Two sisters, September and July, just 10 months apart in age but sticking together like twins, even more, just as if they were only one person. In Oxford, where they first lived with their mother, an author of children’s books featuring two girls just like her own daughters, they were always in trouble and didn’t make friends with the other kids. By moving to the old family house, their mother hopes things will get easier. However, the spooky surroundings with walls who could tell decades of dark stories, triggers something between the girls which makes their unhealthy bond even more dangerous for the younger and weaker of the two sisters.

Daisy Johnson portrays a sisterly connection which goes far beyond what is known to link siblings. The fact that the girls are born within only a couple of months makes them grow up and experience everything together. They are like one person separated incidentally, also their character seems to have split in the two: September the wild and furious one, July, in contrast, obedient and more thoughtful. Since she is younger, she easily gives in to her sister’s will and thus follows without ever challenging her.

The atmosphere is gloomy in every line. Right from the start, you sense that some catastrophe is looming and just waiting to present itself. Even though at times, the sisterly bond also seems to be protective, the negative impact is obvious. Their mother is detached, she suffers from a depression which makes it impossible for her to see what is coming, she senses that the relationship her daughters have formed in detrimental, even harmful for July, but she is unable to do something about it.

An intense and vivid narrative with quite some eerie notes.

Another book from Daisy Jones with phenomenal writing. It has great character, a lot of emotion and an interesting story of sisters.
Definitely recommended to literary fiction lovers.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Really enjoyed SISTERS. Daisy's writing is lyrical and gorgeous, and there was an eerieness to the book I found addictive. Also adore the cover, and appreciated the fact it wasn't a massively long read.

Following an incident at school, sisters July and September travel with their Mother from their home in Oxford, to The Settle House in Yorkshire.

The story builds, sometimes slowly, sometimes frantically, towards its climax, and what brought the sisters to where they are. The atmosphere is chilling, the house where they're staying taking on a life on its own, and the relationship between the sisters becoming more and more disturbing.

This is a perfect book for this time of year, haunting but not horror. It's a short read but I didn't want to race through it because Daisy Johnson just writes so well. I read her first novel Everything Under last year and it was beautifully written but I didn't like the story. This has both. An edge of your seat story as well as the brilliant writing. Totally recommend!

July and September are sisters named after the month in which they were born, less than a year apart. September, the older of the two, seems to be the protector – the more dominant one. Something has happened at their school and their mother, Sheela, has packed them into a car and decamped to an old family house, miles away. We’re not yet sure what actually happened but it seems to have cast a shadow over everything. The relationship between the sisters is odd and the atmosphere is persistently dark and threatening. Sheela seems withdrawn and preoccupied and leaves the girls to their own devices. They explore and play strange games.

I’m not really a fan of psychological thrillers but I would say that this one is particularly well written and Daisy Johnson does a very good job of maintaining a sense of forward motion without giving away too many clues as to the twist we know must be coming. Eventually I did manage to guess part of what was going on, but not all of it. If you’re a fan of this kind of tale and you don’t mind being spooked out a bit then you’re probably in for a treat with this one. It’s relatively short, impactful and managed to leave me with the sense that it’s not beyond belief that the whole thing could actually play out in real life.

Sisters September and July are born 10 months apart; are very close, even in the same school year group. Yet in almost every respect, they are opposites. Daring, dominant and powerful, the enigmatic September takes over her bullied younger sister’s life. July’s misery drives the girls with their dysfunctional mother Sheela to decamp from their Oxford home, to their abandoned house on the north coast.
But here, their tiny world becomes deeply unsettling; surreal, even. Freedom of any kind proves impossible as fears and uncertainty destroy any hope of peace for any of them.
Thank you #RandomHouse and #NetGalley for the chance to read this pre-release disturbing but very real presentation of sibling relationships.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I remember reading Johnson's Everything Under a couple of years ago and being very impressed (and jealous!) with the style and intensity of her prose, but this book is a step up. The narrative is satisfyingly twisty and, while I knew something was off about the relationship between September and July, I didn't predict the actual twist although, in the vein of all great novels, it makes complete sense once it is revealed. It's a great exploration of the complex relationship between sisters (even in normal circumstances) and packs a lot into its short length. Unsettling but brilliant.

What an interesting read!
I love how descriptive the writing it...." the shush shush shush of Mum's hands on the wheel."

The style of writing is very different from what I've been reading lately. It did take me a while to get used to it but I loved the concept in the end.

