Darkly oppressive with a sinister current running throughout. I found this book unputdownable and devoured it in a single sitting.

I loved Daisy Johnson's writing style which really stood out for being so different to anything I've read in a long time.

Sisters creeps up on you, the building sense of dread like a long shadow that slides across the floor. September and July are two sisters so twisted together you can hardly tell one from the other, where September's chilling ruthlessness leaves you breathless wondering what she'll do next, July's meek mindedness leaves you screaming at her to run. The relationship between the girls is the dark epicentre of the story, the lengths July will go to to hold September's love close, and September's desire to consume her sister whole propel the story forward.

Sisters is a horror story, with a sick twist that left me feeling confused, desperate more explanation. Daisy Johnson's mythology is murky, her portrayal of sisterhood at its best and worst are a truly interesting examination of what we'll do for the people we love and perhaps more importantly what we'll let them do to us.

In some ways the reveal of what exactly happened to the girls was mildly unsatisfying, only in that I expected something slightly less ordinary. July and September's unsettling end felt abrupt, like waking suddenly from a dream.

Johnson's writing is poetic and fable-esque, you lose yourself in it. For anyone who likes to look into the abyss, eager for the abyss to stare back - Sisters is for you.

I so wanted to like this book but just couldn't. It's not Shirly Jackson despite the publishers claim. It wasn't very unsettling and for once I guessed the twist very quickly. I didn't feel the tension the author wanted to created nor the dread as a time of change. There was just a bit of dark missing.

Well... this was a little different. And not in a bad way I hasten to add. Although not a long book page-count wise, there is a lot contained herein. It follows two sisters, July and September as they, along with their mother, move into an old family home. They are running away from something that isn't immediately explained but is hinted at being really bad. The mother is depressed and so the two girls have to pretty much take care of themselves and the book basically is the story of what happens next...
It's hard (impossible) to say any more about the plot as you really do need to discover the rest of it as the author intends you to. It's all a bit intertwined and interconnected and I do admit to getting a bit lost along the way but sometimes you just have to trust the unknown and believe that all will come good at the end and, you'll have to trust me when I say that it does in this case. Quite emotionally and a bit shocking but there you are!
It's beautifully written, quite descriptive and often lyrical in nature. All things that I usually don't really enjoy in a book. I prefer things to get on with themselves and this is not the case here. But, and this is important. It works. It has to be this way to work. It's that kind of story. It has to feel a bit mystical and confusing and wonderful and emotional for the story to develop, and the way the author has achieved this is perfect.
All that said, for me, as confusing as it was occasionally, I kinda thought I knew where we would eventually end up, even through all the obfuscation. It was like a cloudy pond had just started to clear and the picture was starting to develop. But I jumped ahead of the game a bit instead of waiting. That didn't spoil things for me though as it's not often I am cluelessy hit by a sucker punch.
Anyway... all in all, an interesting read that was a little different to my normal choice of book and which I am very glad I took a punt on. I think I'll have to check out her debut book now.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I loved this book. I raced through it, completely gripped by the plot and characters. The book is scary and creepy in a subtle way; I almost couldn’t tell why I felt so unsettled as I read. The ending was chilling and the uneasiness I found on every page has lingered long after I closed the final page.

After reading ‘Everything Under’, I was excited to read more of Daisy Johnson’s work, because she immediately struck me as an author who could deliver some of the things I really enjoy– unusual family and relationship dynamics, a dark sensuality, a sense of something leaping out of the dark, ancient or mythic. Her fiction has prickles, it tangles and flows; it feels like nature. I wasn’t at all disappointed with Sisters, in fact I preferred it. Daisy’s prose tends to be shadowy and obscure in the best possible way, but with Sisters I never got lost and I think that’s due to her growth as a writer.
In ‘Sisters’, September and July have grown somewhat enmeshed in their sibling relationship, due to an emotionally absent mother. The story opens in a house they return to, which is dirty, infested and un-lived in, but with signs of their previous life there. As with ‘Everything Under’, there is a theme of memories resurfacing, the revisiting of a murky past.
The sisters’ relationship appears to be twin-like, with an almost psychic link. They merge in their identity; they even choose to share a Birthday. July is the more passive of the two, and we observe through her the increasing tension and destructive behaviour of September, who (almost like a Jungian shadow self) possesses the more aggressive qualities.
Whenever July pulls away from her sister, she’s given a little tug – quite literally sometimes the tug of her hair – and crashes back in to one unified perspective. So, when a boy-crush comes into play, September’s darker qualities emerge full throttle.
I love Daisy’s prose. She is the owner of night-time words. Shadowy, psychological, and you trip over things in the dark. It’s not until later chapters as with insight into others’ perspectives, that we begin to put the pieces together and understand what we’ve been shown.
Daisy skillfully depicts a lack of boundaries between people, between time and space, and also between reality and illusion. Nothing is anchored down.
I’d recommended this for anyone who enjoys dark women’s fiction and magical realism, such as Han Kang or Angela Carter. Loaded with metaphor, you can bring your analytical mind to the prose, or simply enjoy the ride.

