The Post Deb E Feels She Should Write in Verse

Yes, yes, I know “Deb E” could be Deb Eleanor as well as Deb Elise, but I wanted the title of the post to be in iambic pentameter, and that’s how I made it scan.

Believe me, I totally want to geek out and write this whole post in iambic pentameter, and it’s only in the interest of time that I won’t.

Deb Eleanor’s The Weird Sisters comes out this week, and I’m so crazy-excited I can barely contain myself.  I adored this book for a million reasons.  I loved being immersed in the Andreas family.  Deb Eleanor chiseled each of her main characters so perfectly that I felt like a member of their clan — I knew them inside and out, and could tell who was who without even reading their names, simply by their tiniest quirks and foibles.  Just like real family members, Rose, Bean, and Cordy made me crazy sometimes.  I wanted to shake them when I saw them falling into old patterns.  But it was a craziness that stemmed from love.  Deb Eleanor made me love them, and love every step of their journey in this novel.

Allow me to gush about some of the specific things that impressed me most about this astounding debut novel…

Shakespeare — I am a Shakespeare GEEK!  Shakespeare figures heavily in both Populazzi and Elixir, I was a theater major in college, I spent a summer at a Shakespeare festival, I’ve made the pilgrimage to Stratford-Upon-Avon… I even stayed up nights when I was a kid mentally casting Shakespeare’s plays with members of my class.  I’m saying I’m tight with the Bard.  The Weird Sisters is rife with Shakespearean references, which for any fan is deliciously fun.

Point of View — I read a lot, but I have never read a book with such a unique point of view.  Deb Eleanor’s omniscient narrator isn’t any one particular character, but the Sisterhood of Rose, Bean, and Cordy itself.  This narrating Sisterhood has wisdom that the individual sisters themselves do not.  It speaks as “We,” and gives a beautiful perspective on each sister’s place within the family unit — a place that defines them more than anything else they’ve done in their lives.

Louvre-Worthy Images — Deb Eleanor is an artist with words.  She paints such gorgeously vivid pictures, I feel like I’ve been to the town of Barnwell, and to all its haunts: the coffee shop, the college, and of course the Andreas house.  I would know any of the three sisters by sight, and can easily tell you the small physical differences that set their individual looks apart.

Plot — From fairly early in the book, I could see where the Andreas’ sisters lives should go (and I say “should” for their own good, not in a critical way), but at no point was I completely confident that Deb Eleanor would let all or any of them get there (and I’m not saying if she does).  It’s a credit to Eleanor and the fully three-dimensional characters she has created that you’re can never tell positively what route they’re going to take.

I would love to go on about specific moments in the book that resonated deeply with me, but if I did I’d give stuff away, and I don’t want to take away from anyone else’s experience.  That said, if anyone out there’s having any kind of online book clubby discussion about it, let me know — I’m in!

Happy Debut Week, Eleanor!!!!  I’m so honored to be in your company here at the Ball, and so excited for the launch of what’s bound to be only the first of many huge successes for you.

Much love,

Deb Elise

P.S. Allow me to finish with a couple more lines of iambic pentameter:

If you have not pre-ordered this book yet,
I’ll make it simple with this easy link!