The Favourite Sister - Book Review

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Five women, each successful entrepreneurs, appear on a reality TV show called %%Goal Diggers
%%, which is heralded as the first feminist reality TV show. There is Jen, 'the Green Menace', a wellness influencer who sells supplements and health drinks, Lauren, 'the fun one' who owns a dating app, and Stephanie, a successful fiction author who has just published her memoir. Then there are the two sisters, Kelly and Brett. Brett was the black sheep of her family growing up, but went on to establish SPOKE, a chain of gyms that offer spin classes for women. For every fifth ride at SPOKE the company donates a bicycle to poor women in Morrocco who otherwise must travel long distances on foot each day to collect water from wells for their families. Kelly, the older sister, once her mother's overachieving favourite, is now a partner in Brett's business, managing the finances, as well as mother to her 12 year old daughter, Layla.

When something terrible happens to Brett, the surviving women must deal with the vacuum created by her no longer being part of the show. In flashback the reader follows along as alliances are formed and disbanded, hearts are broken, and rivalries escalate to violence and even murder.

The Favourite Sister is an intriguing thriller written by Jessica Knoll, the author of the bestselling novel Luckiest Girl Alive, which has now been made into a film starring Mila Kunis. I didn't think it was as good as Luckiest Girl Alive, which is a brilliant, if very uncomfortable read, but it's still a compelling novel. I hadn't read a book with a premise quite like this before. There is all the gossip and backstabbing of an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but also some down to earth commentary about capitalism and the dodgy things corporations sometimes do when using charity as a marketing strategy. And of course, there is the murder mystery itself, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. I found it slow going in the first half, but by the end I was staying up late to get through the last few chapters.

This would make a good book club read, with plenty to discuss about who was right or wrong in various situations, and which characters' actions were justified. It's an unusual novel that will probably appeal to reality TV fans or fans of writers like Gillian Flynn.

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