by Gwendolen Gross
Simon & Schuster, $15.00, 284 pages
Clementine Lord’s life is about family and contradiction. She wants her father’s approval, but she wants to find her own path. She wants her mother to stand up for herself, but she wants to avoid conflict. She wants to be connected to her sisters—they are triplets, after all, even if Odette and Olivia are identical and Clementine’s a single—but she wants her own identity. When their distant and controlling father goes missing, the whole family is shaken. Clementine wants to know what happened, Mom’s in denial, Odette’s worried, and Olivia’s furious—she alone knows the truth and won’t tell. Long-buried secrets come out, and everything Clementine has ever believed about her family changes.
The Orphan Sister, like Clementine, is still searching to find its path. The triplets’ bond is promising. Family is complicated, and hearing your siblings speak in your head takes it to a new level. But it’s gimmicky. The father’s secret is intriguing, causing the family rift, but it turns out to be trite. Characters act too predictably or completely out of character. While there are entertaining moments, the story lacks depth and the underdeveloped narrative breaks into tangents too often to truly hold readers’ attention.
Leah Sims