Book Review: The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman

Book: The Year My Sister Got Lucky
Author: Aimee Friedman
Published: 2008

Michaela and Katie Wilder aren't just sisters, they're best friends. They tell each other everything, attend the same ballet school, and share the same dreams. They even love the same pieces of New York City. Kate thinks that this is the way it will always be.

Then their parents announce a move away from their beloved city to a tiny town in upstate New York. That's just the beginning of the horror. Katie sticks out like a sore thumb in Fir Lake--her fashion sense is weird, her new ballet school is frankly a joke, and there isn't one person she's willing to be friends with. But worst of all, Michaela seems to fit in just fine.

Suddenly the sister Katie always knew so well is becoming a stranger, with new friends and startling secrets. Will Katie ever get her sister back?

My favorite part of this book were the characters of the two sisters, who are complex and layered, not always likeable, but always real. Katie in particular really shoots herself in the foot a few times, but not to the point of eye-rolling. Freeman pulls us so deep into her point of view that even the times that she's annoying and snobby, you're willing to keep reading to see what she'll do to redeem herself.

More than city and country, this book is about the love between sisters, and how that love endures even as the sisters themselves transform.

ETA: to correct the spelling of the author's last name. Ooops.