Because you are my sister in every fiber of my being....but there are aother strands that link us, that wouldn't be seen by even the strongest electron microscope.......We are conjoined by hundreds os thousands of memories that silt down into you and stop being memories and become a part of who you are.” I loved this book. Another reviewer described it as a "crime fiction novel for people who don't like crime fiction" and I agree with that description. I've read a few crime fiction novels and really enjoyed them (e.g. the Millenium trilogy) but it can be a difficult genre to get right. I always feel overwhelmed when entering the crime section of a bookstore or library, faced with hundreds of books that look and sound the same. However, Sister stood out to me because it has a beautiful cover and not one you would associated with a crime investigation. It's serene as opposed to bold and bloody. I would have assumed it was more of a family drama novel and I believe this novel bridges the gap between the two genres.

Discuss the novel’s structure. How did it affect you as the narrator referred to Tess as “you”? What was your understanding of Mr. Wright and his role? Rosamund Lupton is a British author of three novels— Sister (2010), Afterwards (2012), and The Quality of Silence (2016). She studied literature at Cambridge University and lives in London with her husband and two children. What rating do you give a book that definitely holds your interest and keeps you reading any time you can snatch a chunk of time, however small, yet leaves you disappointed and irritated when it ends? Which is more important - constantly being kept pulled into a story or coming away at the end of the book a satisfied reader??? Bee is certain that Tess didn’t commit suicide. Their family and the police accept the sad reality, but Bee feels sure that Tess has been murdered. Single-minded in her search for a killer, Bee moves into Tess’s apartment and throws herself headlong into her sister’s life—and all its secrets. I loved this. I put this book on my ‘mystery/thriller’ shelf based on its blurb, but there’s SO much more to it than that. Yes, the question of what happened to Tess is its central thread, but that’s only one of its many layers and complexities.

I reminded you I studied literature, didn't I? I've had an endless supply of quotations at my disposal, but they had always highlighted the inadequacy of my life rather than providing an uplifting literary score to it.” An] unusual and searing debut... At the harrowing conclusion, Bee's aching heart accepts that "grief is love turned into an eternal missing." It’s always a good feeling to start a book and to be engrossed right from the start; it’s an even better feeling when you close the book completely satisfied. This was my experience with “Sister”.

The Author Resource Round Table on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/116489?group_id=26989 Liesl Schillinger, The Mystery of a Sister’s Death, New York Times – Sunday book review, June 3, 2011 Though Chrom-Med is a fictional company, what real-life questions about gene therapy are raised by the novel? What is the ethical way to apply humanity’s knowledge of the human genome?Before turning to novels, Lupton was a script-writer for television and film, writing original screenplays. She won Carlton Television's new writers' competition. ( Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/24/2016.) I did not have high expectation going into this novel. I knew that it was a decent thriller, because a friend of my suggested that I should read it, but I did not expect to be blown away by it... Boy was I wrong. Perhaps a bit of a minor point, but Tess's body lies undiscovered in a Hyde Park toilet for five days...? Is it really plausible that nobody would have gone into the building in all that time, especially since a young girl was missing from the local area and the case was being publicised heavily? Bee is also supposedly mature and sophisticated enough to understand the powers and pitfalls of both depression and therapy. Yet, at the same time she insists over and over and over again that her sister, Tess, could not have committed suicide because she wasn't the type to hide from her problems and because she valued life too much after losing their brother to a prolonged illness. I found this response to depression deeply offensive. Suicide has little to do with hiding from problems or one's respect for life. It has everything to do with an abiding need for peace, for an end to the pain. Depression is a disease that can be fatal. It infuriated me when Bee would insist that she "knew" Tess and that Tess would never commit suicide. Bee may have known a healthy Tess, but someone in the grips of depression no longer has a strong sense of self. In many ways they are no longer themselves.