Oh, Sister - Jodie Chapman - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Jodie Chapman

GENRE: Contemporary Drama

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A powerful story about three women whose lives have been influenced by their religious group. The theme was great; the writing approach could have been better. But it’s still an interesting book.

Story Synopsis:

Zelda is a rebel who seeks to live life on her own terms, but she’s not entirely successful in leaving her past behind.

Jen has gone through a traumatising experience, but instead of being looked upon as a victim, she is blamed for a decision she had no control over.

Isobel has spent her entire married life being the perfect wife. But now her husband wants to leave her, and she has no idea who she is without him.

All three women are connected in some way to an extremist religious cult. Will they be able to put themselves first and break free of the stranglehold the men in their lives wield over them in the name of God?

The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of the three women.

Bookish Yays:

✔ The theme is the strongest part of the book. Based on the real-life Jehovah’s Witnesses, the fictional ‘Last Days’ group of the story is a typical male-dominated religious cult that twists Biblical scriptures according to their own convenience and indoctrinates their followers into blind belief. Their misogynistic decisions are infuriating. I loved how some of the “worldly people” of the book were able to question some of their claims logically.

✔ The three women at the centre of the story are the primary characters throughout. Don’t assume them to be portrayed as typical victims. All three of them are grey characters, with their judgemental nature and impulsive decision-making being as much on display as their strength and courage to stand up for themselves. Isobel and Zelda were particularly impressive as their characters grow with the story. Their tracks depict how you can take a person out of the cult but that does not necessarily take the cult out of the person.

✔ Victor was the most impressive of the secondary characters. I wish he had had a greater role to play. He was one of the few sane voices in the story.

✔ The ending was somewhat realistic than picture perfect. I appreciate that choice.

Bookish Nays:

❌ Jen’s character isn’t portrayed consistently. Her arc switches between conventional to rebel back to conventional and so on.

❌ The writing is quite jumpy, especially in the initial quarter. The link between the three tracks isn’t visible at first, which is fine. But the arcs go across multiple time frames and introduce too many characters without enough background. This disjointed approach also makes the pacing quite slow.

❌ The story appeared quite literary in style at the start, but soon it revealed itself to be a typical general fiction work, trying to cover as many themes as possible. I might have respected the story far more had a romantic relationship not have been made so important a part of one of the women’s new life.

❌ While some of the secondary characters were interesting, they don’t get much to do in the story and stay somewhat flat throughout the story. Most of the men, except for Victor, come on the page only when they have to play their role, and then they disappear even from conversations. The backstories of certain essential secondary characters such as Zelda’s parents aren’t clearly developed.

❌ Minor complaint: Where is the story set? There is only mention of the religious places such as ’Worship Hall’ or the places of work or residence such as dentist’s office or apartment. But which town/city/country? This might not be a relevant point to many readers, but I like knowing the location to understand the story and characters better. Of course, skipping this info might have been a deliberate choice so as to make the plot feel universally relevant. But it became confusing for me as I know both Jehovah’s Witnesses and LDS churches originated in the USA. So I assumed the book was set there, until one character mentioned midway the book that they dreamt of going to the USA, which caught me off guard.

All in all, I appreciate the novel’s attempts to highlight how much brainwashing occurs in cultish groups and how such religious leaders enforce misogynist practices and discrimination in the name of God. I wish the writing had been more streamlined so as to enhance the impact of the story. Nevertheless, it offers a hard-hitting look at a topic not commonly covered in general fiction.

Recommended despite the flaws. Worth a one-time read.

My thanks to Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Oh, Sister”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content & Trigger Warnings: Miscarriage, Abortion, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting.