The Behaviour Of Moths

by Poppy Adams

From her lookout in the crumbling mansion that was her childhood home, Ginny watches and waits for her younger sister to arrive. Vivien has not set foot in the house since she left nearly fifty years ago; the reclusive Ginny has rarely ventured out, retreating into the precise routines that define her days, carrying on her father’s solitary work studying moths.

As the sisters revisit their shared past, they realize that their recollections differ in essential and unsettling ways. Before long, the deeply buried resentments that have shaped both their lives rise to the surface, and Vivien’s presence threatens to disrupt Ginny’s carefully ordered world.

Told in Ginny’s unforgettable voice, this subtle and chilling debut novel tells an extraordinary story of how families are capable of undoing themselves—especially in the name of love.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Gothic, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature

308 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Poppy Adams has worked as a documentary filmmaker for the BBC and the Discovery Channel. She lives with her husband and three children in London, where she is working on her next book.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vivien returns to the family home where her sister, Ginny dwells, which leads to the uncovering of secrets that may destroy their family. At times this comes across as an all out horror tale - a darkly comedic tale of a dysfunctional family of moth specialists living in a mansion in a small village, and yes, yep. you read that right! :D This is quite a good read. A Three Star, 7 out of 12 read.

2009 read

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to make of this book and it didn't seem to know what to make of itself because the author deliberately leaves most of the loose ends loose. It has many elements which should add up to something; an unreliable narrator, a crumbling isolated mansion in the English countryside, a dysfunctional family, two ageing sisters, a forty year old rift, a touch of madness, surrogacy, lethal lepidopterists, lots of elements that would make a reasonable gothic tale. Somehow the elements do not quite come together.
It is the story of two sisters; Virginia lives alone in the crumbling family mansion and has not seen her sister Vivien for about forty years. Suddenly Vivien announces she is returning to retire. It is set over a single weekend and mostly in flashback form. How much of the story we are told is true is not possible to establish as it becomes clear that Vivien is not an entirely reliable narrator.
There is an awful lot about moths in this book; I wasn't aware that the study of lepidoptera means spending large amounts of time catching and slaughtering the poor little things. I really did not want to know how to remove the innards of a caterpillar so the skin is intact. Did you know that when the caterpillar pupates the contents turn into a liquid called pupal soup? Neither did I.
It reads easily and draws you in, but is ultimately unsatisfactory. And just to be picky, representatives of social services, even volunteers, don't cold call on a Sunday.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

so while "the sister is powered by the same sort of confidently rendered literary suspense that propelled donna tartts the secret history onto bestseller lists (nyt)" is not quite the same thing as "books claiming to be just like secret history", it stays on the shelf. because no one can stop me. and the author photo shows the same kind of serious angular beauty as donna tartt, so- similarity. this book is full of things i like - the big crumbling mansion of the traditional gothic, the unreliable narrator of patrick mcgrath, the family secrets of kate atkinson, and now all im doing is name-dropping. i thought it was good. there are a few flaws that are just simply flaws a lot of first novels suffer from - the tendency to overdescribe certain things the reader is not interested in at the expense of some really interesting bits that remain a mystery. of course, a lot of this could be deliberate because of this particular narrators emotional shortcomings. i thought it did a good job of entering the head of this narrator (as i tiptoe around trying to avoid spoilers) and you will certainly learn a lot about moths. seriously - you might become an expert. but at the end, there are still some seriously unturned stones. which the more i think about it, might not be a criticism at all.
by the way - i swear this is my last donna tartt-esque book for a long time - i just wanted to get through the lot of them and be done with it, finally. they had been piling up. i also need to get a move on my byronathan...

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which the mind can work, distort, and deteriorate. At the outset, this seems to be a fairly simple story of estranged sisters reuniting in their old age. While I could tell from reading the jacket that the real story would probably come in the possible scandal or heartbreak of their estrangement, I wasn't expecting the instability of the narrator.

It's the little things that tip you off gradually to what is happening here. Once you realize that Adams is using the classic technique of the unreliable narrator, it's impossible not to look beneath the surface of everything that she sees and remembers for the truth. It's also amazing how easily you can understand or sympathize with Ginny's logic, as twisted as it is - almost frightening once you realize how easily a mind can warp the truth.

The novel is a little slow to start out, but the story really picks up fairly soon. The descriptions of the moths and the processes that come with studying them may seem a little tedious, but I think they are necessary to completely immerse the reader in Ginny's mind - especially at the end of the novel. Adams includes little details in all the right places.

