she finds difficult to shake, an exhaustion that smothers the days out of her.

I loved Daisy Johnson’s debut novel “Everything Under” (which lead to her being the youngest person shortlisted for the Booker Prize) – a novel I described as a literary novel of the liminal, language, leaving and legend.

And that in turn lead me to her first publication – the short story collection “Fen” which I described as thematically about “transitions; boundaries; sexuality; earth and mud; water, rivers, boats and barges; metamorphosis and shapeshifting; legend, English folklore and ancient magic, grounded in the landscape; language and the power of words.”

This is her third book and one which I think draws on a slightly different tradition than the Greek legend and English folklore of its two predecessors: horror novels and films.

In the Guardian’s Books That Made Me column, Johnson said her comfort read was “The Shining” ”give me a scary book and a long evening every day” and she has commented elsewhere on being born on Halloween and that ”I loved reading books where the everyday is inhabitated by the weird, where the normal becomes strange. Horror teaches us about suspense and tension, about the edges where belief can stretch and morph”

The book is about two very close sisters – July and her 10 month older sister September. They live with their mother Sheela (a writer of illustrated children’s stories based on fictional adventures of the sisters), their Danish father Peter having died some time after separating from their mother.

July and September are very close, but different in character, the fiercely tempered September is the domineering one (and seemingly with something of the most unattractive traits of her father’s character), July the misfit follower.

After some girls at their Oxford school trick July into sexting, a knife armed September plots a show down to teach the girls a lesson, and the repercussions lead to the girls leaving school and the family Oxford, retreating to an old and run-down coastal house “Settle House” in the North Yorkshire Moors. The house is now owned by Peter’s sister and is where Peter and later September were born.

The book opens with them arriving at the house, and we switch between a lengthy first party account form July and third party accounts from Sheela (with a brief section from the Settle House itself) including as the book progresses one which go back to examine the events in Oxford.

As July’s account progresses we become like her (and, despite its name, the House) increasingly unsettled as to what she is experiencing and what she is reading – and (as in Johnson’s quote above) the house itself as well as July’s senses start to stretch and morph at the edges and its probably more accurate to say that the weird is occasionally visited by the everyday (rather than vice versa).

This book is difficult to discuss further.

The eponymous sisters we are told “liked reading the twist in books first” – but by contrast Daisy Johnson herself has been reluctant to discuss the myth on which “Everything Under” is based (and has correctly queried reviews which mention it in the first few lines) and similarly the twist (or twists) in this book are integral to the experience of reading it.

What I can perhaps say is that what seems to be a satisfactory but (I felt) ultimately predictable and underwhelming resolution to the mystery (perhaps one I would expect to see more in a psychological holiday-read thriller and which briefly made me wonder if the book should have been marketed as “Girl Girl” rather than “Sisters” as a signal of its genre) takes a more emotional turn followed by a second and more satisfactory ending.

Overall I found this a very enjoyable book and further evidence of Johnson’s skills and abilities but at the same time slightly disappointing compared to what seemed to be the greater depth, fluidity and particularly engagement with legend and language of “Everything Under”. To a large extent however I think this reflects my almost complete disinterest in horror films and novels - so to draw me into a book steeped in that genre remains an achievement.

If there is a theme to this book I would describe it as occupancy and containment: the opening quote shows some of the relationships drawn between people and houses; we also have the close relationship between the sisters (is it symbiotic or ultimately parasitic); the way in which the characters of the two parents inhabit their children.

My thanks to Random House UK for an ARC via Net Galley.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

SISTERS by Daisy Johnson

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978059318...

Release Date: August 24th, 2021

General Genre: Literary, Psychological, Domestic Drama, Gothic Fiction

Sub-Genre/Themes: Coming-of-age, sisters, single mother, school bullies,

Writing Style: Multiple POVs, intimate, introspective, intricately plotted; detailed, emotionally complex, lyrical

What You Need to Know: I listened to the audiobook narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones & Anna Koval. Their British accents are everything. I can’t imagine reading this book without the framework of the accents and the way the dialog between the sisters felt like listening to a stage play. The tone of the writing presents as menacing and dreadful…you know something is going to happen, and you’re prepared for anything. I was utterly absorbed in this audiobook–I never wanted it to end.