It's the story of September and July, two sisters born 10 months apart. They are inseparable but like usual there is 1 who is the leader and 1 who is the follower. Then something horrible happens that change their lives forever.  You can expect a  brilliant ending with a very good twist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I first became aware of Daisy Johnson’s work when her collection of short stories, Fen, was published. Although my local library never seemed to have it in stock the reviews were intriguing enough for me to keenly anticipate reading her novels.
Sisters is a tale of sibling rivalry, a relationship that is so toxic that one cannot survive without the other, fear and also a ghost story.
Sheela and her two daughters, July and September, have left Oxford after a mysterious event in their lives and move into the tumbledown Settle House on the Yorkshire coast. The girls have never met their father Peter who is dead but the house belongs to his sister Ursa. July, the narrator of the novel, says that Sheela ‘had us with a man she had been afraid of, although she would not tell us why.’
There is a preface that sets the tone for the story in which July describes her sister and this has a foreboding quality to it. She seems almost frightened of September, this powerful figure with which she shares her mother’s love. They were born ten months apart as ‘one chased the other out.’
Sheela is depressed and unhappy and the girls hear her crying. She writes and illustrates childrens books featuring both girls but now she only draws September and says that ‘she needs time. I will always love you.’ But she is also ‘coming down in the night so that she won’t run into us.’ Sheela brings men home for one night stands and she has her own ghosts. Even dead, Peter pursues her and she feels that he lives inside September like ‘a broken bottle.’ She sees September ‘tugging July behind like a kite’ and in many ways is the most dominant person in the house.
The event in Oxford was set in motion by a nasty and cruel bullying incident from some of July’s schoolmates. September leaps to her defence and wants revenge. In an earlier occurrence September glued the tormentor’s hands to a table. She is the bad seed forever whispering in July’s ear.
Sisters has been described as a Gothic thriller and I could understand the comparison to Shirley Jackson. The book’s characters are haunted by past events and the consequences of revenge. Sheela and July seems quite passive, lost in their own worlds, as September dominates the household.
In some ways I was reminded of the real life case of the Silent Twins, June and Jennifer Gibbons. This was a relationship so symbiotic that when they both were sent to Broadmoor it was suggested that only the death of one of them could set the other free.
I enjoyed this book as the subject matter was so deftly handles and the emotions of the characters so well portrayed. What must it feel like to always be in someone’s shadow? As July says ‘September wears me like a coat.’ But is it guilt that makes July draw September ever closer as she hears approaching footsteps but no-one’s there.
This was sibling rivalry in a house of women each grieving separately surrounded by the wraiths of those who have departed. I liked the atmosphere, the location and loved the description of the house in Chapter 2. The revelation at the end was tragic and I reread it to pick up the clues.
A great cover as well.
Daisy Johnson is an author to watch.
My thanks to Vintage and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

It took me a lot longer to read this than it should have, given its brevity, but it really was a book that I confess to not feeling entirely comfortable with. I can’t put my finger on exactly why I found the experience of reading this so disconcerting, but I was certainly thrown by the way this resolved itself.
When we’re first introduced to the two sisters, July and September, we gain a very clear understanding of the dynamics of their relationship. September is the fearless leader, bold yet manipulative and quite happy to let July experience hardship in order to generate amusement. We’re told how protective they are of each other, but at the start they seem quite at odds with one another. It’s an odd relationship that is not one you’d term healthy in any way, shape or form.
Initially we are told that the girls, after a bullying incident, move with their mother to a remote house. They are left virtually alone as the mother seems to be facing her own demons and is definitely not in a position to support her children.
As the book progresses I found myself quite captivated at times by the writing. There’s an eerie quality to it, but it doesn’t hide the fact that such large parts of this make little sense. We get hints of what’s happened, but there’s little to fix our references to so it feels like everything exists in a sort of limbo state. Far too often I found myself having to double check what I’d read or skip back in case I’d missed something.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this. I’d like to try something else by this author, but this didn’t quite work for me.

A short and haunting masterpiece. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so desperate to reach a book’s climacteric moment. And it didn’t disappoint.

It’s difficult to say too much about this story without giving away what makes it so special, but I’ll do my best to keep it vague.

Sisters is about two sisters born just ten months apart. Their differences are vast, polar opposites in fact, but their relationship is incredibly close despite these differences. The writing style is very poetic, open and honest, you‘re thrust into very real and tough feelings around struggling relationships, schoolyard bullying, grief and single parenthood. And the metaphorical imagery around buildings, homes, bonds and motherhood is stunning too.

I loved that I could read this in one sitting because the questions kept on coming. Some might say the book is too short but, for me, it was just right.

My favourite quote would ruin the plot, which is driving me crazy because it’s so beautiful. But here’s a second one:

Her love for them was like carrying shopping bags up a hill and at times she became convinced they wanted the very foundations of her, wanted to break the bricks of her body apart and climb back in.

Sisters is out now (released 13th of August) and I highly recommend it. Thank you, Vintage, for the arc.

I received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Throughout this intense novel there is a disquieting feeling that something is not right.

The majority of the novel is from the perspective of July the younger sibling. Her naivety and innocence is juxtaposed with her sister September’s cruelty and control.

We see how trying to be autonomous leads to a fateful action whose awful results are carefully and masterfully teased by Johnson.

