I don’t know about the weird sisters, but it was definitely a weird narrative. The book was written from a collective retrospective first person. I was never any good at English so I’m sure there’s a proper word for that, but hopefully you know what I mean. Most of the time, the book seemed like it was in third person, but then occasionally there’d be an interruption from this collective entity of the three sisters. It took quite a while to get used to, but in the end I grew to quite like it, it felt kind of like a reminiscence.

The book (as you would probably have guessed) is about 3 sisters; Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia (aka Rose, Bean and Cordy). They’re from a small academic town (Barny) where their father is a professor specialising in Shakespeare (this is where their names come from, although I didn’t realise as I’ve never really read any shakespeare). There are quotes from Shakespeare interspersed throughout the book, which kind of made me want to read Shakespeare more.

Onto the three sisters; Rose is a homebody, never moved away from their hometown, and now caring for their mother who has cancer. The news that their mum has cancer is also a catalyst to bring the other two sisters home, although they both have other reasons to return. Cordy, a free spirited traveller, has discovered that she is pregnant, father unknown. She’s had enough of the travelling life and wants some stability for her and the baby. Bean, a New York socialite, has been fired from her job after they discovered she’d been stealing money from the company to fund her high-flying life.

At first, the sisters don’t talk to each other about their troubles, don’t even seem to like each other very much. But they grow closer over time, and Cordy and Bean find that home is just what they needed. They’d been pushing away the small town life of Barny for so long, but it helps to heal their troubles and move on. And their return frees up Rose to move to take the leap away from the comfortable security of the place she’s grown up and loved for so long.

After a shaky start while I got used to the narrative, I grew to love the sisters and the style of the book drew me in and made me turn the pages over and over to find out what would happen. I don’t think I can quite give it 5/5, but it’s a definite 4 for me.