Sisters of the Undertow by Johnnie Bernhard

Kim and Kathy Hodges are sisters placed on seemingly different life paths. From the start, Kim is beautiful and smart; Kathy is plain and beset with disabilities. But these convenient characteristics don’t show the whole story—what is in someone’s heart and what makes someone a good person. As they grow up in their middle-class family, Kim resents the extra attention her sister receives from her parents and declares that her sister chokes the life out of her. It’s a cruel observation and one that doesn’t change for Kim, even as she grows into an adult. Her feelings for her sister calcify, even after her own traumas with sexual assault leave her unwilling to give or accept love in a healthy way. Both sisters have their own baggage to carry, but Kathy moves through life undeterred by the disabilities God gave her, or road blocks put in her way by life.

Sisters of the Undertow is a realistic depiction of sibling dynamics and the frustration that comes when siblings are very different from each other. Kim and Kathy are different not only in their outwardly appearances, but their internal makeup as well. They are opposites in every way. Despite Kathy’s disabilities, she has an unerring positivity and strong faith in God that irks Kim to no end. Kim’s prickly demeanor gets thornier as she grows older, and her pessimism frustrates her sister Kathy. Readers will wish for Kim’s deliverance by growth and wisdom to become a better person, but she will test readers’ patience as well. She is a difficult character to cheer for, mostly because she rarely feels empathy for her sister or parents. As a librarian in Houston, she befriends several patrons who are homeless, and she does find some sympathy to care for them—even gives them gift cards for McDonald’s—but mostly at arm’s length. This sympathy does not extend to her sister, or even a guy she seems to reluctantly date, the affable Wayne, or Wayne-O as his friends like to call him. Once Hurricane Harvey encroaches on Houston, Kim’s weak allegiances to her sister and boyfriend are tested, leading readers to wonder if Kim will find it in her heart to care for the ones who have suffered through her bitterness. It’s a tough pill to swallow: her callousness towards the ones who love her.

The frustration that comes with following Kim’s life, her relationship with her sister, and the wall she builds around her is also felt by many who watch the loved ones in their lives erect similar emotional walls. Bernhard does an excellent job of displaying the sibling dynamics that frustrate many brothers and sisters alike and often leaves them wondering: How did we come from the same mother? After reading this book, the more important question for siblings to ask is: How can we support each other better, even when it’s the most difficult to do?

This novel is a realistic depiction of a sibling relationship and I would give it 4 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781680032109