The bond of a sibling is a difficult thing to express in words. In Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors manages to communicate the tumultuous, vicious, all-consuming love that sisterhood involves. It follows three estranged sisters: Avery, a recovering addict and polished lawyer living in London with her wife; Bonnie, an almost-world champion boxer tucked away in LA following a brutal defeat; and Lucky, a young model bouncing from party to runway to party in Paris.

The cracks that run through all of them seem to hinge on one thing: the death of their fourth sister, Nicky, just a year ago. When news breaks that their parents are planning to sell their family apartment in New York, the sisters are drawn back together at the source of much of their joy and trauma. Blue Sisters navigates with heart-wrenching honesty the potent combination of grief, addiction, and desire that haunts the sisters. As childhood memories resurface and interpersonal relationships are strained, each woman grapples with her own unique secrets and pain.

Their love for each other, however, is palpable. This is not one of the books that seems to feign authentic sibling relationships. Instead, Mellors buries herself up to her elbows in crafting complex, dynamic bonds that do justice to true sisterly relationships. She also appears to have meticulously researched modelling, boxing, and addiction, conducting interviews across the world and training with a boxing coach for months. I would say this shines through, as nothing pulled me from the writing with disbelief.

I have not truly been able to say a book has me gripped in quite the way this one did for a long time. You can see the development and maturing of Mellors’ writing since her debut Cleopatra and Frankenstein. The lovely prose in this new work made it accessible and emotional, and every single point of view had me earnestly hooked. Blue Sisters is fascinating, raw, lovable, and a downright must-read for those with siblings, and without.