The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
Fern and Rose are twins, in their late twenties. They take turns telling their stories; Fern mostly tells about her life nowadays as a librarian, while Rose fills in their past. We know that at age twelve, Fern did something terrible, but we have no idea what. When Fern finds out that Rose is unable to have a baby she becomes determined to be a surrogate for her sister, since Rose has always helped take care of Fern and she wants to repay her sister's kindness.
Though it’s never explicitly stated, Fern almost definitely has autism and Rose has spent most of her life helping a Fern navigate her world. Fern is extremely well-written; I've never come across an autistic character written as well as she is. Fern's dialogue seems really authentic and not stereotypical in the least. However, it's also often funny witnessing Fern's thought processes.
Sometimes people in this library can be surprisingly dense. For heaven's sake, why would I be sitting behind the desk- wearing a name badge!- if I didn't work here? That said, I don't fit the stereotypical mold of a librarian. For a start, at twenty-eight, I'm younger than the average librarian (forty-five, according to Librarian's Digest) and I dress more fashionably and colorfully than the majority of my peers-I'm partial to soft, bright T-shirts, sparkly sneakers, and long skirts or overalls emblazoned with rainbows or unicorns...
The characters are phenomenally developed and Hepworth once again proves herself a great writer. The story flows and it kept me glued to my kindle. However, don't be deceived, this is a psychological thriller, it's simply unlike any other thriller I've ever read. There's a lot of laughing, a lot of darkness, and even some romance. It's as if a Rainbow Rowell novel met Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney and they had a baby. It's extremely complicated and such a perfect read if you really want to be taken off guard. I loved it so much I read it twice and that is pretty unusual for me.
I cannot wait to recommend this to all of my friends. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review!
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Quotes:
‘"I apologize, I thought you were homeless." I don't smile now, to indicate this isn't banter, but a serious comment. "I'm afraid it was your jeans that gave me that impression. And the hat, obviously."
He stares at me. Not being one to duck away from a challenge, I stare back. A few years ago, I read a book of tips for people who find eye contact difficult. It suggested staring competitions as a form of exposure therapy.’
"If it were up to me, every child would have a year in the library before they went to school. Not just to read, but to roam. To befriend a librarian. To bash their fingers against the computers and to turn the pages of a book while making up a story from their superior little imaginations. How lucky the world would be if every child could do that."
"The library is for everyone, she used to say, but some need it more than others."
"Sisterly relationships are so strange in this way. The way I can be mad at Rose but still want to please her. Be terrified of her and also want to run to her. Hate her and love her, both at the same time. Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best."
"...people without sisters think it's all sunshine and lollipops or all blood and guts. But actually it's always both. Sunshine and guts. Lollipops and blood. Good and bad."
SPOILERS BELOW:
The incident Fern always refers to as her mistake or the bad thing she did is when she helped hold her mother's boyfriend's son underwater and he drowned.
Fern meets Wally, who she initially believes to be homeless. In order to be Rose's surrogate, she asks Wally on a date and becomes pregnant by him. However, Fern ends up falling for Wally, who may be autistic as well, or at least has sensory processing disorder. (Wally's real name is Rocco and he is actually an app developer and a millionaire, but he was overwhelmed with the business world and ran away to Australia and is living in his van. Fern calls him Wally because she believes that he looks like the character from Where's Wally?)
Fern does indeed become pregnant, and when Rose finds this out, she convinces Fern to move in with her after an incident in which Fern forgot to feed Alfie, Rose's dog. Rose also convinces Fern that her relationship with Wally isn't really good for either or him, and that he will find out about the pregnancy soon, so Fern breaks up with Wally even though they both have strong feelings for each other. Wally, however, warns Fern about Rose's lack of boundaries and her overbearing involvement in Fern's life.
In the meantime, we learn about Fern and Rose's traumatic childhood through Rose's diary. We find out that they were homeless and that their mother was very cruel and manipulative.
"Do you know what I remember from the library year? Sleeping on couches that smelled of dog; being dragged from our old flat in the middle of the night and not being allowed to bring any toys, not even Mr. Bear, even when I begged Mum to let e take him hauling striped plastic bags out of strangers' houses every morning and putting them in the boot of Mum's little car to take wherever we were headed next; waking up every morning with a pain in my stomach, a combination, I realize now, of hunger and fear."
"'Nope,' Fern said. 'Two meals a day are enough for anyone, any more and you're greedy.' She was reciting Mum's words, of course, verbatim."
"I clambered onto the couch to listen to the story, but Mum pushed me off so roughly I fell onto the floorboards, banging my bad knee. I cried so hard my stomach hurt, but she just kept reading. When the story was finished, she tucked Fern in and left the room."
As the months pass after Fern and Wally's breakup, Rose becomes more and more concerned with Fern's comings and goings, what she is eating, how she is sleeping, etc etc. Fern is understanding of this at first, because after all, she is carrying Rose's baby. But as time wears on, she becomes more and more irritated with Fern's involvement in her life and begins to ruminate on Wally's warning about Rose.
All this time, Fern has visited her mother, who is in a care facility after suffering an overdose, every Thursday. One day, Fern's mother unexpectedly dies, and Fern discovers that Rose had recently been to visit her- on fact, the night of her death. Fern is devastated over her mother's death but is relieved that they seem to have made up before her mother's death.
The same day that Fern finds out that her mother has passed away, Wally visits her at work. Wally confronts her about her pregnancy, but does not seem to realize that the timing coincides with their relationship. However, he tells Fern that Rose told him of the pregnancy and that she also told him that Fern was in financial trouble. "Look, Fern, I know you've met someone else. But Rose is right, I do still care about you. And as someone who cares about you, I feel a responsibility to tell you that I think something is very wrong with your sister. Very, very wrong."
Fern is not sure what or who to believe anymore but goes into labor that same day. At the hospital, she calls Rose, who advocates for her wonderfully throughout the labor process. However, after the baby is born, Rose begins separating Fern from the baby and begins to treat her less and less kindly. Fern is no longer sure she wants Rose to adopt the baby and she flees from the hospital with the baby, which she names Willow.
At this point, the book is going warp speed; Fern is located by police and is committed to the hospital's psych ward. She believes police are there because she kidnapped Willow, but they are actually there because they are treating their mother's death as suspicious and they have questions about Rose. They release her diary to Fern, who reads it and declares almost everything in it to be false.
Fern also realizes that Rose counted the seconds for her to hold Billy's head down, and that she was actually not responsible for his drowning. Rose's estranged husband appears and warns Fern that Rose could be a narcissist or may have another mental health disorder which makes her dangerous.
Wally and Fern get back together and raise Willow and are excellent, albeit strange, parents. Rose plots revenge from her cell.
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