The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor

Summary:

Abigail and her sister, Becky, have always been referred to as the "September Sisters." Since their birthdays are only two years and one day apart and they have always put up an allusion that they are best friends. Though, in reality they are far from it. They enjoy making each other miserable by calling each other a baby when one of them shows weakness or simply taking the pink tube in the pool before the other does.

Everything changes, though, when Becky suddenly disappears from the house in the middle of a summer night. Suddenly, Abigail's life is turned upside down. Her mother has fallen into a deep depression and is spending most of time sleeping or just staring into space in the darkness of her room, her dad is putting all his time and effort into finding Becky no matter how much it costs him or his family, and her best friend, along with everyone else at school, thinks that hanging out with her will cause misfortune in their lives too.

Now Abigail doesn't know how to deal with the sadness and guilt over the loss of her sister. Though, with the help of the nice boy who moves in next door, she begins to see that love and happiness still exists even when the people around you can't fathom such a thing.

Review:

Even before reading this novel, I had high hopes. Since, the cover is awesome, the summary is intriguing, and Jillian Cantor has been compared to Sarah Dessen(which means it has to be an extremely good book) Lucky for me, it was wonderful.

The September Sisters is a stunning debut novel that will have all reading long into the night.

Jillian Cantor perfectly captures the raw and scary feelings of first love and losing someone you love dearly. Abby's voice is strong and funny even though she has gone through so much. She is definitely one of those characters that you can relate to even though you haven't had to go through 1/5 of what she has.

One of my favorite parts of this novel was Cantor's writing. It didn't hold back once and it had me wondering throughout the story: Will Becky come back alive and if she doesn't, will the Reeds' realize they have another daughter to raise?

The plot was interesting and had complex turns to it that changed everything. I really liked how it started out in the beginning that they had found Becky, but than transformed to that night so long ago that changed everything. I felt that without that you would not really get to see all the drama Abby and her parents went through.

Overall, The September Sisters was an amazing novel that will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Meg Cabot. I truly think Jillian has the possibility to be the next big thing in Young Adult fiction! I highly suggest that you go pick this book up from your local library or go buy it at the bookstore when it is released.

Grade: A+

The September Sisters will be released in hardback on February 24, 2009. You can find out more about it here. Also, you can go check out Jillian's blog here and her website here.

* Much thanks to Jillian Cantor for sending me not only a copy, but a singed copy! :)