Book Review: Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Title: Prophecy of the Sisters
Author: Michelle Zink
Series: Prophecy of the Sisters #1
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Release Date: August 1 2009
My Source: Library
My Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Description:

Sixteen-year-old Lia Milthorpe and her twin sister Alice have just become orphans, and, as Lia discovers, they have also become enemies. The twins are part of an ancient prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. To escape from a dark fate and to remain in the arms of her beloved boyfriend James, Lia must end the prophecy before her sister does. Only then will she understand the mysterious circumstances of her parents' deaths, the true meaning of the strange mark branded on her wrist, and the lengths to which her sister will go to defeat her. Debut novelist Michelle Zink takes readers on an unforgettable journey where one sister's fateful decision could have an impact of Biblical proportions. Prophecy of the Sisters is the first of three books.

Prophecy of the Sisters is a story about good against evil, where the good and the bad are represented by two different sisters. The main character is one of the sisters, Lia. Before reading this book, I expected it to be told from the point of view of both sisters, which would've been cool and added a different angle to the story, but it wasn't. In the beginning I assumed Lia was on the good side of the prophecy, but throughout the book it becomes apparent that even though this is a tale that filmly divides good against evil, Lia and Alice aren't distinctly on either the good or the bad side.

The myth/fantasy aspect of this book is neat. The "Prophecy" is that throughout generations there have been a set of twins, one the Guardian and one the Gate, the Guardian (usually) the good one who keeps bad souls from getting released, and the Gate the one who releases them. Lia and Alice find that they are the Guardian and the Gate (I'm not saying which is which). Lia realizes she has the power to stop the prophecy forever and end the war with the souls, if only she can decipher it's meaning. From the best I could tell, it was set in the 1800's, though I missed the location, but I think it was in America. I wish the time and place was better established. It was hard for me to understand at first, and it could have been clearer. In general though, I thought it had a great plot.

The characters were good, though not great. As I already said, I liked Lia and Alice, though I really wished we could've heard more about Alice. This book really only focused on Lia. There wasn't much romance, which was okay with me but might disappoint some people. Lia's boyfriend James seemed like a flat character, and there was nothing that really made me care about him or whether Lia ended up with him. More depth and involvement of his character would've been nice.

The writing is really good, flows nicely and Lia has a distinct voice. The twists weren't jaw dropping, but they were entertaining and suspenseful. It actually took me a while to get into this book though, I spent about two weeks reading the first half, then picked up the rest and got so into it I finished it in one day. There wasn't a lot of interesting or funny dialouge or outlandish characters, which usually holds the interest of a book for me, so that was probably why it was a little hard to get into, but I still really enjoyed it.

I can't wait to read the sequel- it's set up so well. You can tell it's definitely only the first book in the trilogy. A lot of questions are unanswered, but not all. Most of this book was spent setting up the mythology, and now in the next book I expect to see a lot more action.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes good mythology, late 19th century, and tales of good and evil! It's a good book, and though I've read better books with similar themes, I still really liked this one.