My Reading Experience:
Two sisters, September and July are 10 months apart. They are fiercely loyal to each other and inseparable. The book is narrated by the younger, July. Her sister, September is the dominant one. Readers know something happened at their school and that their mother is running away to an isolated beach cottage. She has separated herself from the sisters and seems depressed. The dark, interior timeline moves backward and forward, randomly giving readers small glimpses; clues, into what has really happened.

First, this book is labeled as “Gothic fiction” and it does feel “gothic” but why? I needed to figure this out so I looked up elements of modern Gothic storytelling.
Mystery & Fear- check
Omens & Curses- check
Atmosphere & Setting- check (the girls are whisked away to a sleepy beach town by their mother after an event at school. The house has a whole vibe)
Supernatural & Paranormal Activity- check
Romance- check
Villain- open to interpretation
Emotional Distress- check
Nightmares- check
Anti-hero- open to interpretation
Damsel in Distress- check
Okay. Now I get it. And I’ve honestly never read a book this deeply intimate before. It’s as though you, the reader, are a fly on the wall observing the very private lives of this family. The sisters and the mother. Their behaviors and their dynamic that nobody on the outside would ever get to see. It feels almost like an invasion of privacy and you’re not sure what the author is going to reveal to you. It’s very unsettling, even if you’re not sure why. But there are clues…breadcrumbs…hints of what’s to come.
I had no idea what was waiting for me at the end of this novel and neither will you.

Final Recommendation: Absolutely beautiful writing, a unique storytelling style, and a strangely morose atmosphere envelop the reader completely. You will never forget sisters, September and July. A haunting, psychological, coming-of-age tour through situations and circumstances teen girls should never have to go through.

Comps: We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Wildling Sisters by Eve Chase, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides (but only in vibes) The Turnout by Megan Abbott (but only the sisterly vibes)

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Settle House is load bearing. Here is what it bears: Mum's endless sadness, September's fitful wrath, my quiet failure to ever do quite what anyone needs me to do, the seasons, the death of small animals in the scrublands around it, and every word that we say in love or anger to one another." -- July, page 146

Sisters (which really could've / should've been titled September Says for how often that phrase was repeated in the text) was initially an atmospheric and claustrophobic drama focusing on 'Irish twin' teen siblings July and September, along with storybook-writing mother Sheela. As the story opens the trio appear to be moving into a 'new' home (technically, mum had lived in it years earlier) after fleeing some major drama at the girls' now-former school. The first 100 pages kept my interest . . .

. . . and then things unravel in the latter half of the book. A twist is revealed, but then it felt like the plot simply drifted away and lost its pulse. And that was kind of sad, as the book seemed promising with its intrigue, and there were some sections / chapters that were well-written. However, like at least one other reviewer noted this possibly would have been more effective as a short story and/or novella, rather than stretched to 200+ pages with lots of endless descriptions of food and drink.

[Emily B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t particularly enjoy this. However the last third or so saved it for me. Just a shame the rest wasn’t as good.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

July and September are sisters named after the month in which they were born, less than a year apart. September, the older of the two, seems to be the protector – the more dominant one. Something has happened at their school and their mother, Sheela, has packed them into a car and decamped to an old family house, miles away. We’re not yet sure what actually happened but it seems to have cast a shadow over everything. The relationship between the sisters is odd and the atmosphere is persistently dark and threatening. Sheela seems withdrawn and preoccupied and leaves the girls to their own devices. They explore and play strange games.

I’m not really a fan of psychological thrillers but I would say that this one is particularly well written and Daisy Johnson does a very good job of maintaining a sense of forward motion without giving away too many clues as to the twist we know must be coming. Eventually I did manage to guess part of what was going on, but not all of it. If you’re a fan of this kind of tale and you don’t mind being spooked out a bit then you’re probably in for a treat with this one. It’s relatively short, impactful and managed to leave me with the sense that it’s not beyond belief that the whole thing could actually play out in real life.

