novel philosophy

Authors: Amelia Diane Coombs
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Published: 2024
Rating: 3 stars

Summary

For her entire life, Remi has felt like the odd one out in her family. She can never please her parents turned hippies in their retired life. Her successful sisters only make her feel like a failure. The age gap between them doesn’t help either. When she’s forced into a family camping weekend, she reluctantly packs her bags and makes the drive.

Remi is stuck in a dead-end job. She accepted it right out of college and now spends her days responding to angry customers for a video game company. Who doesn’t love reading hate mail every day? Even with all the hate, Remi’s comfortable and she’s scared of the risk of a new job. Even an incredible offer from a college friend spins her into an anxiety loop.

Arriving at camp, Remi realizes that nothing has really changed. Her sisters have each other and her parents, and she gets left out again. At least the attractive park ranger provides some level of distraction.

When a night spent watching fireworks turns deadly, Remi and her sisters become unlikely allies. They spend the rest of the weekend dealing with a dead body, mysterious family members, and a clever detective.

Themes

Family is forever.

When a dead body shows up, family sticks together. As this story unfolds, you’ll see how far family is willing to keep each other safe. Stick around for a few surprise twists at the end!

Life is never what it seems.

Remi feels like a failure when she looks at her sisters’ success. Yet, as she spends time with them, she learns their lives aren’t as perfect as they seem. One is struggling through an ugly divorce. The other worked harder for her success than Remi realized. It’s easy to see glimpses of the lives of others and miss out on the full story. Time spent with her sisters helps Remi gain a little perspective while also challenging her to change her life.

Quotes

“The worst kind of small talk is with family, the people you should be able to connect with.”

“No, we’re indifferent to one another, which I sometimes think is worse.”

“And I feel myself retreating. Back into my role of the youngest, the quietest, the one who matters the tiniest bit less than everyone else.”

Final Thoughts

As the three-star rating suggests, Drop Dead Sisters is an average read. It’s a simple murder mystery wrapped up in family drama. The characters are relatively likable, and I wanted to see them succeed.

My biggest beef was the way they treated death. You can argue that the dead person deserved what he got, but is the value of life really so trivial? Maybe I’m a bit too compassionate, but I dislike the way his death was swept so easily under the rug. I believe the reality of the situation will stick with the sisters a little longer than they expect.

Nothing specific about the writing or the story impressed me, but I enjoyed reading the book. Don’t come here looking for the next Jane Austen, but if you love family drama with a hint of murder, it’s worth checking out.

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