Another very good book by Coco Mellors.

Even though, once again, I couldn't connect with the characters, I love the way she writes about the dynamics and relationships in the family! The characters were very well written, complex and interesting to read about!

A very good read. Can't wait for the next book !

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the book in exchange for my honest opinion!

Another beautiful novel by Coco Mellors, I'm once again blown away by the way she writes her characters to be so unequivocally flawed yet also real and lovable. I'm a sucker for stories about family and this one really hit, especially with the added dynamic of a passed sibling and healing from grief.

My favourite parts of the book were without a doubt, the sisters' vivid memories of Nicky and the way she shaped each of their lives, and the incredibly believable dialogue (especially when the sisters argued). I felt the same way with "Cleopatra and Frankenstein", where I thought the arguments were so raw and well built-up, I could feel each line puncture a bit of my brain.

Unlike "Cleopatra and Frankenstein" though, where I felt the story and characters were unpredictable, this one felt a bit more cookie-cutter and accessible, in that we were much more focussed on how the sisters resolved their grievances, rather than when/if. There were a few corny bits especially with the epilogue but those didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the novel.

Still an incredible, emotional story and one I would highly recommend to anyone with a soft spot for family!

Holy shit, this book was INCREDIBLE 🤌🏻♥️

It’s clear from the title that this book is about sisters but I can honestly say I was blown away by how rich and impactful Coco’s delve into the true meaning of sisterhood was to read. I have a sister which made it all the more relatable for me.

It’s worth noting that there are very intense and heavy themes throughout the whole book including addiction, drug/alcohol abuse, overdosing, sexual assault and suicide. In my opinion, Coco explored each of these hard-hitting topics with the utmost care and although some moments were difficult to read, they helped bind the story together and to shed light on why the sisters are the way they are. One thing that stayed with me is the spotlight Coco shines on endometriosis - a horrific condition that can be so debilitating for women and is not talked about enough. The awareness that will be brought to it can only be good.

All of the Blue sisters, Avery, Bonnie and Lucky are extremely complex and vibrant, and even fourth sister Nicky, whose traumatic death takes place in a period before the novel starts, is such a compelling character from what you get to learn about her. The sisters were brought to life so beautifully: I am quite a visual reader anyway, but I could picture them all with crystal clear clarity. Usually I end up picking a favourite character while reading but I truly couldn’t choose a favourite out of the Blue sisters, they are all completely different but equally charismatic and real.

Coco has done an unbelievable job at capturing the raw and tender grief that each sister is feeling at the loss of their beloved Nicky, and the coping mechanisms each of them turns to to try and deal with their pain.

This is honestly such a wonderful book and I am going to recommend it to anyone and everyone. It’s possibly my favourite read of the year so far 🥺🩵