This is definitely a novel worth reading. Adams does a fantastic job of mapping the way Ginny's mind works, and also of manipulating the story. It's fascinating to see things from Ginny's point of view, all the while trying to figure out what's truly happening outside of her comfort zone and under the surface. This really is an impressive first novel - Adams certainly did her research, and knows what she's doing when it comes to her narrative.

*Review of ARC

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was loaned to me by a friend of mine who described it as the strangest book she had ever read. My bar for strange has been raised pretty high, so this book had a lot to live up to. Initially, I was surprised to find myself utterly engrossed by something that is the complete opposite of virtually everything in my library. This curious tale of two elderly sisters in an old Victorian house with nothing in common but a forty-year rift and their family's interest in moths was a much more alien landscape to me than the mountains of Barsoom, and I couldn't put the book down. However, I realized about halfway through the book that I was still waiting for something to really happen. The strange thing is that when something /did/ happen in the book, I wasn't moved very much. The ending wasn't funny enough to be a black comedy, and it wasn't sad enough to be tragic. The interludes where Ginny is drifting off, pondering insects and fireplaces and things are supposed to indicate that her mind is fracturing, but to me, it just seemed as though she had Asperger's. At the end of the book, all I could really do was shrug, and that is probably the most damning criticism I can give to a book. A book, (or any piece of art), whether good or bad, should move you. This book failed to move me, which is a shame, because the author shows some potential. She will probably write more books, but I don't know that I will ever read them.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating debut novel from an author with enormous promise, The Behaviour Of Moths is the neo-gothic story of a dysfunctional family told from the viewpoint of the obsessional, deluded and probably autistic elder daughter, Virginia. Set in a huge, crumbling mansion in Dorset, the narrative focuses on the return of Virginia's younger sister, Vivien and its effect on Virginia's hermetically-sealed senility.

Virginia's youth was spent working alongside her lepidopterist father, Clive and the text seethes with the minutiae of their research, the alien details of the insect world with its cast of parasites and cannibals providing a ghastly commentary on the behaviour of Virginia and her family.

What I particularly liked about the narrative was the difference between Virginia's version of the tangled events that lead to two deaths and the version that the reader is gradually allowed to unravel. Not all of the questions are answered and we are left with a degree of uncertainty but that is part of the pleasure of the book. Like Clive, we observe the behaviour of the specimens and we draw our own conclusions.

[Everyman · Rating 1 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is marginally interesting. The protagonist, now in her 60s, is a recluse with significant mental problems who has lived alone in the crumbling family mansion for several decades. Her sister, whom she has not seen for thirty years, has decided to move "home" for her retirement. The action takes place over a long weekend, but there are extensive flashbacks to fill in the background.

The family are leipdopterists, and the book is filled with far too much moth lore for my taste. The characters seem to me flat and not particularly interesting. And finally, the author has, as she discussed in a conversation I participated in, deliberately left many important elements of the story unresolved; the reader is free to decide what the "truth" about events is.

If I had not been reading the book for participation in a discussion with the author, I would have quit the book after the first fifty pages or so. As it is, I finished it, but I don't feel that my reading time was well used.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two sisters see meet again after years of estrangement. The air is heavy with resentment and grudges. We learn the story from Ginny the narrator. We hope to get the unbiased account of events because Ginny is supposed to be the reasonable and sensible one, the scientist. Sometimes later we, of course, realise she is a completely unreliable narrator, but as is often in such cases, we can't help but see logic in her reasoning (that bit always worries me, just how far am I from becoming mad myself?).

Other reviewers complained they got too many moths and not enough answers. I didn't mind so much. I used to be very much into animals (and that included insect and their Latin names), so it was like reading one of those books I used to read when I was a kid. As for answers, Ginny couldn't give us any answers because she wasn't looking for them. She didn't know there were any questions, as far as she was concerned, things were the way she believed they were.

It brings us to the bigger question of what The Truth really is and why the hell we would need it anyway.

It was a very disturbing story but beautiful nonetheless. Read it.

Note: This was published in the US under a very uninspired title: The Sister

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but it was ultimately disappointing. There seemed to be all kinds of currents and undercurrents and I kept waiting for the big revelations--did Virginia push Vivian off the bell tower? Was Virginia really a great lepidopterist, or was it all in her head? But nothing was ever actually revealed the ending let me down. Either an editor edited this to the bone or the author was trying for a book discussion book. I blipped past a lot of the stuff about moths--I know it was necessary to the story, but it got dull.

