Having just read a host of memoirs about loss, grief, illness, strong mothers, tormented fathers who fall apart during hard times and excruciating circumstances Invisible Sisters stands out as being one of the best. Jessica Handler's memoir about the death of her two sisters, and the disintegration of her family, especially her father is searing and honest and matter-of-fact and I inhaled this book over the course of a day.

Like many families the Handlers did not talk about the death of their daughter, Susie who died at age 8 from Leukemia. Since the time that Susie was diagnosed her parents managed this life-altering fact in opposite ways and after her death her "parents began the slow and terrible turning away from one another that erodes families facing the death of a child." Very soon after her father mentally and psychically fell apart and the family that Jessica knew was gone. For Jessica, the "well" daughter, there was expectations to meet and hopes to fulfill, conflicts to mediate between parents and the need to protect; her other sister, her mother and mostly herself. Lost, without much support she left home early, bereft and alone with death as her companion.

I understand all of this. As someone who grew up with the specter of death shadowing my family there is no way out of it terrorizing you. So you can tentatively try to make friends with it, you can accept that you will be frighted and sickened and devastated by fear, be immobilized by it, live life as fully as possible, forget about it and do all of this at once. This is what I treasure about Jessica's smart and gracious book. She comes to know this and as she worked to save herself, with the support and love of her mother, husband and community of people around her, she hands herself back a life full of meaning and peace.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion. ( )

I think this memoir was very cathartic for the author. By the time she was 10 she had lost one sister to leukemia and her other was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder.

Jessica Handler tells of how her family basically slowly fell apart after the death of her younger sister, Susie, at the age of 8. Invisible Sisters tells her story, the "well sibling," as she called herself. It follows her path through childhood, her college years and into adulthood.

I'm not sure why it didn't strike a cord with me. I think I felt that it was almost written from an observers point of view rather than an actual member of the family even though Ms. Handler did go into her feelings at different points.

This book was provided to me free through Netgalley.com for review purposes. ( )

What the loss of a woman's two sisters does to her family and to her own childhood. Wish I could put my finger on what is missing here, but something I wish this book had is more from or about the mother and the other sister who made it to adulthood before dying. ( )

Op zich is het wel een aangrijpend verhaal, maar ik vind het vrij verwarrend geschreven. Ik ben er niet zo dol op. ( )

I've started this book several times - I haven't finished it yet, not because it isn't good - it is very good so far - but I have to be in a certain mindset - it is not depressing - but sobering. Easier for me to read it on a warm summer day, not on a grey, winter one.