My thanks to Vintage and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Emily Coffee and Commentary · Rating 4 out of 5]

“My sister is a black hole my sister is a bricked-up window my sister is a house on fire my sister is a car crash my sister is a long night my sister is a battle my sister is here.”
🪞🩸
A breathtaking gothic horror that delves into codependency and the overpowering current of grief. With beguiling and increasingly unsettling prose, Sisters is a feat of subtle horror and the depiction of loss and resentment. It asks: is freedom worth solitude? What does it mean to love someone so deeply, so unwaveringly, that they embody your own identity? A wonderfully tense and disturbing novella.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this mostly on the strength of Johnson’s debut novel and did not really know what to expect from it. The blurb is intentionally vague and I was unprepared for how creepy this book was. I was hooked from the very beginning though, racing through this book breathlessly, torn between wanting to keep reading and dreading what was to come – that something is not quite right with September and July is obvious from the beginning. Johnson skillfully leads the reader through her labyrinthian narrative told from the perspective of July, the younger of the two sisters and the more quiet and withdrawn one, always in the shadow of her slightly older and domineering sister September. The sibling relationship is at the core of this novel (and I am always a fan of well-told sibling stories) and that it feels so real is one of the big strengths. Their relationship is creepy and obsessive, they are so close to each other that even their mother has no place in their vincinity. Parts told in third person from their mother’s perspective underscore how weirdly codependent the two sisters are. September often treats July abysmally, and Johnson leans into the inherent creepiness of children’s games when she has her teenaged main characters play them with an increasing escalation of violence.

After some tragedy the family leaves Oxford for a house by the ocean owned by their dead father’s sister; here the mother takes to her room and leaves her daughters to roam Settle House, which is just as unsettling as the name indicates. The tragedy in the wake of July being bullied at school is one of the central mysteries of the book as July does not seem to remember what exactly happened that made her mother abruptly leave Oxford and decide to live in a house she hates as it brings only bad memories of the abusive father of her children. July’s narration is often unclear and I early began wondering how reliable she was, as her mind seems to be fragmenting. The novel works best when Johnson plays with this unreality she invokes, when it isn’t at all clear what is happening. Her fragmented, allusion-rich prose coupled with her vivid and unsettling imagery mirror’s July’s mental state excellently. As such the ending, when things became more clear again, did not work for me as well as the parts that preceeded it. But even so, the pitch perfect prose and an impressively oppressive atmosphere made this a rewarding reading experience that I was nevertheless ultimately glad to be done with – this book gave me nightmares.

Content warnings: bullying, assault, revenge porn, vomit, underage drinking, blackouts, depression, spousal abuse, death of a loved one

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This was a potentially promising idea that was poorly executed. Two sisters, born ten months apart. September, the older one, is extremely domineering and reckless and at times sadistic. July, the younger sister, is meek and fearful and easy to manipulate.

When one personality is too strong and the other too compliant, it's almost inevitable that the one will consume the other, and they are so close as to be almost indistinguishable as separate entities. As July herself describes it: "When we were young, there had never really been anyone but September. I was an appendage. I was September's sister."

There were attempts by the author to make this atmospheric in a creepy way, but those attempts fell flat for me. I almost quit at about 70%, when July starts having experiences that seem like a bad acid trip. But the book is short, so I went ahead and finished it. There were a lot of little things that were left hanging, so the conclusion didn't feel satisfying. What the hell was the point of the problem with July's skin? I thought she was going to turn into a reptile!

In my opinion, this book is for teenagers, and should be marketed as such.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and interesting read, but one which is impossible to review comprehensively without spoilers. Its central characters are two sisters, September and July, who are not twins but were born less than a year apart in the months their names suggest, which puts them in the same school year.

Their mother is a writer of children's books, and their Danish father is dead. Most of the plot takes place in the Settle House, an atmospheric house owned by a paternal aunt on the Yorkshire coast. The plot is a little contrived, and has elements of horror and mystery but is mostly psychological. Perhaps not quite as striking as Johnson's debut novel Everything Under, but still impressive.

