Review: The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Such an odd title, and I never figured it out, these sisters weren’t weird by any conventional definition*. This story is about three sisters each at a major crossroad in her life. Rosalind is the eldest and is engaged but unhappy as she doesn’t want to relocate to be with her fiancée who has landed a great job in London. Bianca is the middle sister, forced to return home after being fired from her job for stealing funds. Cordy is the baby, a wanderer who has flitted her way through life, a transient who has just learned that she is pregnant.
These sisters are too old to be considered girls as they are ladies in their late twenties and early thirties, so they have already come “of age”. Each uses their mother’s cancer illness as a reason to move home. Named after their professor father’s favorite Shakespeare heroines, the three sisters tolerate each other, old issues still frothing to the surface as they live under one roof again.

As the eldest, Rosalind is the caretaker; she gets frustrated with her unorganized and selfish siblings. Rosalind makes the dinners, takes her mom to the hospital, and ensures that her mother has all that she needs. When Rosalind is given the opportunity to work for the college in her hometown, she is more than tempted. However she is engaged to a man who has a job far from home in another country, she doesn’t want to leave…how will she know what to do?

Bianca is beyond lost, she thought she would live a glamorous life in New York, but now she owes everyone money and debt collectors are on her trail. She leaves New York with all of her newly acquired belongings (clothes) but with nothing else. She owes her old company money, she owes back-rent, and has no way to pay it back. She has always been the most attractive sister, so almost the minute she gets to town she initiates an affair with a married man. She is ashamed at how her life has turned and finds her solace not in the church, but in the old town library.

Cordy has neglected herself and her body, she is tired and hungry, her first actions upon returning home are to sleep and eat. The others notice her eating ravenously but she’s so thin that they do not suspect her pregnancy and she is afraid to bring it up. The only thing she knows with all her heart is that the baby is hers and hers alone. An old high school friend gives Cordy a part time job as a waitress at a coffee shop, not a dream job, but one in which she starts to find satisfaction.

The sisters unite a bit as they see how fragile their mother has become, for her they must set their differences aside. One aspect of this book that I like is that all members of the family love books; their home is filled with books, how fabulous.

All in all, I think this would be a good Book club book, it is a simple straightforward tale about love and family, home and sisters.

*The author's website claims that Weird had a different definition in Shakespeare's time...



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