I am the book marketer's dream because I so easily fall for shiny colors, fun fonts, quippy comments and snazzy stock photos. I have selected books for any number of reasons, but this is a first: I fell for the first line in the author's bio: "Abby Drake is a Mayflower descendant".
Of course I had to plop "The Secrets Sisters Keep" in my library bag.
Alas, there was no talk of John Alden, Myles Standish, or Remember Allerton (Don't know that last one? My daughter studied her this past year in third grade and will tell you all about her). No sly references to a plantation, Plymouth Rock or Thanksgiving. The author, Jean Stone writing as Abby Drake, is even a Massachusetts resident, but there were no allusions to the Bay State. This was just a straight up book about four sisters and the secrets and misunderstandings between them.
Now, I don't have a sister, but the literary world has led me to believe that there is something inherently different and special in the relationship between sisters ("My Sister's Keeper"; "Beezus and Ramona"), and that the more, the better ("Little Women"; "Pride and Prejudice"). My brother and I have had our share of secrets with each other*, but that can't compare to sisters.
So, I was ready to unlock the secrets of sisterhood, or at least debunk the myth a little. The story goes that the four sisters (Ellie, Amanda, Babe, and Carleen) are to be reunited after twenty years at the 75th birthday party of their uncle/benefactor, Edward. The youngest, Carleen, accidentally set fire to the family house as a teenager, resulting in the deaths of their parents and the ensuing wrath of her sisters. Despite being cleared by the courts, she is sent from the family by Uncle Edward and told to make a better life for herself elsewhere. Babe leaves for the West Coast, becoming a semi-famous actress. Ellie and Amanda lead fractured lives closer to home. Two decades later, they are brought together again.
As the secrets unfold, it becomes abundantly clear that this family has never been well. We learn that the sisters' failures are the same mistakes their parents made (and, in the weekend in which the story takes place, we watch the grandchildren repeat the cycle as well). I can usually find something in one of the main characters to like, but I grew tired of the selfishness, narcissism and just plain meanness of the characters. I hung on to one minor character, Ray, who, at the conclusion, holds the promise of redemption and renewal for one of the sisters-- and I desperately wanted him to run out of the book, away from these sisters who are bound to turn his life for the worse.
By the final pages, it's clear that this isn't really a book about secrets between sisters. It's secrets between adults, secrets that are kept regardless of the pain or harm they cause to children or other bystanders. It's a sad story of what happens when secrets become lies. The attempt to make a happy ending out of sharing the secrets felt, to me, just like putting a band aid on a surgical site. This just didn't work for me.
Lesson learned: Mayflower descendants don't necessarily tell the stories I want to read.
* That's obviously a lie. My brother is an open book, and I'm the one with a slightly translucent cover.
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