Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

★★★

This book is sort of a companion to Smile. It was published later, but it's not quite a sequel because the events in this book take place during the summer before Raina enters high school, which is also included in Smile.

As Raina and her family take a road trip from CA to CO, we see the tension in Raina's current relationship with her younger sister Amara. Through flashbacks, we see their history. Surprisingly, despite sharing a passion and talent for art, Raina and Amara never really "got" each other; they butt heads again and again, and we never really see them bonding.

This book is a particularly fast read, even for a graphic novel. There are lots of frames without any words. I found myself frequently flipping through pages faster than expected, and I wonder if that sense of physically skimming over the pages was a factor in my impression that the book sort of only skimmed the surface of any number of issues.

Through the expressive illustrations, we see that Raina was disappointed that Amara didn't turn out to be the playmate she always wanted - but how did she handle that revelation as a child? And why was Amara so difficult, so withdrawn as a child, that she didn't even enjoy the attentions of her older sister? We see the girls bicker over just the types of things sisters will bicker about - yet we never see a moment of tenderness, not even when Amara loses her first pet. Surely both Raina and Amara must have been grappling with all sorts of mixed emotions when they arrived at the family reunion and found themselves marginalized and ignored. Yet, even then, they didn't stick together as comrades in arms might.

Overall, this book held my interest, but it was not nearly as compelling as Smile, for me. It seemed like any time anything happened, I wanted to know more, but was always disappointed when the story just quickly carried on to the next event, instead of exploring previous events more deeply. Even the character development seemed thin; I don't feel like I got to know Raina any better, and at the end of the book, it still seemed like anything I knew about Raina as a person I knew from having read Smile.