I am looking forward to the discussion next month in the Newest Literary Fiction group.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning, mosaic-like prose that weaves a dark, difficult tale of two English sisters who are much too close. This book won't be for everyone (some disturbing events, psychological manipulation) and the ending won't satisfy those who want neat, happy ones, but it's really a quiet little tour de force of literary imagination and execution.

I especially loved the setting, a crumbling moldy cottage near the shore that lives and breathes with the characters, mirroring the author's symbolism of women as houses for growing life.

And of course, a twist you won't see coming, even if you get clues something is not quite right. It was after all shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson award. For me, this was just as surreal as it was gothic.

Johnson deserves every bit of acclaim she's gotten.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two sisters, born ten-months-apart and with one favouring the mother and the other the father in looks. In every other way they are twins, with September, the bossy elder, demanding the younger July share Birthdays, clothes, a bed, a language, and their every thought. One is feared and the other is ridiculed. But not for much longer…

Sisters was a tale every bit as unsettling and eerie as the cover image. It was a bizarre and twisted story that ensured the reader was forever unaware of what was really occurring and what was a strange fever-dream-blend of reality and nightmare.

My issue with it stemmed from me guessing at the concluding twist early on in the narrative, as it is one I have encountered multiple times before, where sisters form the nexus of the narrative. All novels are, to some extent, an amalgamation of what came before but here, unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to separate this particular novel from its similar ancestors.

I did, however, find this a trippy and disturbing read, especially with the inclusion of Gothic elements, and the open-ended conclusion that appealed to me and suited the unsettling tone that featured throughout.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Daisy Johnson, and the publisher, Vintage, for this opportunity.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/



Okay, not really, but that’s a pretty good opening gif : )

At barely over 200 pages and the entire point of reading being to figure out WTF is going on, I’m going to keep the synopsis real brief. The story here is about a mother who moves her two daughters from Oxford to a family home out in the moors after an incident at their school came about due to a scandal involving . . . .



And that’s all I can give you without risking ruining everything. I will say that maybe I’m just ignorant, but my mind was 100% not going in the direction of that ending and also that I wasn’t really trying to figure anything out for well over half the book because I was so sucked into the storytelling. I will also say that I am a big fan of tales about . . . .



And it’s even better when the sisters in question are maybe more like . . . .



I’m giving this all the Stars. “Literary” stuff isn’t always my bag (see above re: me = ignoramus), but holy hell can Daisy Johnson deliver.

Oh and to prove that I can remember things (even if I did have to take a screengrab and put a reminder on my calendar in order not to forget) – I’ve been running through the fiction selections on this list . . . .



And it’s been a pretty decent experience.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of Daisy Johnson. Increasingly so and this is her latest novel (well, novella) and is suitably gothic and disturbing. The premise is a fairly simple one and as always with Johnson there is proximity to water. July and September are teenage sisters born only ten months apart and are closer than twins, almost seeming to know what each other are thinking. They live with their mother in Oxford. Their estranged (and abusive) father is dead.
The relationship between the two sisters is explored and is quite disturbing. They play a version of “Simon says”, now “September says” which often leads to July self-harming at her sister’s instruction. As July says “I was the puppet and had to do whatever she said”. The bond went back a long way:
“Sometimes I think I can remember the days when we were so small we slept in one cot, four hands twisting above our heads, seeing the world from exactly the same viewpoint,”
September was also July’s protector at school.
At the start the family is driving north from Oxford following an unspecified incident involving the two sisters at school. They are being lent somewhere to stay by their mother Sheela’s sister-in-law. It is on the North Yorkshire coast very close to the sea, Settle House. It is the house where September and their late father were born. The house is a little run down:
“rankled, bentoutashape, dirtyallover”
And becomes a character in itself in a rather gothic sort of way. Small things happen, like a light bulb shattering. As July notes, “I can feel all the rooms behind me”. The narrative is mainly told by July with couple of short passages narrated by Sheela, the mother. There is a pretty significant twist towards the end, which I think that most readers will guess.
One reviewer has referred to Johnson as the “demon offspring of Stephen King and Shirley Jackson”. Comparisons have certainly been made between this novel and Jackson’s “We have always lived in the Castle”. I think these comparisons are spurious as in this novel the characters lack the sense of entitlement of Jackson’s and there are no villagers to contend with. This certainly could be classed as horror as everything is fractured as we explore love and abuse. I’m trying to avoid spoilers (not easy in this case), but the prose is magnificent and it is fairly brief. It captures the power and danger of teenage emotions:
"My sister is a black hole. My sister is a tornado. My sister is the end of the line my sister is the locked door my sister is a shot in the dark. My sister is waiting for me."

