Missy's Book Nook

Book Review: Invisible Sisters: A Memoir by Jessica Handler

"For the first time, I felt abandoned. I knew that Susie had been sick for more than a year. I had been told that she was going to die. I was ten years old, and death was not a clear concept in my mind".

~Jessica Handler lost her younger sister Susie to leukemia in 1969. This is a coming-of-age story, set in the south in the 1960's. Jessica comes to think of herself as "the well sister", after Susie becomes ill, and her baby sister Sarah suffers from a rare blood disorder, which will eventually take her life. Jessica learns what it is like to have to deal with love and loss, pain and hardship. All of which will teach her what it takes to survive, and begin to live again.

I found that I enjoyed this story more in the beginning. Towards the middle and the end, it got harder for me to keep focused. The story's timeline jumps around, and I found that hard to follow. I did, however, enjoy reading about Jessica and her family in the 1960's. I grew up in the same time period and it brought back lots of memories.

PublicAffairs (2009), Hardcover, 272 pages
1586486489 / 9781586486488
3 Stars