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The Sister | 
 enlarge | Author: Poppy Adams
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $4.30
You Save: $19.65 (82%)
New (46) Used (45) Collectible (1) from $3.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 45802
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307268160
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780307268167
ASIN: 0307268160
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New!!! bce
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Product Description
“This lyrical and haunting story of two sisters, their troubling past, and the terrible secrets they each want buried will stay with you long after you close the book.”
—Harlan Coben
“The Sister is a taut, tense tale of the ties that bind—sometimes a little too tightly.”
—Karin Slaughter
From her lookout in the crumbling mansion that was her childhood home, Ginny watches and waits for her younger sister to arrive. Vivien has not set foot in the house since she left nearly fifty years ago; the reclusive Ginny has rarely ventured out, retreating into the precise routines that define her days, carrying on her father’s solitary work studying moths.
As the sisters revisit their shared past, they realize that their recollections differ in essential and unsettling ways. Before long, the deeply buried resentments that have shaped both their lives rise to the surface, and Vivien’s presence threatens to disrupt Ginny’s carefully ordered world.
Told in Ginny’s unforgettable voice, this subtle and chilling debut novel tells an extraordinary story of how families are capable of undoing themselves—especially in the name of love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Knopf Does It Again November 5, 2008
A beautifully written page-turner. Also, a great first novel, as opposed to a clunker like "The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle", which has been uber-hyped, yet in fact is bland and over-written. "The Sister" has great characters, unforeseen twists, is fun to read-- and it's literature to boot!
 Good start, but. . . October 24, 2008
Ginny Stone has lived alone in the family mansion for decades, and her sister is returning for reasons unknown. . .
It's the perfect gothic setup, and the character of Ginny is somewhat fascinating at first. Other reviewers have puzzled at the flat and emotionless affect of the character, I "decided" early on that Ginny had Aspberger's Syndrome, a form of autism. I've read enough about Aspberger's that Ginny's various tics and peculiarities slotted into what I've read about the syndrome.
Unfortunately, that's not the sort of character that one can identify with, and this is a first-person tale. The other characters are little more than cutouts. The only thing that lifts this above the usual "someone's coming home to spill the family secrets" is the lepidoptery. I'm a fan of butterflies and moths, yet is was an over-used crutch, filling in what turned out to be too many gaps.
This would have been far better and creepier (in my opinion) as a shorter work. Rattling around in the head of Ginny for 300 or so pages became tedious because she was predictable as part of her nature. I knew what was going to happen a good 100 pages from the end. In fact, I knew from the moment Viv returned that a large portion of the plot would revolve around (something I don't want to spoil).
That said, I still give it 3 stars, because this is a debut novel. There's enough there that I'd like to see what Poppy Adams does next.
A wonderful, chilling tale. October 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are interested in action/adventure, this is not the book for you. However, if you are interested in a beautifully written story with a chilling ending, you should read this book.
In her debut novel, Poppy Adams has chosen as her narrator, Virginia "Ginny" Stone, seventy years old and obviously unbalanced. Ginny, a former lepidopterist, lives alone in crumbling Bulburrow Court, a mansion that has been in the family for two hundred years. Her only sister, Vivien, left for London fifty years ago; her mother died from an accident some years ago and her father died from dementia in a nursing home. Ginny's insular world is thrown into a state of panic when her sister, Vivien, decides to return to Bulburrow Court to live, a decision that leads to a chilling, haunting ending.
Some people may find the book slow, but I loved the pace and the incredible attention to detail, especially all the wonderfully researched facts about moths.
Not sorry I read it, but October 8, 2008
I can't say I would recommend it to my friends. It took me a while to get into it .... then I found myself skimming some of the text about the moths (although I did find some of it quite interesting, too). All in all I thought it was a decent read and the last 1/3 was actually good, if not, creepy and sad. I think it would be a good book to discuss for a book club because I'm sure there would be lots of different thoughts. The one question I wanted answered (as did the sister) was WHY did Vivi come back after all those years??? Guess we will never know.
Beautiful Book but the ending.....? October 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I became totally engrossed in this book. Poppy Adams writes beautifully and I was totally hooked on the characters. However, I found the end bizarre and totally disconnected to the story. It came out of left field for me and didn't flow with the story. I guess I was expecting something a little more poetic....I would probably pick it up again in the future though. I came to love the sad and beautiful manor house.
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