Review: 'Blood Sisters' by Jane Corry (2017)

Three little girls set off to school one sunny May morning.  Within an hour, one of them is dead.
Fifteen years later, Alison and Kitty are living separate lives. Kitty lives in a care home. She can't speak, and she has no memory of the accident that put her here, or her life before it.
Art teacher Alison looks fine on the surface. But the surface is a lie. When a job in a prison comes up she decides to take it - this is her chance to finally make things right.
But someone is watching Kitty and Alison. Someone who wants revenge for what happened that day.  And only another life will do...
As some of you might know by now (or might have guessed by the name of my blog): I do like my happy endings. It’s not that I run away from books with definite unhappy endings, but books without a lot of sadness and despair quite simply make me a happier person than books where one character after the other is killed or the main character can’t stop sharing his/her thoughts about what a horrible place the world is. That being said, I do try to keep an open mind when it comes to the books I review, so when I was invited to read and review Jane Corry’s thriller ‘Blood Sisters’ I decided it was once again time for me to move out of my comfort zone. I have to admit the story sounded quite intriguing, so I was curious to give it a go (while secretly still hoping for some kind of at least semi-happy ending…)!
After a horrible event in their past, in 1991 when they were just little girls, Alison and Kitty now lead completely separate lives, roughly sixteen years later. Alison works as an art teacher; when she gets the opportunity to teach art lessons in a prison, she decides to take the job, hoping it will somehow ease her mind about everything that has happened. Kitty, however, lives in a care home; she can no longer speak and has no memory of what happened all those years ago. But even though Alison might like to leave the past for what it is, circumstances won’t let her. Recent events bring Alison and Kitty back together, and it soon turns out there is an extra person in the picture, someone who is looking for revenge for what happened all those years ago…
‘Blood Sisters’ was my first Jane Corry read and one of the very few psychological thrillers I decided to pick up this year so far. Luckily I can say I’m glad I did, because the book definitely made an impression on me and I enjoyed it much more than I initially expected. The story is told from alternating perspectives of female characters Alison and Kitty; two completely different people. The main difference is that Kitty is mentally disabled, and looks at the world, and therefore also everything that happened to her and Alison in the past, in a completely different way. I think the author did a great job incorporating this in the story and it provided me, as reader, with the opportunity to learn more about this and also made me see things in a different light.
As with most psychological thrillers, the tension is clearly present in the novel, but it is well built-up throughout the story (perhaps a bit too slow-paced at times). It kept me guessing until the end, which is one thing I do like; not knowing what is going to happen and being surprised by the author. The story is filled with lies and good dialogue that had me captivated; and I personally also really liked the fact that the book consisted of relatively short and quick chapters. Jane Corry is a name I’m adding to my list of authors to read, especially because I’m curious to check another one of her works, hopefully soon. All in all, ‘Blood Sisters’ is a gripping, original and enthralling story focusing on the relationship between two sisters and how one single event can impact many lives for years to come… A big thank you to the publisher who provided me with a copy, since I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have checked out this book otherwise!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.