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christiana's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked reading this story of the three Sullivan sisters. Their grandmother, known as Almighty Lou, threatens to write the family out of her will if the family member who offended her does not confess. Since everyone assumes it was one of the girls who offended her, these are their confessions.
This worked really well both as a story about sisters, family, rich people, love, adventures, everyday life, and on. I really dug it. Natalie Standiford, I'm officially a believer in you.
This worked really well both as a story about sisters, family, rich people, love, adventures, everyday life, and on. I really dug it. Natalie Standiford, I'm officially a believer in you.
audryt's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the setup, the characters, and the writing, but it felt incomplete by the end -- like it could have been more than it turned out to be.
mlwilson1021's review against another edition
3.0
This book would be a fun read for middle school students if the F words wasn't present several times!
reddyrat's review against another edition
4.0
Natalie Standiford followed up How To Say Goodbye in Robot with another smart, eccentric novel. The plot of Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is obvious from its name - confessions by each of the three Sullivan sisters of the sins they assume has so infuriated their grandmother Almighty that she threatened to write her family out of the will.
The Sullivans are a blue-blood Baltimore family, living off their grandmother's wealth. Norrie, the oldest girl, breaks with convention by ruining her cotillion after she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student. Jane, despite the plain name, is the most vivacious of the sisters. She brazenly drags the entire family name through the mud with her blog myevilfamily.com (an actual blog set up by the author!). Sassy is the youngest. She's convinced that she's invincible, because she was hit by a car and wasn't hurt. She thinks that this has upset Almighty.
Of the three stories, Jane's was by far the most interesting. I love her personality. She's a real jerk and very selfish, but loads of fun to read. She constantly has disparaging remarks about her friends and family. They were just hilarious. If I were related to her, I would be horrified by Jane's blog, but as an outsider, I loved it. I admired her cheek. 17 year old Norrie is the girl most like me - the responsible oldest sister. But then she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student and all bets are off. The boy seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he treated her well. I liked his smart, cultured friends. Still, I thought the age difference between 25 and 17 was a little too weird, not to mention illegal. Even if he'd been 21, it would have felt more comfortable. Sassy was a sweet girl. Her confession wasn't all that interesting in comparison to the others, but it was still cute.
My favorite part of the book was the family dynamics. The Sullivans are a large family of diverse personalities, but you can tell that they love each other. The sisters are always spending time together - hanging out in the Tower room. They go to parties together, have fun together, complain together, worry together. As an only child, it's a life I longed to have as a kid. There's an undercurrent of love throughout the book. I don't know if the author put it there purposely, but the strong sister relationship was very meaningful to me.
Rating: 4 / 5
The Sullivans are a blue-blood Baltimore family, living off their grandmother's wealth. Norrie, the oldest girl, breaks with convention by ruining her cotillion after she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student. Jane, despite the plain name, is the most vivacious of the sisters. She brazenly drags the entire family name through the mud with her blog myevilfamily.com (an actual blog set up by the author!). Sassy is the youngest. She's convinced that she's invincible, because she was hit by a car and wasn't hurt. She thinks that this has upset Almighty.
Of the three stories, Jane's was by far the most interesting. I love her personality. She's a real jerk and very selfish, but loads of fun to read. She constantly has disparaging remarks about her friends and family. They were just hilarious. If I were related to her, I would be horrified by Jane's blog, but as an outsider, I loved it. I admired her cheek. 17 year old Norrie is the girl most like me - the responsible oldest sister. But then she falls in love with a 25 year old graduate student and all bets are off. The boy seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he treated her well. I liked his smart, cultured friends. Still, I thought the age difference between 25 and 17 was a little too weird, not to mention illegal. Even if he'd been 21, it would have felt more comfortable. Sassy was a sweet girl. Her confession wasn't all that interesting in comparison to the others, but it was still cute.
My favorite part of the book was the family dynamics. The Sullivans are a large family of diverse personalities, but you can tell that they love each other. The sisters are always spending time together - hanging out in the Tower room. They go to parties together, have fun together, complain together, worry together. As an only child, it's a life I longed to have as a kid. There's an undercurrent of love throughout the book. I don't know if the author put it there purposely, but the strong sister relationship was very meaningful to me.
