The Book Depository Sistersong by Lucy Holland
993 ratings
TO EXPLORE MORE
Price: £8.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Sistersong : Paperback : Pan Macmillan : 9781529039054 : 1529039053 : 28 Apr 2022 : In a magical ancient Britain, three siblings become entangled in a tale of treachery, love and murder. Lucy Holland's lyrical story retells 'The Two Sisters' for a modern audience. The Book Depository Sistersong by Lucy Holland - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9781529039054
MPN: 1529039053
GTIN: 9781529039054
Author: JW
Rating: 5
Review: I loved this book. I thought it was beautifully written, extremely accessible and gripping from the first page to the last. I really enjoyed the different viewpoints and thought the narrative wove seamlessly between the three siblings - in fact I couldn't pick just one who I was rooting for more than the others as I cared equally about all three. It was fascinating to see the three protagonists change and develop as the story progressed (can't say too much more without giving away spoilers!) The pacing was great, plenty of tension/action interspersed with moments of contemplation. I also love that this wasn't straight-up historical fiction, there's also a big chunk of fantasy and a bit of romance thrown in as well. That's not to downplay the historical aspect, the depiction of early Dumnonia feels as authentic as they come (I really want to use some of the words!) but this is novel which appeals to more than just historical readers. Beautifully done, I can't wait to read another! Now where are my shoon?
Author: R.
Rating: 2
Review: I hadn’t heard of the Twa Sisters folk song(s) so perhaps went into this naively, but as a fan of global folklore and novels focused around retellings I was intrigued by Sistersong. Whilst I did initially enjoy the first 1/3 of the book, I began to find the jumping between the sisters perspectives just halted and prolonged the narrative without much benefit. The characters introduced around them were barely more than caricatures, just foils for the three sisters who themselves had a lot of backstory and opinions about each other, but even their interactions increasingly began to feel hollow and only for the purposes of moving the story forward in the middle section of the book. I did think the character of Keyne was written interestingly, but as other reviews have said it also felt like the author could have gone deeper into the time this was set to contextualise how roles of gender and identity could have been formed and warped, as the way this played out felt rather shallow and ‘modern’. Also with the use of magic, we never really got into what this was like or how it could be used or grown, or why some had it outside of the royal family…it just made it feel half thought out and a bit surface level so wasn’t something as a reader I attached to. What ruined this book for me was the last third - nothing wrong with fantasy battle scenes but it just felt so out of place with the rest of the narrative and the characterisation of so many of the peripheral figures was so different to how they had been put forward earlier on. I also found parts of the end a bit disturbing, which I now understand to be from the folk tale, but it felt very weirdly brought in and justified within the larger narrative. If there had been more than a shallow definition and description of magic this may have landed better. All in all, underwhelming and lacking - part of the beauty of retellings is they add the colour and the meaning that the original tales have lost in todays world, but I felt this version didn’t really provide much more.
