Sisters Kim and Kathy Hodges are born sixteen months apart in a middle-class existence parented by Linda and David Hodges of Houston, Texas. The happy couple welcomes their “lucky daughter” Kim, who is physically and mentally advanced. Following several miscarriages, Linda delivers “unlucky” Kathy at twenty-nine weeks, ensuring a life of cognitive and physical disabilities. Kathy enters public … school as a special education student, while Kim is recognized as gifted.Both sisters face life and death decisions as Houston is caught in the rip current of Hurricane Harvey. Kim learns the capricious nature of luck, while Kathy continues to make her own luck, surviving Hurricane Harvey, as she has survived all undertows with the ethereal courage of the resolute.Sisters of the Undertow examines the connotations of lucky and unlucky, the complexities of sibling rivalry, and the hand fate delivers without reason.
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A beautiful coming of age story that took me down memory lane to m childhood. I am the youngest of three daughters and I related to this book in so many ways. From sibling rivalry to jealousy. I kept asking myself which one of the two sisters was I. The story was beautifully written and kept me engaged. I loved Kathy and my heart went out to her. Kate not so much. in the beginning but as she grew into a mature woman my heart softened. I enjoyed this book immensely and will be reading the author’s other two books. I always enjoy finding new authors. I highly recommend this book.
Sisters of the Undertow is the third book by Johnnie Bernhard I’ve read, and I loved every line of it for the same reason I’ve loved Bernhard’s other books ( A Good Girl, and How We Came to Be): she’s a master of deep motivational subtext.
In Sisters of the Undertow, author Johnnie Bernhard takes the complicated underpinnings of sibling rivalry, gives it breath, and sets it to wings through the power of a seemingly ordinary story. What makes it extraordinary is that narrator Kimberly Ann has emotional baggage against her younger sister and knows it. She is cynical, jaded, and resentful to such an edge that the story is fueled from her bone marrow.
Kathy Renee is oblivious to her elder sister’s resentment. She was born to this world prematurely and shoulders the burden of life-long special needs. And yet she is disarmingly cheery, resilient, and God fearing, giving Kimberly Ann one more reason to rail against their relationship—on top of her put-upon, self-appointed victimhood, she is simultaneously riddled with guilt.
Narrator Kimberly Ann explains it as this: “We were born sixteen months apart, of the same mother and father, yet our lives would become as different as two planets orbiting around the sun, never to fully understand each other, despite our years of circling.”
It’s one’s attitude that seals the deal of how one’s life will be experienced, and author Johnnie Bernhard depicts this principle by giving us sisters from middle-class, Houston, Texas with differing realities, in a deeply introspective story that builds in three, well-crafted parts. It takes a gifted author with the use of a subtle hand to suggest we create our own reality. We may see parts of ourselves in both sisters. We may deny it, rail against it, or see it as a vehicle to self-examination that just might encourage change.
I read Sisters of the Undertow twice, which should tell you something. There’s so much to glean from the intelligent story, told in one of the more refreshingly real, first-person voices I’ve ever read. I read it twice because—dare I say it—this fathoms-deep tour de force of riveting upmarket fiction has the double blessing of a page-turning story and the repercussion of an undertow that won’t quit.
Sisters of the Undertow by Johnnie Bernhard
A story of two polar opposite sisters in which one has a learning disability and the other sister is what people consider a “normal person.” The non challenged sister is a little jealous and embarrassed of her sister with the disability. Deep down she loves her sister, but she does not know how to express her feelings, unlike her sister that truly knows how to express the love she has for her sister. I enjoyed reading this beautifully written story of the two sisters that truly love each other. I highly recommend this book.
BOOK REVIEW: Sisters of the Undertow by author, Johnnie Bernhard
The care, concern and support that is given by Ms. Bernhard for her’characters in this emotionally engaging narrative, is as true and sure as the as the day is long.
Kimberly Ann and Kathy Renee Hodges~ two very different sisters, living within the heart of Texas. With completely different views of themselves, the world, and the people that surround them, they lead us on a journey into the folds of self-discovery and the upheaval of sibling struggles.
Kim, recognized as a gifted student, holds deep rooted insecurity towards love and trust- her one step forward and two steps back existence includes resentment towards her younger sister, a resentment she fights against but can never seem to move past… As the story continues to reveal itself, the author gives to us another side of this two-some. Kathy Renee, one who loves, trusts, and casts light upon everyone, and everything within her reach, through her unwavering faith and child-like qualities- her love for life, while living under the shadow of challenges, both physically and mentally.
The combination of these two personalities is what drives the story to being what it is, a compassionate and compelling narrative, that will capture your heart and fill you with hope as you experience the complexity of Sisterhood, the trials and tribulations of relationship issues, life itself~ and so much more.
From polka dots to polar opposites, Sisters of the Undertow will hold your interest from beginning to end with its strength of character, and the ability to entertain.
I thank the author for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this wonderful story full of emotion, meaning, and purpose.
5 Stars
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