Blue Sisters
The Blue Sisters; Avery, Lucky and Bonnie have all reached a crossroads in their lives. Avery, married to her one-time therapist now her wife, Chiti, is trying to come to terms with not wanting children. Chiti wants one and Avery has gone along with it so far. But the ever capable, dependable eldest girl is beginning to question it and her assumed role as surrogate mother to the other two sisters.
Lucky, the youngest, is a successful model but is caught up in a round of partying, sex, drink and drugs and has been sacked by her modelling agency.
Bonnie is now the middle sister which subtly changes her relationship to the other two. She is a boxer who ran away after her last fight to Venice Beach. Bonnie was working as a bouncer in a bar until she had a fight with a drunken customer and fled to New York.
But there is one sister missing and her loss is felt keenly by the others. It’s Nicky who was once the middle daughter. Soon it will be the 4th of July and the first anniversary of her death. And, if they weren’t all trying to deal with it in their own ways, their mother texts them all to let them know that Nicky’s apartment in New York needs to be cleared as she and their father intend to sell it.
And so, the sisters gather in the city to start the sad process of going through and disposing of Nicky’s possessions and mementoes and whatever secrets may rear their head while they struggle with their own personal demons. Nicky’s death was recorded as an overdose as an agonising medical condition left her wracked with pain and reliant on painkillers. The downward spiral began when she unknowingly bought a supply that contained a deadly and addictive substance. It was Bonnie who found her dead in her apartment and, like the sisters, has to acknowledge a collective guilt in knowing that something was seriously wrong with Nicky but not saying anything about it. However, it has come out in different, more subtle ways such as shoplifting, reckless hedonism and an unrequited love.
This isn’t the type of book that I normally read but the cover caught me eye and I really enjoyed it. A story of complex relationships and a depiction of eldest daughter syndrome that I could really relate to. The Spice Girls are referenced several times and you could almost see the sisters as them with their familial roles; Avery as Posh, Lucky as Baby and Bonnie as Sporty. As the book progresses, the sisters dysfunctional family background is revealed as well as their strained relationship with their mother.
Sorting through a close relative’s belongings after their death can bring all sorts of emotions and rivalries to the surface and I thought that this was well written and convincing. The effects of Nicky’s death and the forthcoming anniversary was also a powerful emotional theme. Avery has continued to pay the mortgage on Nicky’s flat almost as if she was still alive.
Avery’s feelings about having to be a quasi-mother as their own mother was so remote and had her time taken up with their father’s drinking are explored and also her increasing desire to no longer have this role thrust upon her. Maybe this is why she doesn’t want to become a mother. The sisters have only had each other to rely on and present a very much united front.
The epilogue at the end when, 10 years later, their final destinies are revealed and they are living lives far more true to themselves, is interesting. They are all in different places that they could not have predicted.
I was drawn in by the writer’s style and intrigued as to what might come from them clearing Nicky’s flat. Would it be a gathering to share memories and mourn or would it be rivalries and recriminations resurface? This is a summer, perhaps a holiday read, and also in many ways a thought provoking one.

A beautifully written story about three sisters, so closely bonded but each with their own complexities, trying to navigate life after the death of their sister, Nicky.
I read Cleopatra & Frankenstein last year and enjoyed it, but I simply adored Blue Sisters. Coco captures sisterhood perfectly, exploring that fine line between love and hate. I particularly enjoyed the discussion around Avery, and how the other girls saw her as having her life so figured out, which was very much not the case - but hard to notice when we're all so focused on ourselves.
This book was a real journey, and the ending just tied everything together so wonderfully.

Another great, well written novel by Coco Mellors. Loved the characters and storyline and will continue to look out for her future offerings. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advance digital copy.

Four sisters all fighting their own addictions, one dies which leaves the remaining three to readjust not just their relationship with each other but their own lives. This book is about many things: grief, familial relationships, addictions but also hope and friendships and love. It’s very well written with a light touch but never shying away from difficult subjects. Each sister is standout and easily identifiable and I felt empathy for each of them in their various struggles. I met four strangers at the start of this book but on completion felt that they were my friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and 4th estate for this ARC.

This is the story of the four Blue sisters: Avery (the gay one) who is a lawyer living in London, Bonnie (the scary one) who is a boxer turned bouncer living in LA, Lucky (the hot one) who is a model living in Paris and Nicky (the dead one) who was a teacher living in New York. They have awful parents (alcoholic father, cold mother) and display a lot of self-destructive behaviour, including but not limited to alcoholism, drug abuse and infidelity. They also constantly fight with each other. Honestly, if you needed a guide book on how to fuck up your life, these people could write it no problem. Lucky's posh drug-fuelled party is so distasteful I skipped a few pages.

I get it, the death of their sister Nicky at 27 from an overdose of pain medication (she suffered from debilitating endometriosis), leaves a hole in their lives they struggle to come to terms with but I simply couldn't connect with these well-to-do women who willingly burn down their lives at every turn while using words like "lycanthropic" and "prurience". Just go have therapy already!

It is well-written literature, but it's not for me. Too much misery and unhappiness in a book, combined with chapters that are ten miles long, makes me lose the will to live.

“Lucky,” said Lucky. “That’s a funny name,” said Flopsy. Lucky gave her a sideways look."

