Review: The Good Sister by Jess Ryder

Two sisters. One secret… A lie that could destroy them both.

When her father dies, Josie is devastated to uncover he led a secret life: another house, another family and a half-sister called Valentina.

Both with red hair and icy blue eyes, Josie and Valentina could be mistaken for twins. But the similarities end there…

Josie – Sweet, reserved, jealous, thief.
Valentina – Care-free, confident, dangerous, liar.

Two sisters. One survivor.

A nail-bitingly tense and unputdownable read that will keep you turning pages into the night. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train and Sister.

“My father is dead and my sister has been born. How fucking depressing and amazing is that?”

The Good Sister starts with Jerry Macauliffe, a professor dying in a motorcycle accident. This devastates his daughter Josie and wife Helen. Josie, who was very close to her father wants to understand more of his life in Manchester, where he spent most of his time away from home. In this process, she discovers her half-sister, Valentina who has literally been leading a life in Manchester parallel to hers’ in London, as Jerry’s other daughter. What is more interesting? They are mirror images of each other – long lost twins. And mind you, in this story’s setting, that’s bad, bad news.

Valentina is Josie’s antithesis; Josie is sweet, soft and perfect where Valentine is bold, rash and broken. Josie decides to hide his other family from her mother as she fears it would break her. Valentina shortly moves near Josie in London and they start spending more time together. Josie is repeatedly warned by her Uncle and boyfriend, Arun to stay away from her and that she’s bad news – but of course, curious (and angry) Josie doesn’t listen.

Josie and Valentina narrate the story alternatively, which made reading the book more unsettling – it took a while to realize who was narrating. It is well understood why the author chose this way of narration towards the end when it is a real struggle to guess who the narrator is. As a reader, I loved reveling in the suspense as I hung over the edge, cursing Josie as she ruined her life making one bad decision after another and hungrily devouring more of the book hoping to get answers.

As we struggle to understand which among the two is the good sister, more secrets are uncovered and more details about Valentina’s past are revealed. Every detail finally makes sense in the last couple of chapters and I couldn’t put the book down until then. I loved this book, the pace at which the details are revealed and the emotions I felt while reading the book. Great read!

*Received Kindle Edition from NetGalley and Bookouture in return for an honest review.*

Rating:

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Have you read any good psychological thrillers lately?

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