With Brother/Sister, Sean Olin takes readers into the minds of two teenagers for whom the world is unraveling fast. Sparely written, deep but easy to read, Olin’s book lets us into the minds of siblings Will and Asheley Baird through their own words as they explain to interrogators how they came to be in the nightmarish fix they’re in: Will is a murderer and Asheley has abetted his crimes, all for what each thinks of as love.

As the plot unfolds, Olin gives us reasons for these two to be almost powerless in the face of their undoing…a disappeared, abandoning father; a drunken, hopeless mother who abrogated her duties, placing impossible burdens on the shoulders of her then-6 year-old son; Asheley’s boyfriend, abused himself, who makes things worse; an ineffectual stoned “step-dad”; and a cast of teenaged characters for whom the world is drinking, party-crashing, crushes, and sports.

Struggling to belong, hoping for happiness, Asheley wants friends but finds only she can control her brother’s increasing anger and violence. Will, desperately alone and torn with self-doubt, fixates on Asheley as the one he must protect at all costs, to whom he must dedicate his life as he inexorably becomes divorced from reality.  Sadly, it is the day of each one’s greatest triumphs that marks the beginning of their undoing.

Many themes make this a worthwhile book for readers, showing that without real parenting, lives can go woefully, tragically astray.

Highly Recommended