I finished "Blue Sisters" by Coco Mellors yesterday. Its a #booktok hype, which made me sceptical, because I've DNFed multiple books that were hyped on tiktok now - but I am a sucker for family stories, so I gave it a try. And its actually good! I really liked the dynamic between the sisters and the observations how addiction and trauma manifests through generations. Despite the topics it was not a downer of a book but a relatively "lighthearted" read (not in general, just relatively for the topics) that is more inspiring and hopeful than depressive and it has a lot of comedic moments anyway. Which I like, the best tragedies are served with comedy IMO.
What impressed me most is the perfect pacing. I've read a lot of books this year that needed better editing (Sanderson...), but this one was so well done. The narrative knew exactly when to indulge in details to get atmospheric and when to get into action. Or when to switch from snappy dialogue to reflection and introspection of the characters.
A lot of topics clearly were very personal to the author as her afterwords prove, which I liked. This story came from her heart. The only thing unfortunately I can't believe: That she knows how to grow up in poverty. The characters are supposed to live in precarious circumstances as children and I don't think the author know how that is. Its a bit of the shame because the rest of the topics are very personal to her (alcoholism, sisterhood, trauma and even boxing), but she didn't dare to make the characters childrens of a marketing executive and a doctor like herself - or to research how it might actually feel to grow up in poverty.
