I have been eagerly waiting to read “Blue Sisters” by Coco Mellors since early May, when I asked a bookseller at McNally Jackson Books if a copy could be held for me. The book went on sale in the United States on Sept. 3, and I think it’s safe to say I was one of the first people in the country to buy it that Tuesday morning.
“Blue Sisters” is Mellors’ second book following her bestselling debut novel “Cleopatra and Frankenstein,” which was met with high acclaim from highbrow book reviewers when it was released in 2022. Mellors wrote her first book while at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science, where she received an MFA in fiction. While the stakes were high for Mellors’ highly-anticipated second book, she delivered.
The story follows the lives of the three Blue sisters after the first anniversary of their sister Nicky’s death. Avery, the oldest, is a recovered-addict-turned-lawyer living in London with her wife. Bonnie, the second-oldest, is a former professional boxer living in Los Angeles. Lucky, the youngest, lives in Paris as a high fashion model. The book alternates between all three sisters’ points of view, with each character having their own chapters.
Nicky, the third child, was living alone in the Blue’s childhood home on the Upper West Side, working as a teacher. Suffering from severe endometriosis, Bonnie found Nicky dead in the apartment, having overdosed on laced painkillers.
Growing up in close quarters with an alcoholic father and mother lacking the maternal gene, the girls learned to lean on one another, but especially Avery. They eventually went their own ways and naturally grew apart. By the time Nicky had died, each sister started her own life, leaving behind the close-knit relationship that defined their youth. And though no dramatic fight had torn the sisters apart, it becomes clear that there are underlying tensions when they call each other to commemorate Nicky’s death at the start of the book.
Each sister is grieving in her own way, struggling to admit her suffering to herself and her other sisters. After Nicky’s death, Avery finds herself becoming addicted to something again, but this time it’s stealing. She also isn’t doing herself any favors in her relationship, betraying her wife and making poor choices. Bonnie lives a lonely life as an uninspired nightclub bouncer after quitting boxing immediately after Nicky’s death, and Lucky messes up her career while slipping fast into alcoholism.
But the sisters won’t admit these things to each other. Avery wants to protect Lucky and Bonnie from further harm, Bonnie wants to fix Lucky and look up to a struggling Avery and Lucky wants her sisters to believe that she can take care of herself. This sibling dynamic, in addition to their secretive stubbornness, leads all of them to deeper suffering. Readers get caught in the tangled web of their phone conversations, seeing their arguments and miscommunications from multiple points of view.
Eventually, all of their struggles come to a head when they reunite in the New York apartment to grapple with their grief together. The pacing throughout the story was perfectly timed, allowing readers to fully learn about each character before everybody came together towards the end.
Mellors’ prose is exquisite but not contrived, making for an approachable literary read. Each character feels real from the beginning, with each sister written as a complex human being, even Nicky, who is gone before readers get to meet her. Nicky was a sensitive young woman full of joy and excitement for life, channeled through her femininity, shamelessly listening to teen pop music as an adult and prioritizing female friendships.
Despite complete and honest representations of each sister, Mellors makes it clear that each girl is undoubtedly one part of a shattered whole, with a gaping feeling lingering beneath the surface. This feeling is created through Mellors’ fantastic way of showing — not telling — readers how the death impacts the Blue family, like when Avery bathes Lucky after a night of partying and sadly repeats “not you too” as she washes her hair.
Mellors is a masterful storyteller, weaving complex themes into a streamlined plot. Exploring familial addiction, sisterhood dynamics, inequities in women’s health and, above all, the complex ways of grieving, “Blue Sisters” is a deeply sensitive book with unique characters that are impossible not to love. Mellors built an entire world out of one family’s struggles, allowing for a sweeping and universal analysis of sisterhood.
“‘You never have to explain yourselves to sisters.’”
Contact Alexa Donovan at [email protected].