The novel takes an unexpected direction when the family history is finally uncovered by their Mum’s perspective on the same events.

This is a compelling read exploring the boundaries and ever changing rules of a devious manipulation in the guise of unhealthy and oppressive sibling love.

Another brilliantly atmospheric and bewitching tale by Daisy Johnson. Short too!
She has a remarkable ability to capture the senses (especially smell), and whilst writing abstractly and poetically, keeping the narrative clear the plot captivating! A very good twist which I only slightly saw coming.

July and September are sisters, born only ten months apart. They live with their mother, Sheela in an isolated coastal house on the North York Moors, having recently moved from Oxford following an incidence of bullying. The teenagers were inseparable but now their ultra-close relationship is beginning to come apart.

Sisters begins like a straightforward story of two close sisters, one a rebel and one more conformist, though it soon becomes apparent that there is more going on. But even when I thought I'd figured out exactly what was what, I soon knew that I hadn't. It is a compelling story of many things - of family relationships; of ghostly happenings; it has gothic influences and it is also an exploration of grief. Sisters is an absorbing well-written novel and Daisy Johnson makes fantastic use of the house as an additional creepy protagonist. The finale is perfectly paced and the final chapters leave a chilling feeling of ambiguity that I found rather appropriate. A very worthy read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Vintage/ Jonathan Cape via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This is a story about two sisters, July and September, born just ten months apart. Their bond is deep and strong, as is often the case with sisters, but it is also disturbing at times. September is the older sister and her influence over the younger July is quite startling at times. Even so July clearly adores her sister and would do absolutely anything for her, even if she shouldn't. And that is all I can say without spoiling the book. I really enjoyed 'Sisters' and for such a short novel it certainly packs a punch. A book that is most definitely best read without knowing too much about it.

As you'd expect from the title, this book explores the bond between sisters September and July, born less than a year apart. It's a creepy gothic suspense with slow burning tension which mounts as the book nears its end.

September and July are raised by their mother, a children's author and illustrator. It's clear to the reader that the mother is suffering from mental health issues, but the girls seem unaware of this. Probably as a result of them being left alone to their own devices, they form a unit of two, and exclude everyone else. This causes issues and resentments at school.
At the beginning of the novel, we become aware of the fact that something bad has happened to the girls at school, and their mum decides to take them to a family house, the Settle House, near the Yorkshire coast to give them all a break and some space from whatever it is that has happened.
Daisy Johnson masterfully reveals snippets of information which in turn pique your curiosity as a reader. What exactly happened that was so bad? You won't find out until the end.
I would definitely recommend this book.

I loved Daisy Johnson's EVERYTHING UNDER., and couldn't wait to read this new offering. Eerie and darkly compelling; a claustrophobic tale of a sisterly bond. Shirley Jackson-esque.

"Sisters" is a creepy, twisty and very atmospheric tale of a remote house by the seaside, in which two sisters roam the ramshackle rooms and a distant, absent mother closets herself in her bedroom. Two sisters, June and September, have a strong bond, but something that happened in Oxford, before they arrived at their new place, threatens to change their relationship. There is a sense of tragedy and unease from the beginning – in the descriptions of the house with its’ noises, its’ hideaways, in the strange games that the girls play, in suddenly forgotten moments, escaped minutes and hours, in unsettling stories and memories from their childhood. Daisy Johnson’s poetic, lyrical language pulls the reader into book’s sinister, dreamlike landscape, the sense that something is wrong grows stronger as the story progresses. I loved the uneasiness and strangeness of this story and raced through it in record time.

Two sisters in the back of the car, the mother barely speaking, arrive in a house that's falling apart where they will be staying for a while, while the family gets over the terrible thing that isn't named. Initially we think the girls are really young, but they're actually teenagers, they just aren't really functioning with the maturity that you'd expect. There's an otherworldly connection between the two, and one of the sisters is cruel - presumably a trait she gets from their always-absent and now dead father. This was certainly tight and well written, and the suspense was well crafted. It genuinely got my interest and I look forward to talking to someone who finished the book, because I'm curious to know what actually happened. But I don't do gratuitous cruelty very well, and I'm afraid I put the book down before I finished it. A lot of younger readers will love it.

September and July have the unnerving closeness usually associated with twins. Mercurial September, 10 months old, draws July along, prey to her shifting moods and momentary cruelties. They find themselves whisked to a remote and crumbling house on the Yorkshire coast following an incident at school that lurks around edges of the story, casting shadows. Their mother retreats from them, "needs time", and rises from her bed only at night to cook for the girls she can't bring herself to face.

Johnson had created a brilliantly unsettling story about the devastating power that the people we love can wield over us. Her writing evokes unease and recognition, making small moments resonate with foreboding and she isn't afraid of digging into the darkness beneath love and grief.

I was gripped from start to finish.