The Grey Sisters
The Grey Sisters
“She’s fine. We’ll laugh about this,” Spider said. Her own voice sounded fake to her. Inside her head all she was thinking was Please don’t let anything bad happen. D must have heard her, in that psychic way they all used to share, because she climbed into the tent and came out with their sleeping bags. She draped one over Spider’s shoulders, wrapped the other around her own body, and stood poking at the dying fire with her stick.
“I found this too,” she said, showing Spider a flashlight. Spider held her hand out and D gave it over.
“Should we go to the cops?” D asked. “Before it gets too dark and scary on that road?”
Spider clicked the flashlight on, moved it in an arc. Its beam was pitiful. She’d hoped for something more like Batman’s sky signal.
“What if she comes back and we’re not here?”
“What until morning then? But what if she’s…hurt…lost?”
“She could have had an accident.” They stared at each other, the words hanging in the air.
Stay? Go?
It seemed like an impossible decision. If Min had been there, she’d have suggested Rock-Paper-Scissors.
But they couldn’t leave, because then Min would come back to pitch-blackness and that thought was unbearable. Wherever she’d gone, she hadn’t planned on being out for this long; she’d left the flashlight. Round and round went Spider’s thoughts, leap-frogging from one to the next. She picked one.
“I think we should find a signal and call 911.”
D’s face fell, and Spider realized how much she’d been holding onto some hope that Min was going to come skipping out of the woods any second now.
She took a shaking breath. “Yes, of course we should. They’ve got search crews and rescue teams”—her breath caught on a sob—“and helicopters. If…if…” She dug around in the ash and embers with her stick, her shoulders quivering. The fire wakened. Flames licked the underside of the log and cast leaping shadows on D’s face. Tears tracked across her cheeks.
“No. Nothing like that,” Spider said. “Just a backup plan.” She hunted for the words that would soothe. She was shitty at this. It was Min who always knew exactly the right thing to say. Finally, she said, “The sensible thing to do. What Min would do if it were one of us?”
D and Spider have been close friends their whole lives. Their bond has grown stronger due to unfortunate circumstances—the loss of each of their siblings in a tragic plane crash two years earlier. One day, whilst reading the newspaper, D spots her twin sister Kat’s stuffed monkey in a photograph, and it’s next to the only survivor of the crash who has recently woken from a coma. This sighting ignites D’s desire to visit the isolated, mountainside crash site.
Ariel has lived on the mountain her entire life. She lives in a survivalist community with little connection to the outside world, a community governed by the leader, Big Daddy. She has been trained to take care of herself, find food, shelter, and water, avoid predators, and survive in the elements. Outsiders are not to be trusted. Each person has a specific role within the community, a duty which must be honoured at all times. Ariel is a soldier.
Together with Spider and their friend Min, D embarks on a road trip to visit the remote crash site. After an unexpected bear attack, Ariel secretly sets off down the mountainside to seek medical assistance for a friend, something that is forbidden by Big Daddy. A chance encounter between the survivalist and the grieving friends sets off a chain reaction of events with life-altering consequences for all those involved.
Treggiari is the author of several novels, including the bestseller and award-nominated young adult post-apocalyptic book, Ashes, Ashes. She was born in England, raised in Canada, and spent several years living in San Francisco and New York. She currently lives in Nova Scotia with her family and owns a bookstore.
Each chapter of the book alternates among the perspectives of Ariel, the survivalist, and one of the grieving friends—D, Spider, or Min. This narration style creates juxtaposition for readers between the experiences of the two distinct groups whilst, at the same time, allowing readers to see that the universal human experience is common despite all of our differences. Although their lives are very different, each of the characters wants the same things out of life, such as safety, friendship, love, and happiness, and how these desires manifest in their particular contexts may vary. The alternating perspectives in the text also allow for an unbiased and well-rounded view of the events that take place.
The Grey Sisters provides a close look at how grief, loss, and the challenges of life affect different people in unique ways. D and Spider both experienced the sudden loss of a sibling at the same time and in the same manner, but the way that they are experiencing and dealing with their grief manifests in different ways. D wants to visit the crash site to find closure and start to heal; Spider has been closed off to everyone, including her loved ones. Ariel responds to challenges in her life by rising up to them whereas others in her survivalist family may freeze when faced with tough times. As the book moves forward, each of the characters’ personalities is further developed for the reader as they face and respond to additional challenges.
The Grey Sisters, a worthy addition to any classroom, school, or home library, is a well-developed psychological thriller filled with unexpected plot twists that will leave readers guessing right until the very end. The book speaks to many important topics of interest relevant to teens, such as family, friendships, grief and loss, conflict, survival, identity, resilience, and growth and change.
Chasity Findlay, a graduate of the Master of Education program in Language and Literacy at the University of Manitoba, is an avid reader of young adult fiction.