Rating: 4 / 5
kaylareadsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. The sisters secrets, the family. I LOVED THIS.
kesposto's review against another edition
4.0
okay i thought the first parts were good but then it kinda strted overlapping.
willwork4airfare's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh what a slog to get through. The same story told 3 times. The setup isn’t interesting, I guess I was hoping for more salacious secrets, but they only grow more tame. The names and setup of the family is ridiculous and you’re just supposed to take it at face value. The parents are useless. The premise of the girls writing confessional letters just doesn’t hold even a drop of water because of how detailed and specific weeks worth of events are “written” and all three in exactly the same style. I don’t recommend.
internationalkris's review against another edition
4.0
Clever and entertaining coming of age story set in the Baltimore social scene. Great characters.
pikasqueaks's review against another edition
2.0
Quirky, but the ending pretty much ruined it for me.
missprint_'s review against another edition
3.0
The Sullivan family's Christmas began in the traditional way that year. The six Sullivan siblings opened their gifts. Daddy-o made pancakes for breakfast and Ginger contributed her signature dish to the feast (sliced grapefruit halves sprinkled with Splenda).
Christmas would take an unexpected turn at the Sullivan's annual holiday dinner with the family matriarch--unaffectionately known by family, friends, enemies, and most of Baltimore as "Almighty Lou."
One of the Sullivans has deeply offended Almighty.
Subsequently the entire family has been cut out of her will unless the offending person comes forward with a full confession by New Year's Day. If not, their share of the fortune will be donated to Puppy Ponchos--a charity providing rain ponchos for dogs in need of raincoats.
No one knows for sure what drove Almighty to this extreme.
Could it have been seventeen-year-old Norrie and her completely unsuitable romance? Did sixteen-year-old Jane's airing the family's dirty laundry on myevilfamily.com seal the family's fate? Or does it have something to do with fifteen-year-old Sassy maybe, possibly, sort of having something to do with the death of Almighty's fifth husband Wallace?
The girls dutifully write their confessions hoping to appease their grandmother. If they can appease her their lives can go on as before. But once the confessions are written and the secrets revealed, nothing will be the same in Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters (2010) by Natalie Standiford.
Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is an interesting blend of romance, humor, elements of the magical and a classic coming-of-age story all rolled into one. Broken into three parts, each sister has a chance to tell her own part of the story. Except all of their stories occur over the same period of time. This fact creates an interesting narrative with overlapping events, blended narrations, and multiple viewpoints used to flesh out certain aspects of the story.
Standiford also provides a surprising amount of suspense for a story that is decidedly not an adventure. Will the Sullivans be disinherited? Is Norrie's romance going to end horribly? Is Jane's family really evil? What is going on with Sassy? There are so many juicy questions to be answered that Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters quickly becomes equal parts page turner and Bildungsroman.
Some aspects of the story are bizarre and almost out of place--the whole novel is actually very reminiscent of the blend of everyday and surreal elements commonly found in magical realism--but by the end of the story it all kind of works. Standiford has once again taken a unique premise and made it something really special with winsome characters and clever prose.
Possible Pairings: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, King of the Screwups, Girl Overboard by K. L. Going, by Justina Chen Headley, Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Christmas would take an unexpected turn at the Sullivan's annual holiday dinner with the family matriarch--unaffectionately known by family, friends, enemies, and most of Baltimore as "Almighty Lou."
One of the Sullivans has deeply offended Almighty.
Subsequently the entire family has been cut out of her will unless the offending person comes forward with a full confession by New Year's Day. If not, their share of the fortune will be donated to Puppy Ponchos--a charity providing rain ponchos for dogs in need of raincoats.
No one knows for sure what drove Almighty to this extreme.
Could it have been seventeen-year-old Norrie and her completely unsuitable romance? Did sixteen-year-old Jane's airing the family's dirty laundry on myevilfamily.com seal the family's fate? Or does it have something to do with fifteen-year-old Sassy maybe, possibly, sort of having something to do with the death of Almighty's fifth husband Wallace?
The girls dutifully write their confessions hoping to appease their grandmother. If they can appease her their lives can go on as before. But once the confessions are written and the secrets revealed, nothing will be the same in Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters (2010) by Natalie Standiford.
Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is an interesting blend of romance, humor, elements of the magical and a classic coming-of-age story all rolled into one. Broken into three parts, each sister has a chance to tell her own part of the story. Except all of their stories occur over the same period of time. This fact creates an interesting narrative with overlapping events, blended narrations, and multiple viewpoints used to flesh out certain aspects of the story.
Standiford also provides a surprising amount of suspense for a story that is decidedly not an adventure. Will the Sullivans be disinherited? Is Norrie's romance going to end horribly? Is Jane's family really evil? What is going on with Sassy? There are so many juicy questions to be answered that Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters quickly becomes equal parts page turner and Bildungsroman.
Some aspects of the story are bizarre and almost out of place--the whole novel is actually very reminiscent of the blend of everyday and surreal elements commonly found in magical realism--but by the end of the story it all kind of works. Standiford has once again taken a unique premise and made it something really special with winsome characters and clever prose.
Possible Pairings: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, King of the Screwups, Girl Overboard by K. L. Going, by Justina Chen Headley, Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart