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Natalie Standiford followed up How To Say Goodbye in Robot with another smart, eccentric novel. The plot of Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is obvious from its name - confessions by each of the three Sullivan sisters of the sins they assume has so infuriated their grandmother Almighty that she threatened to write her family out of the will. The Sullivans are a blue-blood Baltimore family, living off their grandmother's wealth. Norrie, the oldest girl, breaks with convention by ruining her cotillion after she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student. Jane, despite the plain name, is the most vivacious of the sisters. She brazenly drags the entire family name through the mud with her blog myevilfamily.com (an actual blog set up by the author!). Sassy is the youngest. She's convinced that she's invincible, because she was hit by a car and wasn't hurt. She thinks that this has upset Almighty. Of the three stories, Jane's was by far the most interesting. I love her personality. She's a real jerk and very selfish, but loads of fun to read. She constantly has disparaging remarks about her friends and family. They were just hilarious. If I were related to her, I would be horrified by Jane's blog, but as an outsider, I loved it. I admired her cheek. 17 year old Norrie is the girl most like me - the responsible oldest sister. But then she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student and all bets are off. The boy seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he treated her well. I liked his smart, cultured friends. Still, I thought the age difference between 25 and 17 was a little too weird, not to mention illegal. Even if he'd been 21, it would have felt more comfortable. Sassy was a sweet girl. Her confession wasn't all that interesting in comparison to the others, but it was still cute. My favorite part of the book was the family dynamics. The Sullivans are a large family of diverse personalities, but you can tell that they love each other. The sisters are always spending time together - hanging out in the Tower room. They go to parties together, have fun together, complain together, worry together. As an only child, it's a life I longed to have as a kid. There's an undercurrent of love throughout the book. I don't know if the author put it there purposely, but the strong sister relationship was very meaningful to me. Rating: 4 / 5

2023-06-23 01:28