Title: The Sister Pact
Author: Stacie Ramey
Publication: November 3, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages: 320
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
A suicide pact was supposed to keep them together, but a broken promise tore them apart
Allie is devastated when her older sister commits suicide – and not just because she misses her. Allie feels betrayed. The two made a pact that they’d always be together, in life, and in death, but Leah broke her promise and Allie needs to know why.
Her parents hover. Her friends try to support her. And Nick, sweet Nick, keeps calling and flirting. Their sympathy only intensifies her grief.
But the more she clings to Leah, the more secrets surface. Allie’s not sure which is more distressing: discovering the truth behind her sister’s death or facing her new reality without her.
REVIEW
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I was not expecting this book to be as heavy as it was, but I’m glad I pushed through and read it. Having been in a bit of a reading slump, I needed something to pull me out. At first, The Sister Pact by Stacie Ramey was not it, but the intricacy of the issues being dealt with by Allie kept me coming back, and in some sense, rooting for her to make it through.
The story follows Allie as she deals with the fact that her sister Leah killed herself even though they had a suicide pact together. She’s left not understanding what happen, feeling left behind even if her feelings weren’t really in the pact to begin with, and left not knowing who she can open up to. She uses a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms that are explored in the story and I felt Ramey did a fantastic job showing them even though they are really hard topics to write about. I really enjoyed the growth and struggles that I got to experience reading this with Allie and seeing it from a different point of view that I really couldn’t have imagined.
The only thing keeping me from giving this five stars was that at times it felt dragged out. It was the same thing over, and over and I wanted to see the story move forward. I’m unsure if a time jump would have helped, but it was almost like reading the same scene on repeat a few times. This didn’t bother me enough to ruin the story, I just felt at times it could have moved along at a faster pace.
Overall this book was really good. It’s heavy and has some very deep topics, so if you aren’t in a great headspace, then you should not read it right then. But it really made me feel for the characters and Ramey’s writing did have me coming back wanting to see what would happen in the end. Check it out and let me know what you think!
