Growing up with a sister, I had plenty of first-hand opportunities to experience a range of emotions: love, loyalty, jealousy—and revenge. There aren’t many blood relations that inspire that gamut; sisters have a special dynamic that changes by the second. My sister is my biggest champion and biggest critic in equal measure. Predicting which she’ll be at any given time keeps me guessing as if I’m living out a whodunit.
This season, sisters are popping up all over the new release shelf. I started thinking about the inspiration that played out in each book. What was it that drove these authors to lean on that particular relationship when it came to plots and character backstories?
In Veronica Forand’s The Twin’s Bodyguard (Feb 25, Romantic Suspense), the protagonist is the only person who can save her sister’s life. That’s the kind of bond that you’re born with; that’s love.
In Liz Alterman’s You Shouldn’t Have Done That (Mar 23, Contemporary), two best friends have sons who are best friends, until one of those sons goes missing after a ski trip, and his sister posts an online appeal that inspires a crusade against the other friend. Notice it’s the sister who stirs things up. Loyalty, anyone?
In Kate Braithwaite’s The People Next Door (Apr 2, Domestic), it’s been twenty years since the protagonist’s sister disappeared, but maybe the protagonist isn’t who she says she is. Could there have been nefarious sisterly business at play twenty years ago? Curiosity bells are ringing!
Bella Ellwood- Clayton’s The Swimming Group (Apr 24, Domestic) features a group of women swimmers who each experienced a tragedy. The narrator has had more than one; after her fiancé’s infidelity becomes evident, her sister drowns on a family trip. Loss and emptiness make tragic bedfellows.
Ashley Flowers uses a deceased sister as a character-defining trait for The Missing Half (May 6, Traditional Mystery). The protagonist is in a rut, has been since the day her sister went missing seven years ago, her abduction mirroring a separate crime. A surprising visit from another victim’s sister inspires a pursuit for the truth. There’s that bond again: love. Can anyone inspire us to stand up for them like a sister can?
Sisters can save each other and destroy each other. They can bring out the best and the worst of a character. Layer in older and younger sister dynamics and things get heated—not to mention the dreaded middle sister ‘Jan Brady Syndrome’. The next time you discover a character has a sister, consider the layers to that relationship and how it may have done more to define that protagonist than anything else they’ve experienced in life.
