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A review by thephdivabooks
The Orchid Sister by Anne D. LeClaire
4.0
“Everyone has scars, Maddie. They just hide them in different ways.”
Beautifully written and with a vague hint of lore and mystery, The Orchid Sister was simply magical. In the wake of a challenging upbringing, two sisters prove that their bond is greater than the bad things that come their way. This suspenseful women’s fiction novel is a beautiful story, and one with many layers.
About the Book
The girl with the scars. The girl with many masks. Maddie has many names, and many ways she is described by others. It is hard for people to see past the scars that Maddie wears, marks from the plane crash that killed her parents. Marks of a survivor, though they don’t always feel that way. When Maddie met Jack, handsome and adventurous, she fell for him quickly. Jack was one of the first men that didn’t recoil from her scars. He sees Maddie as the beautiful person she is, inside and out. Her scars are just on display.
Maddie is fascinated with masks, and she also creates her own masks. Perhaps this is part of her healing, a way to show that the outward appearance often hides who someone is. But the masks also have so much meaning, and Maddie is fascinated by the way different cultures create and use masks. The symbolism and the work that goes into them lends to the magical and ethereal quality. And of course, the masks also have symbolism in this book!
Maddie’s sister Kat has disappeared, and though the police initially doubt Maddie’s insistence that something happened to her sister, Maddie knows it to be true. It is the kind of thing you can feel when you have a bond like Maddie and Kat. But of course, we know where Kat is, because half of the chapters are told from Kat’s perspective. And the more we learn about where Kat is, the more sinister it becomes…
Reflection
There are eventually 5 narrators to this novel, though Maddie and Kat narrate the most chapters. Structurally the changes between the storylines kept it engaging. I ended up listening to the audiobook for this one, and all of the voice actors were fantastic. It made it so easy to follow whose chapter it was. Each was very unique, as were the stories they had to tell!
A good portion of the book takes place in the Yucatan in Mexico, and it really is the sort of book that transports you there. I loved the local lore that surrounded Kat’s disappearance and discovery. There was a dark, mystical quality to this mystery that leant to the atmospheric feel of the book. Wonderful!
Many thanks to Lake Union publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.
Beautifully written and with a vague hint of lore and mystery, The Orchid Sister was simply magical. In the wake of a challenging upbringing, two sisters prove that their bond is greater than the bad things that come their way. This suspenseful women’s fiction novel is a beautiful story, and one with many layers.
About the Book
The girl with the scars. The girl with many masks. Maddie has many names, and many ways she is described by others. It is hard for people to see past the scars that Maddie wears, marks from the plane crash that killed her parents. Marks of a survivor, though they don’t always feel that way. When Maddie met Jack, handsome and adventurous, she fell for him quickly. Jack was one of the first men that didn’t recoil from her scars. He sees Maddie as the beautiful person she is, inside and out. Her scars are just on display.
Maddie is fascinated with masks, and she also creates her own masks. Perhaps this is part of her healing, a way to show that the outward appearance often hides who someone is. But the masks also have so much meaning, and Maddie is fascinated by the way different cultures create and use masks. The symbolism and the work that goes into them lends to the magical and ethereal quality. And of course, the masks also have symbolism in this book!
Maddie’s sister Kat has disappeared, and though the police initially doubt Maddie’s insistence that something happened to her sister, Maddie knows it to be true. It is the kind of thing you can feel when you have a bond like Maddie and Kat. But of course, we know where Kat is, because half of the chapters are told from Kat’s perspective. And the more we learn about where Kat is, the more sinister it becomes…
Reflection
There are eventually 5 narrators to this novel, though Maddie and Kat narrate the most chapters. Structurally the changes between the storylines kept it engaging. I ended up listening to the audiobook for this one, and all of the voice actors were fantastic. It made it so easy to follow whose chapter it was. Each was very unique, as were the stories they had to tell!
A good portion of the book takes place in the Yucatan in Mexico, and it really is the sort of book that transports you there. I loved the local lore that surrounded Kat’s disappearance and discovery. There was a dark, mystical quality to this mystery that leant to the atmospheric feel of the book. Wonderful!
Many thanks to Lake Union publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.