The Sister

The Sister by Louise Jensen
Published by Bookouture on July 7th 2016
Genres: Thriller, Psychological
Pages: 307
Format: eBook, Audiobook
Source: NetGalley & Bookouture

Grace hasn't been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie's words, the last time she saw her, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie's. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn't know about her best friend.
When Grace starts a campaign to find Charlie's father, Anna, a girl claiming to be Charlie's sister steps forward. For Grace, finding Anna is like finding a new family, and soon Anna has made herself very comfortable in Grace and boyfriend Dan's home.
But something isn't right. Things disappear, Dan's acting strangely and Grace is sure that someone is following her. Is it all in Grace's mind? Or as she gets closer to discovering the truth about both Charlie and Anna, is Grace in terrible danger?
There was nothing she could have done to save Charlie ...or was there?

**Special thanks to NetGalley & Bookouture for supplying my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

“I did something terrible Grace”. A very gripping start to the debut novel, The Sister, by Louise Jensen. I have read Louise’s second novel, The Gift, which was a very powerful psychological thriller and was very intrigued to go back and read her debut novel, The Sister.

The book has quite a powerful Start. Grace is going back in the woods to where she and her best friend Charlie had once buried a memory box on her 15^th birthday. She remembers how excited they were on that day. She also remembers the red envelope Charlie had left inside the box at the last moment.

Charlie is now dead. Her last words to Grace still linger in Grace’s mind. “I did something terrible Grace, please forgive me”. As Charlie stares at the envelope in her hands, she hopes it carries the answers to her questions. What had Charlie done? What had happened to all of them? Grace is still mourning her best friend. She can’t overcome that heavy grief. She and her husband Dan had been best friends with Charlie since childhood. A lot of memories rush into Grace’s head, and nothing can ease the sorrow. There are a lot of secrets and a lot of puzzles. It seems everyone had his share of regrets and sorrows. Dan is not acting normal and the group of friends had turned against each other.

Seeking some relief, Grace tries to do something good for her late friend. Charlie had been desperate to know her father. The father she had never seen. Her mother had always been annoyed whenever this topic had been brought up. Now Grace wants to find him in an attempt to do something good for her friend after her death.

However, it’s like opening Pandora box. Grace had all the noble intentions when opening this box. However, this couldn’t prevent the consequences nor the upcoming harm. There are a lot of secrets and we, the readers, can’t help being so intrigued to know those secrets. In a fast paced psychological thriller, we follow Grace in her journey to reveal the truth while at the same time remembering the past. In a story told between the past and the present we know bit by bit about the friendship, the love and above all the secrets. The darkest secrets!

This was supposed to be one of the best psychological thrillers. The writing style was marvelous. The author used all the suspenseful effects to deliver the mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere. As I love psychological thrillers, I really loved the way she wrote this book. However, that wasn’t enough.

The Sister had many shortcomings. To start with, the story is predictable. Also, the plot was very circumstantial. Meaning, if not for Grace’s stupidity sometimes, there might not have been a plot at all. I can’t imagine someone seeing all those red flags and still ignoring them while at the same time playing witty and paranoid about other trivial matters! I mean how could this plot have gone if Grace was smart enough? Just a question! The plot reminds me of some suspense movies I’ve watched a lot in the nineties. Nice though repeated.

Having said that, I still admit that Louise Jensen has a unique marvelous writing style. Because even with those shortcomings, I still enjoyed the book and wanted to read it. I think we can expect a lot of future fantastic thrillers from a writer as good as Louise Jensen.

One last word, I love the cover of this book. It’s simply brilliant!