One of the best books I have read this year. It is refreshing to read a book with LGBTQ+ element that doesn't portray it as a secret but rather as a normal element of a YA life. Great story that covers family, growing up, loss, community and how connected we are in the world now even if you are on a tiny island of the coast of Scotland.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautiful story of loss with an added twist. It was unique, a family having a second chance with the loved one they’d lost.

Flora was an absolutely fantastic, genuine character. Her voice and personality shone through so much she jumped off the page. She also evoked so much empathy in me I couldn’t help rooting for her and caring about what happened to her.

I actually got so emotional reading this book and I wasn’t expecting that! The sisterly bond and explorations of loss and second chances will stay with me for a long time. I will recommend this book for years to come. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

An brilliantly heartbreaking story of a grieving family who attempt to get their child back in the form of a robotic duplicate. I think this book really approached the topic of losing a loved one in an interesting and relatable way, after all, if you could have the chance to bring someone back, wouldn't you take it? Seeing the story play out from the point of view of Isla, you see how her parents have approached this opportunity in different ways, and how it's pulled them apart. The family manages to heal in their own ways, even as things take a heartbreaking turn. I also loved the inclusion of a wlw relationship for the main character!

Overall i thought the themes of grief, identity and letting go were wonderfully represented.

This was a fascinating and deeply thought provoking story about love, loss and family. I feel like we would all instantly jump at the chance to be able to see our lost loved ones again, perhaps without thinking about the reality and long term ramifications… This book explores the many situations, good and bad, that could arise from welcoming a robot replica family member into your life. It’s entertaining and funny but also heartbreaking, and will definitely be added to my school library shelves.

Wow – there was no messing about here! Sophie Cameron throws you in head first from the very first chapter and I was there in Isla’s house with the weight of grief hovering from the loss of Flora. The visual was just there in my head without the descriptions being laborious and the pace is quick but not overly so.

We are then moved eighteen months on, as Isla’s family prepare for a unique trial; Silicon Valley company, Second Chances, can bring Flora back as an ultra realistic AI robot using the data from her social media account and memories given by friends and family. Not everyone agrees with the trial, however; Isla’s parents are now split up and her best friend’s dad doesn’t want him anywhere near the new Flora. Isla and her younger sister, Una, are sure they can bring their father around but then strange threats start appearing, directed at Flora.

I thought the pace of this novel was fantastic, I was just carried along and when I wasn’t reading, I found myself wanting to find ten minutes to read the next couple of chapters. We live in an age where many of us have quite a prominent digital footprint and talk of uploading consciousness to AI is something that crops up more and more regularly thanks to the likes of Elon Musk so it wasn’t an overly far fetched concept. There is clearly a sci-fi element but it didn’t feel like that. It was emotive and real. How many of us could say we wouldn’t want to bring someone back and yet, the ethics quickly cropped up in my mind. Would it really be my loved one? Could you feel the same about what is, in essence, a machine? And of course, could it ever happen for those without a digital footprint? If not, then is it fair? And so on and so on. So many thought provoking questions (and this is what I love about middle grade novels – people don’t realise how hard hitting children’s books can be!)

I felt Isla was a great protagonist – inquisitive, caring but also I just found her credible. I also loved that her attraction to Holly just was what it was – nothing needed to be addressed, which is just how it should be.

Finally, for me, the setting was gorgeous. It fit the purpose of a top secret trial but it had that wild and free Katie Morag island feel throughout and I loved the Gaelic phrases that punctuated the chapters.

Overall, Our Sister, Again is a poignant and through provoking novel that made me question what it is to be human and what I would do in this situation. Each part of the story is a puzzle piece that falls perfectly into place – there is nothing unnecessary and Sophie Cameron deals perfectly with heavy topics in a light, quick paced style without undermining the depth of the subjects that she is writing about. I was gripped by the mystery, desperate to find out the ending and now, I’m devastated it is done! An absolute must read!!

Thank you to Little Tiger Press for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think this is an important book, a book written for children but that can be appreciated by adult too.
It deals with serious topics like grief and loss but also with the possibility of AI and how it could impact us.
The characters, the world building, and the plot are well developed and emotionally charged.
A poignant, emotionally charged, and riveting story.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was beautiful and haunting and heartbreakingly sad. I absolutely cried. A stunning read about grief and loss and what if we got a second chance with our loved ones.

Will absolutely recommend this to everyone.

Well, that was all kinds of lovely and heartbreaking and thought provoking.

If you’ve been alive long enough, then you know the pain of losing someone you love. You know how it feels to wish you could have just one more moment, hug, conversation, lifetime with that person. What if you were given a second chance?

