A Tale of Two Sisters

The Deadly Sister by Elliot Schefer
Out of the two Goodwin sisters Abby has always had to cover for her younger sister Maya. The pattern continues when she finds Maya's cell phone on the riverbank next to the body of Jefferson Andrews, the most popular boy in school.

This book is a YA book, although I'm sure some will argue that some of its theme are a little mature for its audience. But drugs and promiscuity are unfortunately no stranger to most teens. If they're having to experience this growing up in the real world, why hide it in a book? Yes, it might be nice to sugarcoat things and show a perfect world, but that doesn't always give an accurate portrayal especially if you looking to read something that might resemble your actual life.

I did find Maya's & Abby's relationship really interesting. While I don't have a sister, I do still see similarities between their relationship and mine with my brother. It can be hard to see a younger sibling struggling and wanted to be able to help, even if it means doing things on their behalf that aren't necessarily right. Or on the other hand, it would be difficult to be the younger sibling of an overachieving sibling, and never feeling like you could live up to their accomplishments. The book is told completely from Abby's point of view, and while I don't think it lacks for its absence, I think it would have been interesting to see a scene to two to better understand what Maya is going through.

And then there's the ending. Let's just say I wasn't expecting this ending at all, although looking back I could see how the pieces added up. Part of me even wants to go back and reread it to see if I missed any clues and understand better how it ended up. About halfway through the book it picked up to the point I had to know how the clues would add up and the mystery would be solved, but again while twist was climatic, it wasn't the way I would have liked it to end.

As soon as I finished the book I felt that the ended made it almost a lesser book. But now that I've had time to think about it, I definitely think it improves it. With a different ending it wouldn't have been quite as memorable, but the way it's currently written it's hard to forget.

4/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I was not required to write a positive review. Nor was I even required to write any type of review. All opinions expressed are my own.