I didn’t get on well with Sisters. I found it a struggle and eventually became quite irritated by it.

It is impossible to give an outline of the plot without undesirable spoilers, so I won’t try. The book opens with a family arriving in an unwelcoming, quite isolated cottage in Yorkshire, having suffered some kind of serious incident in Oxford where the two girls, named July and September (really?) were at school. Much of the narration is by July, the younger sister who is plainly somewhat traumatised, but by what is not clear...and very little else happens for a long time. There’s lots of Oppressive Atmosphere and Hinting At Dark Things, told in a fractured voice which is intended to sound like a troubled girl, but which sounded to me like an author trying to be clever and actually being mannered and self-conscious.

Things do begin to happen slowly, and past events begin to emerge...and the Big Surprise at the end becomes fairly obvious quite early on. Add to this a lengthy passage from the point of view of the mother, giving a lot of history which, to me, added nothing and served only as a distraction and I began to skim. I reached the end with some relief.

A lot of people have liked Sisters, but I’m afraid I didn’t and can’t recommend it.

(My thanks to Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Dark and claustrophobic, gripping and lingers long in the mind, I devoured this in one sitting. Loved it

Absolutely loved this book!!! Would wholeheartedly recommend to all of my friends, and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

A deep and dark and beautifully written book about two sisters, July and September, born just ten months apart and sharing a deep emotional bond. After an incident at the girls' school, they move away with their mother Sheela to an old family home near the sea. The house is decrepit, falling down, and as the days pass and girls become more entwined in each other, edges become blurred and boundaries shift. It's poetically written, but not flowery. The imagery stays with you for a long time. A really powerful piece of writing.

A push and pull between sisters July and September, it's a web so wrapped up it's tough to say where one sister ends and the other begins as they make their way through life. I <I>loved</i> Fen, and Daisy Johnson is a magnificent writer, but I've never been able to gel with her longer work quite like I did her short stories. But that's just me. There's a darkness and beauty in here.

I’ve loved all of Daisy Johnson’s works so far which makes her a favourite author of mine. Her latest, Sisters, is suffocating and claustrophobic. It was a horror house that I wanted to flee from, but could not look away. Just not yet. They say curiosity killed the cat and yes, this book nearly killed me.

In Sisters, we follow two sisters (no surprise there) born ten months apart, who are almost like twin souls. They move to a house that is ‘dirtyallover ‘and ‘bentoutofshape’—as creepy as it can get, because the house has a mind of its own with its gargles and groans. The bond between the girls is more noxious than sisterly. On one hand the elder sister takes care of the younger in a motherly fashion—providing food, washing her up—but there’s a kind-of Simon Says game where you have to obey everything the leader says. Johnson’s prowess as an inventive and skilled writer shines through the novel—Bulb clickclick(s), blood goes boom boom boom and movement is judder judder judder. You’ll find yourself longing to look away, but then you just can’t.

Two sisters July and September have an unusually strong bond. July is very much manipulated by her sister and you know this will not end well. Their mother has mental health issues and seems to be mostly absent, and the girls are somewhat feral. They don't have other friends and July is bullied at school. I found the book a bit disturbing although it does keep you reading!

I have been a big fan of Daisy Johnson since the release of her short story collection Fen in 2016. Her debut novel Everything Under was released in 2018 and earned a Man Booker nomination, making her the youngest author (at just 28) to be shortlisted for the prestigious literary prize. Unsurprisingly, Excitement has been high around her sophomore novel, Sisters, the family drama filling must-read lists in 2020 and Man Booker predictions.

The two sisters of this story, September and July, are inseparable; outsiders at school, and inaccessible to all. Following an ‘incident’ in Oxford, the two girls are uprooted by their mother, Sheela, to live in an old property owned by their aunt. Alone in the house, the sisters become almost one. September’s domineering and disruptive personality combines with July’s anxiety and submission to form a whole. The novel is primarily from July’s perspective, with brief passages in which Sheela reveals more about her own isolation through her battle with mental health and relationship with the girls’ father. July is enamored with September and, despite a clear desire to explore her individuality through her adolescent sexuality or relationship with her mother, the love for September is deeper than this (no matter how destructive it may be).

While in Everything Under the mythological canal and its murky depths provide a mysterious lurking presence, here it is the house, nestled among the Yorkshire moors, witness to the dramas, observing, dictating, and reflecting the action through whispers and cracks, hidden passageways and abandoned corners. The house, like its occupants, is inhabited by forces that are shaping it beyond normal belief.

Only in the closing chapters does the reader truly begin to understand what is going on, a shocking yet demystifying revelation that unifies the themes of the novel. To say any more would reveal too much of the mesmerising experience that unfolds.

At once a family drama, a Gothic, a literary suspense, with prose that is compelling and devastatingly honest, Sisters is another triumph for Johnson.

Sisters by Daisy Johnson is a dark, disturbing and unsettling tale of two sisters and their sometimes sweet but mostly twisted relationship. It is intense, creepy and thought-provoking.

July and September have a freakishly close bond; it is as if they are a single person. As sweet as it may sound, there actually is a twisted power dynamics underneath all the love and care.

