Two Sisters

March 1, 2014
In Hogan's first adult fiction (she has sevenYA titles to her credit), the poisonous relationship between two sisters, and the family dysfunction that grew it, is examined with style and sensitivity. Muriel had her Sunday planned: She would hole up for hours of binge TV-watching and a tub of popcorn in her Manhattan apartment. But then Pia calls, and Muriel's day is transformed. As she waits for her older sister's arrival from Connecticut, Muriel recalls a childhood marked by exclusion and petty cruelties; her older sister was perfect, and their mother, Lidia, made no effort to hide her preference in daughters. Lidia, beautiful and perpetually dissatisfied with her life in Queens, had forced a shotgun marriage on the girls' father, Owen, an engineer who preferred tinkering in the basement to talking with his family. Little has changed in the ensuing years; their parents are remote, and brother Logan has abandoned the family altogether. Pia, with sculpted hair and body, lives in the rarefied air of Westport with a financier husband and accomplished daughter. Muriel is an assistant casting agent with few friends or romantic prospects; she is the moon to Pia's sun. But when Pia comes for that Sunday visit, it's to confess a secret--she's dying of cancer and has come to the city to buy a dress to be buried in. Muriel is good at keeping secrets (she never told anyone that Pia nearly killed her on a beach outing or that her mother was having an affair with their priest), and now Pia is asking her to keep this news from Lidia. When the narrative shifts from Muriel's perspective to Pia's, the malicious older sister is humanized, if not entirely redeemed. Pia's battle with cancer is vivid and heartbreaking, Muriel's guilt (for not being lovable) is tragic, though nothing compares to Lidia's final, scandalous confession. Hogan's characters may be too broadly drawn (one sister so callous, the other so naive), but she creates a gripping narrative of a fractured family.

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March 15, 2014

Muriel Sullivant has always been a disappointment to her family. The youngest of three children, she can't compete with sister Pia, especially when it comes to their mother's love. Pia is everything Muriel isn't: thin, beautiful, married, religious. A 23-year-old casting assistant in New York, Muriel tries to avoid her family. She's successful until Pia pops by and confesses an awful secret. She has cancer and forbids Muriel to tell their mother. Muriel's a pro when it comes to keeping family secrets, but eventually their mother finds out the truth, turning Muriel's already ugly relationship with her even uglier. Making her adult fiction debut, Hogan, the author of seven YA novels, shows such insight into how cancer affects not only the patient but the family as well that it's not surprising to discover she has personal experience with the disease. Although the slow pacing in the novel's first half is troublesome and the alternating points of view can be jarring, ultimately this is a hopeful novel with some genuinely surprising moments; even the rushed ending manages to satisfy. VERDICT Readers touched by cancer and book clubs that enjoy discussing family issues may find this title particularly appealing.--Amy Stenftenagel, Washington Cty. Lib. Syst., Forest Lake, MN

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2014
YA novelist Hogan ventures into adult fiction with this novel about a family weighed down by festering secrets and resentments. Twenty-three-year-old Muriel Sullivant is a Broadway casting assistant in Manhattan, but she's still riddled by the same insecurities that plagued her as a child: namely, that her mother favored her older sister, Pia, over her and she'll never be the kind of sister that glamorous, elegant Pia wanted. Her life in her small city apartment couldn't be more different than Pia's existence in Connecticut with her adoring husband and daughter. When Pia calls Muriel out of the blue and wants to visit her, Muriel dreads it, expecting only judgment and disappointment. But when Pia arrives, her behavior is decidedly out of character, and Muriel finally learns why: Pia has been stricken with metastatic breast cancer. Pia implores Muriel to keep her diagnosis from their mother, and Muriel reluctantly consents, not anticipating the fallout that will lead to the revelation of even more family secrets. Book clubs will find much to discuss in this fraught, fascinating family drama.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)