Snow Sisters
By Carol Lovekin
Published by Honno Press (21 September 2017)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher.
Publisher's description
Two sisters, their
grandmother’s old house and Angharad... the girl who cannot leave.
Meredith discovers a dusty
sewing box in a disused attic. Once open the box releases the ghost of
Angharad, a Victorian child-woman with a horrific secret she must share.
Angharad slowly reveals her story to Meredith who fails to convince her more
pragmatic sister of the visitations, until Verity sees Angharad for herself on
the eve of an unseasonal April snowstorm.
Forced by her flighty mother
to abandon Gull House for London, Meredith struggles to settle, still haunted
by Angharad and her little red flannel hearts. This time, Verity is not sure
she will be able to save her...
Snow Sisters is a wonderful book, with beautiful writing and eerie and haunting prose.
This is a ghost story filled with magic. A story of relationships, mothers and daughters and family dynamics. A story with a mystery at its heart. It ticked so many boxes and I couldn't put it down.
Meredith and Verity have had a very unconventional upbringing. Home schooling, a dysfunctional mother and an absent father who they know little about , set in an isolated house filled with memories and ghosts. This highly atmospheric book is a gothic tale set in April, with snow clouds threatening overhead, bringing a sense of unease but also natural beauty.
It's an enchanting and addictive read filled with stunning descriptions of people and places. Descriptions that filled my heart and stimulated all of my senses, bringing people, nature and surroundings to life. So many passages that I wanted to read again and again, filled with amazing imagery that will stay with me.
The characterisation is outstanding, with several distinctive voices - Verity, Meredith, their mother Allegra (who is almost a ghost herself with her lack of empathy and her emotional distance from her daughters), grandmother Mared (the main female role model for the girls) and ghostly Angharad (who is determined to be heard - and then seen). No major male characters here - this is definitely a book about women.
The story itself is quirky, different and off-beat, with poetic writing. Although it is a ghost story, it feels very believable. Angharad seems as real as Meredith, Verity and the other characters. It is sad in places and pulled at my heartstrings and yes, I did shed a tear or two by the end.
Snow Sisters is a book that's so easy to get lost in. A perfect book for escapism on cold wintry nights. I highly recommend that people read it so that they can feel the magic too.
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