Narrated mostly from the PoV of July and sometimes by Sheela (their mother), the plot sways back and forth in time, disoriented, off-putting and somewhat confusing. This is done deliberately on the part of the author, partly to create a eerie, vaguely discomfiting, somewhat trippy atmosphere, and partly to reflect the mental state of the narrator. The chapters from PoV of Sheela are starkly clear in contrast, and reveal some nuances of the relationship between July and September from their mother’s eyes.

Johnson does an excellent job at creating a gothic atmosphere. The setting – The Settle House, has all the elements of a gothic mansion. The stifling relationship between July and September is brought out beautifully in the prose. Though written from July’s perspective, it is evident that she almost houses both the personalities within her, as if they are one single being. The ending was sharp, shocking and truly nightmarish. I had to put off writing this review for a few days so I could write it coherently without being creeped out thinking about the book.

While there is an underlying mystery to the plot, the characters and their relationships with each other is the life of the book. The character of September is truly terrifying. Her dark and twisted personality and her overbearing and manipulative love for July is a reflection of the relationship between their parents. There is no doubt that September loves July with all her heart, but hers is a love I would not wish on the worst of my enemies. On the other hand, Sheela's opinion of her daughters and their relationship, and her own battle with depression, provides a humane and emotional relief to the story.

If you are looking for a chilling and spooky read with notes of gothic and horror to mess with your mind and leave you dazed, Sisters by Daisy Johnson is the perfect choice.

I did not get this book. Perhaps I will never get books about the sibling relationship.
Try as I might, this just isn't a bond that makes sense to me, the only child. And, maybe much more so in this book with the crazy/crazy-unhealthy sibling bond described.

That being said, I felt for July and for Sheela; they're emotional complex and have distinctive voices. I was definitely engaged in the book and wanted (badly) to get a handle on what was happening.

The prose is beautiful here, and if it was intended to keep the reader as off-balanced as the narrator - then it was <b>perfectly</b> done. I think July's naiveté and immaturity is also really well accomplished here.

I thought the book was coming together for me at the end, but the actual ending kind of turned - again - and left me very displeased and more confused than I'd have liked to have been.

This isn't a bad book, but it isn't one I enjoyed - for another reader though, I'm sure I can see how this will speak to some. My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc to review.

There is a suffocating atmosphere from the very start of this book, as Mother Sheela and daughters September and July are seen moving from an unspecified incident near their home in Oxford to a country house belonging to extended family.

Claustrophobic relationships and an increasing feeling of tension are explored and generate genuine horror as the story unfolds.

Dealing with fundamental questions of identity and family in vivid detail, the powerful narrative pulls you along, wide-eyed, all the way to a very unsettling conclusion.

A fascinating read, this is a book that holds onto you and forces you not to look away - fabulous.

Darker than anything Daisy Johnson has written before, Sisters is a haunting and unsettling tale of two inseparable sisters growing up together in a coming-of-age like an exorcism.

Similar words have been used to describe Unica Zürn’s 1969 novella Dark Spring and both books are similarly shocking in their depiction of childhood depression and deep-seated trauma.

The sisters, July and older-by-10-months September, escaped their home in Oxford with their mother following an incident at their school when the girls are in their late teens, returning to a rundown house on the coast of the North York Moors with a family history. The book is told mostly from July’s perspective and we unravel incidents from their past and what led to the shock event at their school in the present.

Lines are consistently blurred between what’s reality and fiction, becoming increasingly smudged as the story unfolds, and we’re never quite clear what on whose head we are inside.

There are echos of Andres Barba’s Such Small Hands, a book that deals with childhood cruelty and questions morality at such a young age. Both books lead us somewhere increasingly dark but their revelations are very different.

One is also reminded of Stephen King, but not because of the language. King writes thrillers and uses quite direct fast-paced language. Johnson is far more poetic. But there is a sense and images, too. The first image that came to my mind in the opening pages describing the sister’s almost telepathic connection was the two sisters from King’s The Shining; while it struck me as a rather arbitrary connection to make, it became somewhat more cemented later on when September and July go trick-or-treating dressed as those same, murdered sisters.

The horror is very much of a psychological nature, bringing to mind the final comparison I will make: Shirley Jackson. But Sisters has its shocking moments too and body horror that will make you wince.

I’ll be fascinated to discover how Sisters does at this year’s Booker Prize. I hope Johnson continues in this direction - one that’s far from new for her, but one that’s closer to horror than she’s ever gone in before. You’ll struggle to find a better literary horror novel this year.

Full review forthcoming on sublimehorror.com.

At times claustrophobic and also scary, I found myself totally absorbed in Daisy Johnson's short novel, Sisters, and I can see why it is described a Gothic thriller. An intriguing and well written read, that has stayed with me.

A real chiller here that would definitely benefit from a second read. The atmosphere is at times suffocating and bewildering, setting the tone nicely. It is essentially a coming of age story against the background of significant trauma and psychological turmoil and at times it's unsure what's real or imagined. A really spooky tale that will stay with you.