Nothing has been the same since Isla’s sister died.

“When Flora died, it was like someone had drawn a line straight through our lives. Everything was divided into Before and After; the time our family was whole and the time that it wasn’t.”

Now, three years later, Flora is back. An AI version of her is, anyway, but she seems so real. She looks like Flora, down to the smallest scar. She has Flora’s memories. She even laughs like her.

But not everyone is happy that this family has been reunited.

“Who’s behind this? What do they want? And what might they do next?”

This is a story about holding on and letting go, and how the people we love never truly leave us. It also raises some big questions. What makes us who we are? Is it our memories, our relationships, the way the people in our lives perceive us?

“Can anyone ever describe someone as they actually are, not just how we see them?”

Can robots ever truly experience emotion? Can technology ever replicate what makes us human and, if it can, what rights should AI humans be afforded?

The ability Flora had to comprehend her situation, including its limitations, and the exploration of the rights of AI reminded me of Mia and the other synths in Humans.

I didn’t entirely buy Marisa’s actions towards the end of the book and I wanted more information about the person who was behind the threats to Flora. Neither prevented me from powering through this book, though. I also may have teared up slightly at the end.

I really enjoyed the bond between Isla and Ùna, her younger sister. I loved Flora’s complexity and ways she both integrated herself into the family and became her own being as the story progressed. My favourite robot, though, was Stephen; his role was small but his attitude was big.

“I really believe that what we’re doing with Project Homecoming will change the world.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Little Tiger Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

On a small island off the Scottish coast, Isla and her family are grieving the loss of her older sister Flora, who died three years ago. Then they’re offered the chance to be part of a top-secret trial, which revives loved ones as fully lifelike AI robots using their digital footprint.
Beautifully written and I got really invested in the story. I would highly recommend reading this one. A clever, engrossing story with fabulous characters and an unexpected ending.

Thank you so much to Little Tiger Group /Stripes Publishing and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Wow this book hits you with so many emotions throughout the whole thing. I didn’t expect this story would be so deep and so hard hitting, but I suppose I should have figured that it would be.

When Isla’s sister Flora died her family did too, but then an opportunity no one has ever had before occurs in the form of a high tech AI robot replica. Flora is Flora again only she’s a robot and not everyone on their small island likes having her there.

This bring so many thoughts to mind and makes you seriously consider everything, from the whole AI robot being so lifelike, so real, to grief and how others deal with everything so different to even adjusting to having someone back from the dead again. It’s such an odd thought, what is humanity and can a robot actually understand it? Do they feel emotions if they are a robot? It’s such a deep intense story. I loved that the book answers some if these questions, that we see what it’s like for the returned robots.

I have loved reading this the characters are all amazing I love the connections they all have and I love that they were written so realistically, so naturally. I love that Isla is the one trying to figure everything out, the one that’s really questioning everything. It’s sweet that Úna is so close with Flora again so quickly and doesn’t view her any different. I also found having her dad be so against it made it work more as you saw her in a different view and perspective through his eyes.

I adore the relationship we got with Holly and Isla it was adorable reading her first crush through this strange and unusual time in her life. It was adorable and so cute, a perfect additional situation within the story.

Wow the whole story is so incredible and I just honestly have no idea how the author came up with this beautiful story, or how she captured it so perfectly in writing it up. It really is so hard hitting and deep, your emotions run constantly and you heart tugs. You have so much to solve and to understand all with the characters doing the same. It had twists in the storyline that capture you and shock you and you really are absorbed into it all.

I loved this book and I connected to the family so deeply to their strong grief, to this life like robot that you are made to feel is so real, though was still a robot at heart.

I couldn’t fault this book, it was all so cleverly created and it’s stunning a total must read for everyone. I’m not usually a robot person literally at all I’m terrified of them but this book drew me in and showed me such a beauty, a different side to it and it’s mesmerising and wow.

I honestly think this book will stay with me for a long while it was so beautiful, so unique to anything I’d ever read before and it offered so many different elements, so many different characters and so many different perspectives of everything that was going on. It was truly a sensational book.

Our Sister, Again has been picked as a Caboodle Firsts title for Caboodle, the rewards programme from National Book Tokens:

"We're giving 100 children the chance to read Sophie Cameron's beautiful story Our Sister, Again before it hits bookshops in May."

This was such a good read and such an important book with an important message for children. It was well written with a compelling sotryline and well developed characters that would be relatable for children and that I fell in love with.
It explores the issues within the book masterfully with family drama, sci fi and loss all wrapped up in a beautiful bow. This book is a triumph. I will definitely be looking for more from this author.