Coco has really drawn the three Blue sisters characters out. I felt they were all individual and well distinguishable which is sometimes difficult with multiple POV stories.

Each character had their flaws, and while I related to one more than the others they all had relatable features. The novel explores grief, addiction and other issues with taste and sensitivity. A great read.

This may be one of the most beautifully written books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. A total one-of-a-kind narrative that warms the heart and comforts the soul.

This novel, Blue Sisters, is a heavily character-driven narrative, in which we meet the three Blue sisters, Avery, Bonnie and Lucky, who all lead very different lives. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, who tragically died and all the sisters are navigating their already turbulent lives among the grief of losing a loved one and finding out their childhood apartment is to soon be sold.

I honestly was mesmerised by how poetically Coco Mellors explored topics in this novel, from addiction to grief. It was written in such an honest and raw way, and I could not help but feel every emotion so deeply when engaging with these characters.

A divine read,

A year after the tragic sudden death of their sister Nicky, Avery, Bonnie and Lucky are still in the midst of their grief. Youngest sister and model Lucky is about to be dropped by her agency for constantly missing shoots due to drugnand drink benders making her unreliable. Ex-boxer, now bouncer Bonnie is still hiding out at a dive bar while also dealing with a terrible fight fall-out. Eldest sister Avery is is now sober and a successful lawyer in London, but are her secrets about ruin her facade?

Following POV's of each sister, this follows them as they find themselves back at their childhood home facing up to having to clear it of Nicky's belongings, and all the issues that brings up. The sisters were each drawn well and I appreciate the need to show each of their stories, I would have loved more chapters of them all together as I really enjoyed the few when they were bouncing off each other like only sisters can, no matter how long they have been apart.

It's been a year since the sudden and tragic death of Nicky Blue, and her three sisters, Avery, Bonnie and Lucky, are still reeling. Lucky, a model, keeps going on drink-and-drugs benders and missing shoots. Bonnie has quit her career as a professional boxer after a disastrous fight. Meanwhile, Avery, sober, married and gainfully employed, seems to have it all together, but her kleptomania would suggest otherwise. Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors's second novel, switches between the perspectives of the three living sisters as they face the prospect of clearing the family apartment and figuring out their lives without Nicky. This is very much a sibling potboiler along the lines of Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful or Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had: the arresting cover had made me hope for something more literary. Blue Sisters ticks along nicely enough, but feels clumsy: surely there must be a better way of exploring these sisters and their relationships then letting them each splurge out their backstories in turn? It's interesting that the chapter that felt the most alive to me was the only one when all three sisters are together and shooting accusations at each other, perhaps because it felt like Mellors had finally got her characters on set and actually doing something. It didn't help that the only one of the three who is fully realised is Avery: Bonnie and Lucky sit too neatly in the 'good' and 'hot mess' categories. So having said all this, I was going to rank Blue Sisters lower, but I have to give Mellors some credit for how movingly she conveys the sisters' grief over Nicky, and how she manages to put Nicky on the page even though she never appears in person. The epilogue, set ten years later, also suggests that Mellors is capable of more subtle writing than she demonstrates for much of the novel, as she wisely leaves us to fill in some of the blanks, especially when it comes to Lucky. So yes, if you loved Hello Beautiful, run out and get this one. 3.5 stars.

It was an interesting reading experience. I did not connect with the main characters at all, and even hated some of them, but they were well thought out and very complex. They were definitely flawed but that was what made them compelling to discover and to dissect, in a way. All three sisters are very different from one another and I liked that, the author succeeded in giving each of them a unique personality. I understood them and their motives for behaving the way they did and say what they end up saying. But I definitely did not feel empathy for them. I got angry a couple of times, and was satisfied some other times. And for that, it was a very gripping experience. But unfortunately, the ending did not work for me, I thought it was too cheesy for this kind of story. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m trying to be vague, but I wanted a different kind of ending. A darker one.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and it didn’t let me down. Books with multiple POVs can be tricky, as often certain voices filter through much stronger than others. But Coco packed so much depth and detail into each and every one of the four sisters. Each had a real unique voice and personality, so much so that I think even without the names I could’ve distinguished who was who. The only downside was that it dragged in places, but otherwise it was a really solid read I’d highly recommend.

