Truth Sister is the kind of novel you can consume within a few days. It’s fast-paced, atmospheric and full of infuriatingly corrupt characters that you will want to see punished from page one. If you liked Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, you’ll definitely enjoy this hard-hitting read. For want of a better cliché, Truth Sister is a genuine page turner.

We don't need men anymore. Breeding in the old way is seen as repugnant. Cloning will keep us pure. Clara was raised and educated to believe just that. Until she finds out that she isn't actually a Clone, herself.... Whilst the premise is an excellent one, the tone of the novel is one of long periods of intense peril with very little to shore it up in between. You feel like you've been a little indoctrinated by the Academy, because you find it hard to truly feel an emotional connection to the characters. And those you do are either killed off and have some kind of change of character that seems out of place. This could be great, it just needs more balanced pacing and a bit more love lavished on the characters.

In a World ruled by the women of the Republic, with men merely slaves to do their bidding, Clara must unravel the truth. And I think if the plot had been a little more unique surrounding this I might have really enjoyed it. But I encountered a few issues and tropes along the way that I just couldn't shake off.

Clara is a Truth Sister, training within an academy of women who want to learn to be the respectable citizens all girls should be according to the republic. She is not a nice character. In fact, she is portrayed as a snotty, overly particular suck up to the system she obeys. And part of me thought this was very clever, in fact part of me really enjoys a nasty character - she perfectly embodies what is to be a single cog in a very big wheel, and it isn't such a hard personality trait to believe; we've seen it throughout military history. What I found more difficult to understand was how she remained so naive and frustrating even once she begins to unravel some of the secrets of her life and doesn't quite shake off the institutionalised behaviour she has been forced to adopt. She remains predictable throughout.

That's just the thing really - this story is a massive trope. One girl will discover that the society she lives in isn't all it's cracked up to be and must solve the mystery and change the way people think. I would have enjoyed the overall concept of this book so much more if it hadn't been another corrupt government plot in a post apocalyptic world.

I also struggled with how this story was sometimes told through the characters rather than the world building. There are many, many wooden and overly obtuse conversations between characters - it felt like a really poor TV script. I prefer to be led in the right direction so I can discover things for myself, rather than reading deliberate over-telling of the plot.

Having said all of this, the story was a really quick read and I did find it to be quite a page turner once I became comfortable with Clara's personality. I think the author has made some really bold choices in this book, both with the plot and a difficult main character, and for the most part that worked. But not enough to carry another corrupt dystopian storyline.

It took me a while to engage fully with this story, and I feel the second half of the book is better than the first. This is an interesting albeit slightly frightening dystopian perspective on our world being dominated by women, to the point where cloning is supposedly more common than non-cloned humans. Or is it? This question wasn't fully answered, perhaps deliberately because there is definitely scope for this to become a series. There are also extremely disturbing genetically engineered humans, one of whom plays a fairly major part in the story, and again I would have liked to see more of this character.

Clara starts off as a really unpleasant protagonist – this is a brave move on the part of Gilvin, as many readers, me included, don’t particularly enjoy reading a first-person narrative by someone so priggish and judgemental. My advice would be to stick with her, though, as she becomes less close-minded and brainwashed once she leaves the Academy. There are a number of strong, well-written characters supporting her. I particularly liked Clara’s mother and their manservant, Jamie.

Increasingly, Clara begins to realise that the Republic is nothing like the idealised system she has been taught to love and defend and we are right with her as her beliefs become unravelled, along with her life as the fault lines in society start breaking down. I enjoyed the fact that this story is set in a post-apocalyptic England, where recognisable place names are clearly very different places. London, in particular, is in all sorts of trouble as the Thames Barrier is in danger of failing. I became caught up in Clara’s adventures and thoroughly enjoyed the twisting plot which presented many surprises along the way.

My one niggle is that the main antagonist is presented as something of a caricature who I found it difficult to take seriously. Despite being told how very frightening she was, she seemed too over the top and ridiculous in comparison to the sympathetic, nuanced characterisations throughout the rest of the story. Having said that, it wasn’t a dealbreaker and I have found myself thinking a lot about this book since I finished it. Recommended for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. While I obtained an arc of Truth Sister from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

I enjoyed this book - I liked the idea of a republic run by women and was interested to see the lengths some went to remove the need for men by employing tactics you would associate with men - how different are we really?

The need to regain knowledge through libraries was a lovely touch - the knowledge then condemned the leaders.

The book dealt with the themes of brain washing, compliance, freedom of thought and choice. Family, friendship and trust became key to the story and left some positive feeling with the reader in an otherwise quite bleak story.

I found it interesting if slow to read at times. I will recommend it but warn that it felt like a slow burner to me. I await part two.

3.5 stars

This was an interesting concept and I loved the world building - I do love a good dystopian sci fi. Where it fell down for me was that I just didn't really gel with the characters which was compounded by some strangely on the nose dialogue. It's quite a thinky novel that goes to some interestong places. I'm not sure if I completely agree but I enjoyed the journey.

I found the world the story was set in fascinating, and wanted to know a lot more about how it got there, and how it worked.
Unfortunately I found the main character rather one-dimensional and irritating, so didn't really enjoy the book.