Sisterhood: The Anchor in Life’s Stormy Seas
In Coco Mellors’ sophomore novel, “Blue Sisters,” we’re plunged into the tumultuous world of the Blue sisters – Avery, Bonnie, Lucky, and the late Nicky. It’s a world where sisterhood is both a lifeline and a burden, where shared history binds as tightly as it chafes. Mellors, with her keen eye for family dynamics and razor-sharp prose, crafts a story that’s as much about the ties that bind us as it is about the desire to break free.
The novel opens a year after Nicky’s death, with the remaining sisters grappling with grief, addiction, and the looming sale of their childhood apartment. It’s a premise ripe with potential for melodrama, but Mellors sidesteps the maudlin, instead delivering a nuanced exploration of family, identity, and the ways we both run from and towards our pasts.
A Symphony of Voices: The Blue Sisters Come to Life
Mellors employs a rotating perspective, giving each sister her own distinct voice and chapter. It’s a risky move – multiple POVs can often feel disjointed or uneven – but Mellors pulls it off with aplomb. Each sister’s voice is so distinct, so fully realized, that you could open the book to any page and immediately know whose head you’re in.
Avery: The Eldest, The Responsible One
Avery, the recovering heroin addict turned corporate lawyer, is all sharp edges and barely contained anxiety. Her chapters crackle with tension as she struggles to maintain her hard-won stability while grappling with the weight of being the “responsible” sister. Mellors captures the constant vigilance of recovery beautifully, showing us how even years of sobriety can feel tenuous in the face of grief and family pressure.
Bonnie: The Fighter, The Protector
Bonnie, the former boxer, is a study in controlled power. Her sections are peppered with boxing metaphors that never feel forced, instead offering insight into how she views the world. There’s a quiet strength to Bonnie that’s incredibly compelling, and her journey from professional athlete to bouncer to… well, you’ll have to read to find out, is one of the novel’s most satisfying arcs.
Lucky: The Wild Child, The Lost One
And then there’s Lucky, the youngest, the model, and the party girl. Her chapters are a whirlwind of glitter and heartbreak, of reckless behavior and deep-seated insecurity. Mellors doesn’t shy away from the ugly sides of addiction, but she also doesn’t judge. Lucky’s struggle feels authentic and heart-wrenching, a reminder that even those who seem to have it all can be fighting internal battles we know nothing about.
The Ghost in the Room: Nicky’s Lingering Presence
Though Nicky is gone before the novel begins, her presence looms large over every page. Through memories, flashbacks, and the ways her absence has shaped her sisters, we come to know Nicky almost as well as the living characters. It’s a testament to Mellors’ skill that a character we never meet in the present becomes so vital to the story.
New York City: The Fifth Sister
The city itself becomes a character in “Blue Sisters,” its energy pulsing through every page. From the cramped Upper West Side apartment of their childhood to the glittering fashion world Lucky inhabits, Mellors paints a vivid picture of New York in all its gritty, glamorous glory. It’s a love letter to the city, warts and all, and adds another layer of richness to an already complex narrative.
The Art of Dialogue: Mellors’ Secret Weapon
One of the standout aspects of “Blue Sisters” is Mellors’ gift for dialogue. The banter between the sisters crackles with authenticity—it’s sharp, it’s funny, and it’s occasionally cruel in the way that only siblings can be. You can practically hear the voices jumping off the page. Take this exchange between Avery and Lucky:
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” crowed Lucky. “You don’t know Bonnie.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Avery.
“Stop it,” growled Bonnie.
“You want to know why she’s not training? Because she’s in love with Pavel and she’s too chickenshit to tell him, that’s why!”
It’s snappy, it’s loaded with subtext, and it tells us so much about their relationship in just a few lines. This is Mellors at her best, using dialogue not just to move the plot along, but to reveal character and deepen relationships.
Themes That Resonate: Identity, Addiction, and the Weight of Family Expectations
While “Blue Sisters” is, at its heart, a family drama, Mellors weaves in broader themes that give the novel depth and universality. The question of identity—who we are versus who our family thinks we are—is central to each sister’s journey. Avery grapples with her identity as the “responsible” one, Bonnie with her identity as an athlete, Lucky with her identity as… well, Lucky.
Addiction, too, is a thread that runs through the novel. It’s not just Lucky’s substance abuse or Avery’s past with heroin – it’s the way all the sisters are, in their own ways, addicted to patterns and behaviors that no longer serve them. Mellors handles this theme with sensitivity and nuance, never resorting to easy answers or moralistic judgments.
And then there’s the weight of family expectations. The Blue sisters, like so many of us, are caught between who they are and who their parents (and each other) expect them to be. It’s a universal struggle that Mellors explores with empathy and insight.
A Few Missteps: When Ambition Overreaches
For all its strengths, “Blue Sisters” isn’t without its flaws. At times, Mellors’ ambition outpaces her execution. Some subplots feel underdeveloped, particularly those involving the sisters’ parents. Their mother, in particular, feels like a missed opportunity – she flits in and out of the narrative without ever fully coming into focus.
There are also moments when the pacing falters, particularly in the middle sections. A few scenes drag on longer than necessary, and there’s a stretch where the plot seems to lose momentum. However, these are minor quibbles in an otherwise engrossing read.
The Verdict: A Triumphant Sophomore Novel
“Blue Sisters” is a leap forward from Mellors’ debut, “Cleopatra and Frankenstein.” Where that novel showed promise, this one delivers on it. It’s a more assured, more ambitious work that showcases Mellors’ growth as a writer.
Fans of Meg Wolitzer’s “The Interestings” or Claire Lombardo’s “The Most Fun We Ever Had” will find much to love here. Like those novels, “Blue Sisters” is a sprawling, emotionally rich exploration of family dynamics and the ways our childhoods shape us long into adulthood.
Mellors has crafted a novel that’s both intensely personal and broadly relatable. It’s a book about sisters, yes, but it’s also about the families we’re born into and the ones we choose, about the secrets we keep from others and the ones we keep from ourselves. It’s about the messy, complicated, beautiful business of being human.
In the end, “Blue Sisters” is like its protagonists – flawed, complex, and utterly captivating. It’s a novel that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page, leaving you thinking about your own family, your own choices, your own path to self-discovery. And isn’t that what great fiction is supposed to do?
