The Secret Language of Sisters

Reviewed by: Anne Donovan - Long Island Community Library, Long Island, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 11, 2016

Review

Luanne Rice is well known for her many Adult Fiction novels set primarily on the Connecticut shore. This is her first YA novel and is also set in Connecticut. Teenage sisters, Roo and Tilly McCabe are 2 years apart and attend the same high school. Roo, the older by 2 years, is the "Golden Girl":smart, pretty, popular, a gifted photographer with a long time boyfriend and a shoo-in to attend Yale. Tilly has not found her gift yet, is an average student, and socially awkward. In spite of their differences they are very close and supportive of each other until a devastating event occurs. While Roo is driving she answers a text from Tilly and causes a horrific accident that leaves her hospitalized, paralyzed, and apparently in a coma. Tilly is consumed by guilt and strikes out at her mom, Roo's boyfriend, and her own friends as her life unravels. It is Tilly, however, who discovers that Roo is not at all in a coma but is experiencing "locked-in-syndrome" and can hear and understand everything going on around her but is unable to speak or move.The author alternates first person chapters between Tilly and what is going on in her life and Roo with what she is experiencing in her hospital bed. While this is certainly a cautionary tale of the dangers of texting and driving it is also one of family, teen age relationships, grief management (the girls' father had died suddenly recently),the wonders of modern medicine and technology, and redemption. As such it gets somewhat overcrowded and choppy as the author tries to fit everything in. This contemporary novel about teenagers will appeal most to girls aged 13 and up.

Overall Book Score: good