Blue Sisters

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapter 10-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Enduring Impact of Grief

The Blue sisters are devastated by the loss of their fourth sibling, Nicky. The grief is particularly acute because Nicky dies suddenly and at a young age. While each of the sisters wrestles with grief in her own way, none of them will ever “get over” the loss of their sister; the novel depicts grief as an emotion that changes over time but never entirely disappears. It can be destructive and isolating, but it can also be a catalyst for self-transformation and growth. At the beginning of the novel, the grief experienced by each sister is toxic and static, leading to isolation and destructive coping tendencies. They don’t confide their grief to one another, or to other people who might support them; for example, Avery’s grief alienates her from her wife rather than bringing them closer. Likewise, Bonnie’s grief leads her to abandon her passion for boxing. She stops striving to meet her personal goals, even as she realizes that Nicky always supported her dreams and would have wanted to see her pursuing success as an athlete. Grief also leads to risky behavior for some of the sisters: Lucky drinks excessively and uses recreational drugs, while Avery smokes, shoplifts, and eventually has sex with someone who is not her wife. Given the pain the sisters are suffering, these responses are understandable but not productive. They don’t offer any genuine relief, and they don’t help the women to find a sustainable way of coping with the pain that will endure throughout their lives.

Eventually, the sisters reconcile and deepen their relationship. They achieve this new closeness by being honest with each other and themselves. Bonnie confesses her feelings for Pavel, Avery admits that she does not want to have a child (even though this admission will likely end her marriage), and Lucky accepts that she has addictions and must pursue sobriety. Once each sister confronts the realities she has been hiding, she can start to move toward peace. None will ever be free of grief; the pain and the longing for Nicky will last forever. As Avery laments, “there’s just no end to the missing. There was life before and there’s life now” (328). However, through authenticity, honesty, and connection, the grief ceases to be destructive and becomes a force for positive change. The Epilogue, which takes place 10 years after the main plot, reveals that each sister has made positive changes in her life. Avery has found a new partner who is presumably more compatible, Lucky has made a career change, and Bonnie has found a loving relationship and started a family. When the novel concludes with the birth of a baby, the grief symbolically shifts to a loving and enduring legacy. Even in Nicky’s absence, the Blue sisters are able to move forward as a family.

Overcoming Addiction

Addiction is a powerful and destructive force within the Blue family. The Blue sisters grew up with a father who was addicted to alcohol, and this disease made him volatile and threatening. In response to their father’s unpredictable nature, their mother largely distanced herself from her children and handed responsibility over to Avery. In adulthood, each of the Blue sisters experiences her own struggles with addiction. Avery grapples with addiction at a very young age, but she is able to stop using drugs and maintain her sobriety for decades, becoming a high-achieving professional with a seemingly perfect life. Nonetheless, Avery’s trajectory reveals the ongoing significance of addiction even for those who maintain long-term sobriety. Avery’s reliance on external experiences to repress and cope with negative emotions continues and accelerates after her sister’s death. While she doesn’t return to using drugs or alcohol, Avery does engage in behaviors such as smoking, shoplifting (even though she can afford to buy whatever she wants), and having risky sex. Avery’s encounter with Charlie is explicitly likened to consuming drugs: She compares her orgasm to “plunging down the piston of a syringe” (144).

Avery’s experiences reveal that even if she is not consuming drugs and alcohol, she will struggle with some of the psychological aspects of addiction throughout her life. She pursues risky and self-destructive behavior and lies about what she is doing rather than expose herself to potential judgment from those who love her. Lucky’s experiences juxtapose with Avery’s: Lucky drinks excessively and consumes drugs in risky ways. This behavior impacts her career and her interpersonal relationships, but Lucky is initially in denial about her behavior. She refuses to acknowledge that she is endangering herself even though multiple people insist that she is. Lucky does eventually concede that she needs help to achieve and maintain sobriety, but her plot arc also reveals that addiction (like grief) is complex and enduring. In the epilogue, Lucky is still struggling to maintain her sobriety, and it is implied that she has recently experienced an overdose or other drug-related emergency: Avery laments to her sister, “[Y]ou almost died” (336). While Lucky is portrayed as hopeful and resilient, the narrative makes clear that addiction is a complex relationship that must be navigated over the course of a lifetime.

The dangers of addiction cost some members of the Blue family their lives. The father of the Blue sisters dies due to complications from years of excessive drinking, and Nicky’s death is related to an overdose from painkillers tainted with fentanyl. Nicky’s relationship to painkillers offers additional insight into the complexity of addiction. Nicky develops a dependency on painkillers because she is suffering from a painful, chronic illness (endometriosis) with limited treatment options. While Nicky’s pain is physical, her experience reveals that many people seek substances because they are suffering in some way, whether due to trauma, grief, or physical pain, and implies that addiction occurs in a wider social context. If Nicky had access to better treatments and pain management, she likely would not have had to seek relief through dangerous and illicit substances.

Self-Discovery Through Sisterhood

The Blue sisters experience their familial relationship as a source of both constraint and support. Because the sisters know each other better than anyone else, they are also more capable of hurting one another than anyone else. At times, they say cruel and wounding things to each another; for example, Lucky tells Avery, “[S]he’s going to leave you” (229), sensing that Avery is feeling insecure and frightened about the fate of her marriage. Even when they are not intentionally trying to cause pain, the sisters trigger each other’s innermost fears and vulnerabilities. Avery’s pressure for Bonnie to return to boxing or find another career direction makes Bonnie fear that she is wasting her life, while Avery’s attempt to warn Lucky about her substance use leaves Lucky feeling that she is bad and worthless. Avery, in particular, combines the dynamics of a sibling and a parent because she has functioned as a mother figure to her younger sisters. As might be the case with a parent, Bonnie and Lucky see Avery as infallible and react to her with both admiration and resentment. The sisters care intensely about one another, but they don’t always receive each other’s interventions as acts of love. Particularly when the sisters are not open and transparent with one another, they cannot disentangle love from pain in their interactions.

In spite of the ambivalence, the narrative highlights the unique resilience and intensity of the bond between sisters. The novel opens with the frank statement that “a sister is not a friend” (3), characterizing the bond between sisters as “primal and complex” (3). Later, Avery reflects that “before she ever knew a lover’s body, she knew her sisters” (316), highlighting how the bonds forged in childhood can exceed those established in adulthood. The relationship between the sisters is not simply affective: It can also help them to see themselves more clearly and achieve a new level of self-awareness. Through spending time with her sisters, Avery is able to accept that she doesn’t want to be a mother and that she has to inhabit the truth of this knowledge, even though it will probably cost her her marriage. A conversation with Avery also leads Bonnie to blurt out that she wants to return to training as a boxer, and Lucky is first willing to experiment with abstaining from drugs and alcohol when she can do so under Bonnie’s nurturing care. Paradoxically, while the sisters antagonize one another, they also create an atmosphere of true safety where they can explore uncomfortable truths that they cannot bear to unearth in any other context. Bonnie reflects that, “some atavistic part of herself was never at peace until she was with one of her sisters” (187). While the bond between the sisters is complex and sometimes painful, it also holds the key to self-discovery and true self-knowledge.