Review: The Story Sisters

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really, really liked this book. Alice Hoffman always does something special with her books - infuses a bit of magic or supernatural. And this is no exception, although the supernatural in this book is imagined by one of three sisters who is slowly descending into mental illness. While her exact diagnosis is never named, it seemed like schizophrenia to this armchair psychologist.

The story follows three sisters who are very close until the eldest becomes sick with some illness. They have a secret language and secret imaginary world that are harmless at first but become the center of the eldest's illness and delusions. While she copes with her illness and becomes dangerous and increasingly unhappy, her sisters and mother cope with her absence and its impact on the family.

All the characters were very well-developed in this book, which I appreciated. I also appreciated the skill with which Hoffman represented mental illness, not just as a set of familiar symptoms but as an imaginary world come true. While the denouement of the book was long and somewhat manufactured, the rest of it held my attention as a unique and masterful portrait of a girl in trouble, both from her perspective and that of her family.



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