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Sisters of Blood and Spirit is about twins Lark, living, and Wren, dead. Wren was stillborn and has been "haunting" Lark since infancy. Their relationship is as strong as you'd expect from twins, but Lark has suffered some serious consequences from continuing to talk with her invisible sister, including bullying, a suicide attempt, and hospitalization. Back in her home town living with their Grandma, Lark determines to finish high school without making waves, but a group of classmates that has angered an old and powerful ghost has other ideas for her. They enlist the sisters' help in vanquishing the ghost, who infected the group upon their first encounter and has been sucking their life force since. Lark and Wren both learn that they need to rely less on each other and that having a few friends in their own realm could be a good thing. I was drawn to this book for the cover, which, unfortunately, is the best thing about Kady Cross's Sisters of Blood and Spirit. While the characters are wholly and believably teen-aged in their dialogue and thoughts, the narration lacks any sophistication or polish either. Issues abound regarding dangling modifiers, structure lacking parallelism, and ambiguous antecedents. Suffice it to say that if my students turned in work like this, we would be having a conversation steeped in red ink about the importance of paying attention to language. I'm aware that not everyone is as perturbed by grammar issues as I am, but the negligence doesn't stop there. Twenty pages don't go by without one of the two narrators exclaiming that she doesn't know her strength, capability, or source of power. Ok, we get it. Furthermore, thirty pages from the end of the book, I thought to myself, Oh, this must be the first in a series because there's no way this all wraps up so quickly! Indeed, it did. The ending cobbles together pseudo-resolutions as if the author pulled them haphazardly out of a hat. Teens interested in ghosts would probably enjoy this book despite its failings. I did finish it, after all, so it can't be that terrible.
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