The September Sisters -- Jillian Cantor

Abigail Reed is two years and one day older than her sister, Becky.  Their desperation for the little attention their severely depressed mother can spare drives them to squabble and spar, but, like any pair of sisters, much of their fighting is caused by run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry. 

On the night before Abby's thirteenth birthday, Becky disappears. 

The September Sisters isn't a story about What Happens to the Missing like Living Dead Girl* or The Lovely Bones.  It isn't Becky's story.  It's Abby's.  It's about what happens to those who are left behind.

This book wasn't at all what I'd expected.  Which was a good thing -- practically everything I've picked up lately has had some sort of paranormal-oogity-boogity-twist, and I think I'd have been unhappy if this book had gone in a New Age-y Lovely Bones-ish direction.  Like I said, it didn't. 

It was set very much in the here-and-now (or, in the recent past, as Abby thinks back over the last two years) and doesn't involve any magical sisterly connection or anything like that.  Rather, it provides Abby's view of Life Before and Life After, shows how life continues for her, how it changes for her, and explores the questions:  Can the unknown (missing) be worse than the known (dead)?  Is it possible to grieve and hope at the same time?

It made me grateful for my sister.  It made me remember back to when we did do a lot of squabbling -- though I do think that Abby and Becky were much nastier to each other than we ever were -- and it made me happy that we've grown up together and are buddies now.  (Even if she still threatens me with physical violence if I don't hand over new reading material on a regular-enough basis.) 

It's an engrossing read, not at all action-packed, but not without suspense.  While the Missing Girl aspect reminded me of LDG and TLB purely because of plot similarities, the police investigation part of it made me think about of the Jon Benet Ramsey case -- how the outside world's attention and suspicion (neighbors, the press, the police), and undetermined guilt and innocence within a household could affect the people left behind**.  

So.  I wouldn't give this one to someone looking for the next cotton candy/black-and-white read, but if you know someone who'd enjoy and appreciate a thoughtful, questioning coming-of-age story with a strong voice, well-drawn characters and lots of grays, offer it up.

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*Which, by the way, you can win, along with all of Elizabeth Scott's other books.  But there is some hoop jumping involved.

**Every time I type the words 'left behind', I think of Kirk Cameron.  So let's have a little Kirk Cameron, shall we?  Heh heh.  That video never stops being funny.