review: Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

pub date: August 1, 2009
publisher: Little, Brown for Young Readers
pages: 352
source: library audiobook
appeals: historical fiction, sisters, paranormal, gothic, demons
content: clean

goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Lia Milthorpe and her twin sister Alice have just become orphans, and, as Lia discovers, they have also become enemies.


The twins are part of an ancient prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. To escape from a dark fate and to remain in the arms of her beloved boyfriend James, Lia must end the prophecy before her sister does. Only then will she understand the mysterious circumstances of her parents' deaths, the true meaning of the strange mark branded on her wrist, and the lengths to which her sister will go to defeat her.

me:
I actually own this book, but got the audio from the library and listened to it while on a road trip to Idaho this past weekend.  I liked the reader and enjoyed the book a lot. It wasn't what I expected, which is always fun because it keeps me guessing. I was surprised to find that it's kind of a fallen angel book--and I listened to it just days after I said I wouldn't read another one of those kinds of books. But it wasn't an angel romance, and the fallen were more demons than anything else, so it didn't bother me too much.

I thought the world Zinks created was really interesting, and Lia and Alice's roll in the prophecy was rather cool. The characters were well developed and I especially liked Lia's friends. Alice makes a nice foil for Lia, and I'm interested to see where it goes in the next book.

Something that did kind of irritate me were the secrets. Lia's father kept secrets from her, then died. So Lia is left to search out the secrets when he should've just told her long before. I understand that without the secrets, then there would've been no story, but still it was annoying how ignorant Lia was when everyone around her knew what was going on. 

Then at the end there is someone else that has information for Lia, and instead of just giving it to her, they hide it and evenually die. She then has to search out this other secret she spent half the book trying to find! I really don't get why this person didn't tell her sooner.

But Lia does the same thing--she doesn't tell her boyfriend what is going on, leaving him in the dark. Irritating! Nothing good ever comes of keeping secrets and it really bothered me that she wouldn't be honest with the boy she claimed to love. She had her reasons, but I thought they were kind of lame ones.

So besides all the secrets, I liked the book. This sets up the trilogy rather nicely.

Prophecy of the Sisters reminded me a lot of Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty.