Sister Mine

Women of Genre Fiction – Book 5

Sister Mine – Nalo Hopkinson

I've wanted to read a Nalo Hopkinson book for a while and bought Brown Girl in the Ring as it was a Nebula nominee. It got lost in the giant pile of "to be read" books, so I chose to read Sister Mine, which was more accessible at the time.

This book was reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's American Gods with a Caribbean twist. The twins, who are the main characters of the book, have a god as one parent and a mortal as the other parent. Their lives are complicated by having gods for relatives, e.g. Grandmother Ocean and Uncle Jack, the Grim Reaper. One twin has the "mojo" the other has none, or so she thinks. This story of sibling rivalry centers on Makeda, the twin with no mojo. It is character driven as not much really happens. Some knowledge of Caribbean mythology seems to be necessary to fully understand who is what and what is going on.

I may have liked this book better had I known more about Caribbean mythology. The continuous petty arguments between the sisters became a bit dull for me, so although I didn't hate this book, it's not one that I would highly recommend.