Absolut wundervolles Buvh welches mich sehr viel fühlen und denken ließ! definitiv mein Jahreshighlight bisher

Oh what an absolutely perfect book! I devoured this as a holiday read and whilst it’s certainly not light hearted romance (although there is some romance involved!) it had absolutely everything: family love, death, adultery, addiction, recovery, unrequited love, what more could you want! I really praise Coco Mellors for how she approached endometriosis in the book too, something that isn’t done enough.

The Blue Sisters and their stories will stay with me for a long time. An easy five stars from me!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I'm giving "Blue Sisters" a glowing five stars! Coco Mellors crafts a vivid and relatable narrative centered around themes of family, addiction, and recovery. The characters are compelling—Lucky, the struggling model; Bonnie, the boxer; Avery, the sober lawyer; and the shadow of Nicky, whose past death from an overdose looms over their stories. Each character's journey through the trials of addiction and the paths to recovery are so powerful and inspiring. Although I found the age gap between Bonnie and Pavel a bit jarring, the overall storyline, filled with hope and resilience, more than made up for it. Mellors' dramatic and engaging writing style had me hooked, and I'm already planning to buy a physical copy for annotating. Highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a story that’s both heart-wrenching and hopeful!

Thank you to 4th Estate and NetGalley for sending me and ARC of this book. I hadn't read any of Coco Mellors' work before but Blue Sisters has made me a committed fan. It's a gorgeous read that provides a realistic and emotionally resonant insight into the three Blue sisters who are all falling apart in various ways after the death of their fourth sister, Nicky. But while the book doesn't shy away from the dark and messy sides of addiction, infidelity, trauma and grief it's also bursting with love, joy and a real sense of humour. This is a book with real heart and although it is much more focused on characters, their inner lives and their relationships rather than having a super tight and twisty plot, I still found it difficult to put down and found myself rushing home after work so that I could read it again. This is definitely going to be one of the books you're going to see everywhere this summer and the hype will be richly deserved.

I loved Blue Sisters so much that I read it extra slowly to really enjoy every word :)

It's really one of my book highlights of 2024! Coco did a great job on exploring the complex flaws and personalities of the characters and bringing them to life. Keeping her first novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein in mind, Coco is one of the only authors (in my opinion) who can really write fights that feel true to life, that feel like they weren't just made up for more drama or an unnecessary plot device. She's so good at describing real-life problems like drug abuse and an estranged family and endometriosis. I also loved the representation, like the tourette syndrom.
I feel like the most unrealistic part is that every person the sisters (especially Lucky) encounter in New York is just happy and smiling, like I've never been there but I've never heard that the people there are very kind.
Apart from that, this book (with 283 pages in my ebook) could have been much longer, I'd gladly read about the sisters Blue if it were more than 600 pages.
Coco really became one of my favourite authors :)

5 ☆ stars

So happy I got to read this :)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blue Sisters follows Avery, Bonnie and Lucky whose lives are left devastated after their middle sister Nicky passes away.

It’s been a year since Nicky died and the sisters come together as the apartment they grew up in is prepared to be sold. Each one of them is falling apart in their own way - Avery is stuck in her marriage and doesn’t want a baby, Bonnie is desperately in love with a man who she hasn’t seen for a year and Lucky has completely blown up her career.

The book is told from the POV of each of the sisters and goes back and forth throughout the novel, as they try to come to terms with the devastating loss of Nicky, who was the glue who bound them all together.

It’s very much character driven and by the end you’ll be completely in love with each of these complicated, flawed and sometimes problematic women.

This is such a beautiful book about grief and sisterhood and the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. I absolutely loved it and will be thinking about Avery, Bonnie and Lucky for a very long time.

Coco Mellors is such a brilliant writer and I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.