| "The day that Mom, Luke, and I moved in with Walter, Alexis, and Denny, even the dog was mad." So begins Jamie's telling of The Real Sister, a novel about a newly blended family striking its roots into the soil of a small agricultural town. Out of this fractured and reconstructed family, Jamie and her stepsister, Alexis, develop a profound and intoxicating relationship. As the girls mature, Jamie struggles to understand the chaotic world around her: her alcoholic father, her "troubled" sister, the town she comes to think of as a hive of wasps. When Alexis runs away from home, Jamie's world quietly shatters, and she begins the endless task of reconciling their relationship. Along the way, Jamie grapples with the realization that, despite her dangerous and sometimes self-destructive ways, Alexis remains a powerful force in her life, one that Jamie simply can't give up. |
