Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.

I have heard nothing but rave reviews about this book over the last few months, which made me super excited to read it. I don’t know if it was just a matter of the wrong book at the wrong time for me or what, but I wasn’t as blown away (or even as moved) as I expected to be.

The book focuses on three estranged siblings, Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky Blue, who are still grieving the loss of their sister, Nicky. When their mother alerts the sisters that she will be selling their New York apartment, it causes the sisters to come back together to the last place they all remembered being happy – or at least as happy as they could be while living with a distant mother and temperamental father.

From the very first chapter, Mellors draws readers into the intricate lives of the Blue sisters, providing a comprehensive understanding of who they are and setting the stage for the rest of the novel. Avery, the eldest and seemingly most responsible, is a successful lawyer, happily married, and trying to maintain a facade of normalcy while grappling with her past as a heroin addict. Once a fierce boxer, Bonnie is now working as a bouncer in LA and trying to block out the match that ended her career. And then there is Lucky, the youngest sister, who never graduated high school but instead became a famous supermodel who hides her pain behind the facade of a wild party girl. We also get a brief glimpse of Nicky, who we learn struggled with health problems that ultimately led to her untimely death.

After the prologue introduces us to the sisters, we get alternating chapters from Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky, looking at where they are now and how they got there. Eventually, the sisters reunite in their childhood home in New York, where they are finally forced to face the unresolved issues that have kept them apart for so long.

While I liked the novel, I didn’t love it, and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that this is a very heavy book, and it didn’t feel like there were any levels to it. It was just sad and depressing the entire way through. I like my books to have a range of emotions, and I felt that was really lacking here. We definitely feel the weight of the crap that has affected the sisters for most of their lives, but it almost became too much after a while. I wanted some lighter moments to help balance this out.

Another aspect that I felt could have enhanced the book was a few chapters from Nicky’s point of view. We definitely feel her absence, which makes sense because so do the sisters, but I felt the book would have benefitted from giving us a direct look into her life and what she was going through via letters or diary entries or something. As it stands, we only get third-person accounts from her sister’s perspectives about who Nicky was and what she struggled with.

Overall, I found this book to be just okay. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. The characters are definitely complex, and it is well-written; I just found it to be way too depressing. I don’t mind a sad book – in fact, I like a good tearjerker, but this one failed to make me feel much of anything – mostly because I felt it lacked levels. In my opinion, a few lighter moments could have helped give this one a little more depth.

Book Club/Book Box: