I absolutely love a thriller every now and then. They’re often the perfect palette cleanser between some of the more complex or longer books that I often enjoy to read. With a thriller, you’re getting something written very approachable, set in your own world, not featuring too many characters and a plot that’s easy enough to follow. Therefore, when I picked up The Sisters by Claire Douglas, I was looking forward to more of the same.
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The Sisters focuses on the story of Abi, Ben and Bea. Abi has moved into a house with Ben and Bea who are twins. Abi’s twin recently passed away which caused her to spiral into one of the darkest times of her life. Moving into the house with Ben and Bea is her hope of a new start. However, there are some oddities about this pair which Abi finds herself getting deeply embroiled in.
The Sisters plot – 3.5/5
My first thought after finishing The Sisters was that it should be called The Twins instead as it’s all focused around Abi and the death of her twin and what affect that has on the story and also Bea and Ben are twins as well. Anyway, outside of this I thought the whole plot of the book was a little flat. It lacked any real pace or excitement and I thought was quite predictable throughout.
It did manage to keep my attention throughout as Douglas shows off her talent for feeding you just enough intrigue to keep you wanting to know what was coming next.
However, it still lacked much uniqueness or oomph. The characters you thought were going to be shady did, in fact, end up being shady, and quite a few of the red herrings thrown in to make you think otherwise were then left a little baseless, so they felt a little confusing to add in.
The Sisters characters 3.5/5
In the thriller genre, you don’t tend to get characters that massively stand out. Thrillers are quite often about the fast-paced plot and this the characters simply serve as blank canvases to get you through this plot. Despite, the attempts to flesh them out with some personal conversations, I just didnt’ quite feel like there was enough meaningful dialogue between them to draw me in.
Additionally, the attempts to have them converse so much left my feeling like it didn’t leave much way for plot. Our main character Abi spent far too much of her time suspecting other characters instead of allowing any real genuine plot to flesh out.
The Sisters final rating – 3.5/5
An underwhelming thriller for me, The Sisters failed to be anything unique and to have characters that kept me deeply interested. Douglas is definitely a talented writer and I can see hints of why she’s gone on to be one of the biggest in the UK thriller genre game, but The Sisters just didn’t hit enough in the right places for me. The plot was too slow-paced for a thriller and there just wasn’t enough depth for it to be that memorable. I kept waiting for the moment when something interesting was going to happen, but it just unfortunately never really did.
