This season, after a warm welcome to the writing world with her debut novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors launched her sophomore work, Blue Sisters. Mellors maintains her focus on intimacy and strained bonds as she transitions from the marriage story in Cleopatra and Frankenstein to sibling dynamics in Blue Sisters. The novel follows three sisters, Avery, Bonnie and Lucky, as they come together after the death of their sister, Nicky, to pack up their Upper West Side childhood home. Sisterhood is the axis on which the novel rotates, but romance, addiction, parental relationships and grief are key components of the composition.
Before allowing each sister the refuge of home, Mellors destroys each character’s life in a flurry of self-sabotage. Avery, a 33-year-old lawyer perceived as entirely perfect, seems determined to tear apart her meticulously-crafted London lifestyle and marriage. Bonnie, the second oldest and a boxer turned bouncer, unmoored by the death of her sister has derailed her carefully laid plans to become a national champion and abandoned her passions. Lucky, the youngest, has thrown herself hard into a life of partying and drugs, effectively destroying her career as a model. The sisters arrive at their family apartment seeking salvation to find each other equally lost. As the novel progresses, tension builds as the reader is led through a web of damaged relationships spanning from that between maternal Avery and their aloof, unloving mother to that of Bonnie and her childhood boxing coach.
The real strength of the novel lies in Mellors ability to capture the importance of the domestic, simple moments. Relief from the novel’s frenzy comes in the form of the Blue siblings who fluctuate rapidly from feelings of disdain to utter devotion for each other, revealing Mellors’ fluency in the language of sisters. Despite the inclusion of some serious drama, the bickering and mundanity of the sisters’ interactions is the most memorable aspect of Blue Sisters. As the passages move quickly between the quiet unfolding of grief and the harsh unraveling of each sisters’ life, Mellors’ communication of their bond shines most brightly.
Though the language sometimes seems explicit and one may feel Mellors could benefit from a bit more subtlety in her writing, her straightforwardness does allow for some sharp, poignant observations, undiluted by frills and fluff. Attempts to employ the quiet, intimate devastations of an average life in the style of Sally Rooney are thwarted by Mellors’ heavy-handed prose and reliance on overused plots. She weakens her moments of piercing authenticity with cheesy scenes (at one point one of the sisters plays an original song dedicated to the dead sister on an acoustic guitar and the other sisters come to the shocking realization she has the ability to be a successful musician). Although she is guilty of falling into tired tropes, they cushion the novel with a level of familiarity and recognition suitably comfortable for a novel about returning to a childhood home.
This novel is truly an example of “it’s the journey, not the destination.” Blue Sisters concludes on a magical absolution in the epilogue that takes away from the rawness of the earlier chapters. At times, it feels as if Mellors is flipping a switch in her writing between hallmark movie fantasy and realistic devastation. The reader can’t help but flinch a little at the sudden light.
It is not all for naught, though. Fans of the Upper West Side, The Family Fang, happy endings, Little Women, the overall experience of having sisters, The Royal Tenenbaums or sometimes making very reckless decisions will have pieces of this novel to cling to that make the bumpy journey and unfulfilling ending worth the ride.
Clare Sheridan is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].