Penny and
Hattie are two sisters living in a small Canadian town. They share a deep dark secret: they were involved in the fire that led to
the death of Buddy, Penny’s abusive husband.
Will they be able to keep the secret when other people enter their lives
and complicate their already complex relationship?
Penny is
the narrator. She lives with the
constant fear that Hattie will divulge what happened in the fire so she lives
with her sister and watches her carefully.
Having to live like this causes her to resent her sister. Then Jameson, a charming man, becomes a
regular visitor to their home, and both women are attracted to him. Will jealousy sever the sisters’ bond of
loyalty? And then there are the external
threats (Buddy’s best friend and a police officer who keeps dropping by) whose
intrusions add to the tension. Will the
secret be uncovered and destroy their lives?
Though
there is a mystery included in the book, its focus is very much the bond
between sisters. The two love each other
very much, as evidenced in their actions at the beginning and end of the book,
but theirs is not a simple relationship.
As with many siblings, there is some rivalry. Hattie is the prettier one and everyone is drawn
to her outgoing personality: “I had been
here before. I had seen the eyes of
someone I loved shift towards my sister.
I recognized the boiling hate that would start as a simmer but become a
fire.” As the older one, Penny feels an
obligation to look after her younger sister:
“She was a magnet to me and I to her; I hated that I couldn’t help but
love her, hated that this love made me feel obligated to protect her. Sometimes wishing I was an only child.” At one point, upset with Hattie’s behaviour,
Penny imagines her sister dead: “I lay
and wished away my darling girl. I even
saw myself, grief-stricken at her funeral, genuinely heartsick about her
death. I love her, I loved her, I hate
her, I hated her.”
Neither of
the two girls is particularly likeable.
Though their mother is dead, Penny yearns for her mother’s approval,
feeling that Hattie was the favoured child.
And Penny even blames Hattie’s “self-absorption” for their mother’s
death and for an earlier family tragedy.
As an adult, Penny seriously betrays her sister (leading to another big
secret to be kept) and even pushes Hattie out of their childhood home: “I stood, hands on hips, and surveyed the
room. I had won. I was back where I belonged, and all was
good. Fortune had smiled on me because I
knew, truly in my heart, what was right, what was my right, and I took it.”
Though we
know Hattie only from Penny’s perspective and so have to be aware of bias,
Hattie is not a sympathetic character either.
Hattie obviously feels a great deal of guilt for her role in the fire
that killed Buddy, but she also feels that Penny owes her. When she asks Penny for a major favour, this
feeling comes to the fore: “’Penny, come
on! . . . Everything I’ve done has been for you! . . . Don’t you feel like you
owe a little back to me? . . . I need this, Penny. This is what I want. What I deserve.’” Hattie’s choices involving Elliot also make
it difficult to like her.
I do not
have a sister but the intricate relationship between sisters described in the
book rings true. Most siblings may not
have such a dark secret, but love, envy, and long-held resentments are part of
many sibling relationships.
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