Two Sisters

Muriel Sullivant has always been a disappointment to her family. The youngest of three children, she can't compete with sister Pia, especially when it comes to their mother's love. Pia is everything Muriel isn't: thin, beautiful, married, religious. A 23-year-old casting assistant in New York, Muriel tries to avoid her family. She's successful until Pia pops by and confesses an awful secret. She has cancer and forbids Muriel to tell their mother. Muriel's a pro when it comes to keeping family secrets, but eventually their mother finds out the truth, turning Muriel's already ugly relationship with her even uglier. Making her adult fiction debut, Hogan, the author of seven YA novels, shows such insight into how cancer affects not only the patient but the family as well that it's not surprising to discover she has personal experience with the disease. Although the slow pacing in the novel's first half is troublesome and the alternating points of view can be jarring, ultimately this is a hopeful novel with some genuinely surprising moments; even the rushed ending manages to satisfy.