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BROTHER/SISTER by Sean Olin

BROTHER/SISTER

by Sean Olin

Pub Date: June 9th, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59514-386-0
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin

When Ashley and Will’s violently drunk-ass mom is institutionalized by her strange, stoner boyfriend for the umpteenth time, the two siblings are left to fend for themselves.

Will is a sensitive, protective, outsider type with a penchant for golf clubs and harbors a serious anger-control problem; his knockout sister Ashley plays softball and tends to fall for douchebags who are more interested in getting into her pants than into her heart. Alone and left to their own devices, the two throw a house party that quickly moves from a drunken bash to a brawl to bloodshed. Melodrama reigns in the first 100 or so pages, and Olin packs on the “oh-no-she-didn’t” moments heavier than an episode of Jerry Springer, which teen readers will adore. The tensions that arise are obviously forced, but readers won’t care as the body count soars—fans of Olin’s previous effort, Killing Britney (2004), will know he spares no one. Listening to the alternating voices of the siblings, astute readers might find themselves wondering whether this narrative conceit is a medium for confession or if it’s simply moving the plot along.