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Best approached without reading any reviews in advance.*

The cover is quite perfect for this slim, uncomfortable novel, written in a somewhat stilted, unique style. As unsettling as I'm Thinking of Ending Things, but not nearly as good, this one checks all the boxes for a quick, strange story.

The writing is different, and I can't decide if it was just too much for me. It did have some beautiful lines, but I can see how the structure might lead others to label it pretentious or quirky. This is the type of thing I would usually love, but sadly I'm standing right on middle ground.
3.5 stars

[Tom Mooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb on the proof of this book compares it to Steven King and Shirley Jackson. What an insult. Neither of them are even fit to tie Daisy Johnson's shoelaces.

This is an incredible feat of literary suspense. Johnson has conjured a creepy, textured narrative in rich, earthy prose that sings like poetry.

I won't say much more - there are so many spoilers that would ruin what is a mesmerising reading experience. It's like an unholy combination of Max Porter and Chuck Palahniuk.

Creepy, painful and utterly gripping (I shirked duties to my children to finish it!). I hope this finds the audience - and the awards - that it deserves. It's fabulous.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed this for Sublime Horror. Read the full review here: Sisters by Daisy Johnson review – a confection of horror tropes rendered in poetic prose

---
(3.5) In Daisy Johnson's second novel, two sisters and their mother come to live in a creaky house on the coastal edge of the North York Moors. The sisters have always been uncannily in sync, but they are now in their mid-teens and their ultra-close relationship is beginning to come apart. They and their mother Sheela have run away from something, something that happened to the girls – or, perhaps, something they did – at their old school.

Both the girls and the house are saddled with deceptive names: the sisters, whose bond is twisted and cruel, are July and September; the house, which crumbles and shakes and shifts in strange ways, is the Settle House. Sisters is a book replete with hauntings – the house's surreal distortions are only the most obvious manifestation. The story twists and turns its way towards a series of revelations. (I had an idea about one of them from the beginning, but hadn't quite figured out the details, and the narrative – which switches between July and Sheela – kept me guessing.)

Sisters inevitably reminded me of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and also very much of Gordon Reece's Mice, a book I haven't thought about in years. It's quick, sharp and smart. There are a lot of common horror tropes here, but they're nicely whipped into an unusual confection, and I enjoyed the atmosphere and the glancing prose.

TinyLetter | Linktree

[Lavender · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am afraid I am in minority here. I did not like this book from the first sentence. I don’t understand what it is about the rave of Daisy Johnson’s prose. I just found it pretentious and very wishy-washy. There are so many words and sentence after sentence with unimportant stuff that you have to concentrate which sentence may be important for the plot. I felt like the author is throwing sand in my eyes so that I cannot see that she has nothing new to tell.

September and July are sisters. Only ten month apart, they have a very unhealthy relationship. Their mother is somehow not there. She is there physically but not mentally and so the sisters are living in their own world. I was wondering if there was something wrong with them, if they had some mental issues. The family is so weird and you get almost no real information. July is the main character and she seems to me like she was retarded in some way. But I am not sure. Something happens where there lived before they moved to this weird house where they live now. At the end there is this “twist” and we learn what happened and you can see this coming from afar and it really is not something new.

I just think that Daisy Johnson is not an author for me. I did not like her writing. I did not like the sisters and I did not like the story. I read this kind of story before and seen this kind of story before in a movie. There are a lot of books out there at the moment about unhealthy relationships between sisters. I think I need to stop reading them. It is just too much and they are repeating themselves.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review