Sacrifices

The Bird Sisters

Rebecca Rasmussen

Fiction

This was a depressing book, and not in a good way (although I suppose there’s no such thing as a good depressing book). Nice characters deserving of a happy ending didn’t get to have one because of other characters’ selfish actions. But that’s true to life, I guess.

The Bird Sisters is about Twiss and Milly (Lord, I hate the name Twiss. Every time I read it I thought of a Twix bar). Fourteen and sixteen respectively, they live in a small town in Wisconsin and are upset about their parents’ separation. Dad has moved out to the barn and mom is pretending everything’s fine. Then cousin Bett comes to stay with them for the summer and their lives are thrown into chaos.

I loved Twiss and Milly, but I kind of hated everyone else. Well, not their mother. She was okay. But the father and Bett…no, thank you. Also, the structure of the story annoyed me. We had Twiss and Milly in present day as spinister sisters living together and fixing wounded birds and then they would start to remember that summer and boom! Back in time. It got quite confusing. But mainly I was pissed that neither Twiss nor Milly got to find love or have children. They were accepting of it, but I was still mad on their behalves.

I suppose I would recommend The Bird Sisters based on the good writing. But be prepared to be annoyed.