The Sisterhood: A Love Letter to the Women Who Have Shaped Me by Daisy Buchanan- Book Review

*I was lucky enough to be gifted an advanced reader copy of The Sisterhood from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Title: The Sisterhood: A Love Letter to the Women Who Have Shaped Me

Author: Daisy Buchanan

Published: 7th March 2019

Publisher: Headline

Genre(s): Nonfiction, Women’s Literature, Feminist Literature

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Book Review

The Sisterhood: A Love Letter to the Women Who Have Shaped Me is Daisy Buchanan’s thought provoking memoir. It explores her relationships with her sisters as well as offering insights into being a woman in modern society. Daisy shares stories from her childhood through to her adult years, which are both touching and hilarious in equal measure.

Childhood

The Sisterhood rips apart the air-brushed, often naive portrayals of sisterhood we so often see in literature and the media. Instead we are shown the reality of navigating growing up alongside other women. It can be a hot mess of emotions, hormones and personalities that don’t always fit together. There are many stories from Daisy’s childhood that made me laugh out loud.

As I have a sister of my own, parts of The Sisterhood reminded me of stories from my childhood. I once spent hours painstakingly drawing a picture of my sister only to convert it into a no entry sign to my bedroom after a particular argument. As an adult of 30ish, my sister destroyed most of her childhood diaries as they contained ‘too much evidence’ against her regarding our fights as children. After reading Daisy’s accounts I do now have a new appreciation for the role of eldest sibling. I can see many similarities between her & my elder sister!

Honesty

Daisy writes with a rare, refreshing and ‘unflinching’ honesty. Her voice is warm and personal as she talks about her memories of growing up with her sisters.

I greatly admire Daisy for voicing the thoughts and feelings that so many women, especially sisters, posses but never feel that they can share for fear of judgement. We can all relate to those feelings of loneliness, anger and jealousy. Our emotions don’t need to be validated but I think if we all opened up a little more we would realise that we are normal. We are not alone. Ours is often a shared narrative with our sisters of choice as well as blood.

Sisterhood

One of the most important aspects of The Sisterhood is how it discusses the sisterhood as a collective. Daisy does a fantastic job of describing how we need to break the competitive cycle that is far too often put down to women being naturally ‘bitchy’. We are in a society that tells us we must compete with each other for our own space. That we must be prettier, thinner, more intelligent or better in a magnitude of other ways if we ever want to be truly happy. The Sisterhood talks about how instead we can prop each other up, shape each others lives and how we need to cut ourselves some slack as well as each other. Sisterhood shouldn’t stifle individuality.

My Thoughts

The Sisterhood: A Love Letter to the Women Who Have Shaped Me is the best nonfiction book and piece of feminist literature that I have read in a long time. It has been carefully and thoughtfully put together. I appreciate the honesty in which it has been created. The book is intimate, emotive and highly relatable. If you like feminist literature, have female siblings or would like an insight into what it is really like to live in a house full of women then you should pick up The Sisterhood without hesitation.

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