[Abbie | ab_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you ever start a book assuming that the title will be largely metaphorical... but then it turns out that the book is indeed in large part about The Behaviour of Moths.... But actually, if you overlook all the moth stuff (or I don’t know, I don’t know you and your lives, you might love moths in which case knock yourself out on the moth stuff) there’s a bloody good story here!
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I’d say it took me a good 70 pages to get to grips with this book (which is a good example of why I rarely DNF books, you never know when it might get good), but then I was enthralled by Ginny’s unique narrative voice and couldn’t wait to find out all of the Stone family’s deepest, darkest secrets. I wasn’t quite expecting this book to get as dark as it did, but I was here for it, just as I am always here for a good unreliable narrator.
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It reminded me of a blend of An Elderly Woman is Up To No Good, Eleanor Oliphant and Convenience Store Woman, except with a healthy dosing of moths added... how great am I making this sound? Like Eleanor and Keiko, Ginny sees the world differently and suffers greatly from traumatic events in her childhood and later womanhood. She was born without knowing all the rules of the world that everyone else seemingly knows innately. By the end of the novel I was quite sad to leave her behind, I’d begun to strangely root for her and I thought the ending was very fitting!
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I’m a bit surprised at the low rating on Goodreads, but I guess a lot of people just can’t handle the mothiness - and I guess a few things are left a bit open-ended but I’ve never been one for stories tied up neatly with a bow.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

B&N First Look Advanced Reading Copy.

At first, it was difficult for me to get into this book. Ginny is, as her father was before her, a lepidopterology expert - an expert on moths. But as I continued to read it became clear that there was much more to this story than the study of insects. Told from Ginny's point of view, we remember the past events which bound Ginny and her sister Vivi together and led to their fifty year estrangement, while we also follow the events of the present weekend. Many questions are raised: Why did the devoted sisters become estranged? Why did Vivi come back now, after half a century of being away? How would Ginny adjust to Vivi's presence in her neatly ordered world? Those questions were only the beginning. As the story unfolded it became clear that there was much more to it than moths, but when the twist came, it was (to me) completely unexpected and most delicious. It became apparent why the family business of studying moths would be important, however I do feel that too much scientific detail was included. At times I felt so bogged down with the moth stuff that it was difficult to retain interest in the story. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because I would have hated to miss the ending.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It just goes to show -- a recommendation from goodreads friends can be worth 1,000 four-star average ratings.

I've often had the experience of choosing a book based on its high goodreads rating and feeling disappointed by it. This time, I ignored the low goodreads rating and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was simply because of my reduced expectations, but I actually really enjoyed this book for the most part.

It's kind of a dark story about two sisters and their complicated relationship. Virginia, the sister telling the story, is an eccentric personality and we see pretty early on that she is an unreliable narrator (a device I absolutely love when it's done well, and in this case I felt it was). The author does a wonderful job of getting inside strange Virginia's head and showing us how she views her sister and her dysfunctional parents, all the while casting doubt on her perspective.

I was a little disappointed at the end by some unanswered questions and wasn't entirely convinced of all the dynamics, but overall this book was a pleasant surprise. Thanks, Kinga and Corey! We may never have met in real life, but you were on target with this recommendation.

[Amory · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really a page-turner for me; I didn't want to put it down. But...

But...the ending was thoroughly disappointing. I felt as if I had read the whole book for nothing. It wasn't even the kind of thing where I could say to myself, "Well, I didn't really like the ending, but I sure loved the rest of the book, so it's ok." That's how I felt when I finished reading Stephen King's It; that the ending wasn't really so satisfying, but all in all, the book was totally worth reading.

All along, I felt as if Poppy Adams was alluding to a "shocking secret" about Ginny, building up to the big revelation. Only, the revelation never came. Well, it did come; Vivien told Ginny the truth (whatever that might have been), except Ginny was off in that "other place" in her mind where she went when she didn't want to face the reality of the moment at hand. So, I guess the secret was revealed, only we weren't privy to it since the story is told from Ginny's point of view and Ginny was "elsewhere" at the time.

I had two possibilities in my mind about Ginny as I was reading. I was thinking that she might have had Asberger's syndrome, although at that time no one would have know to call it that. Her inability to read body language and social cues, the "card games" with the doctor during which she was supposed to identify an emotion from a given facial expression... That combined with her vast knowledge on a very narrow topic (moths) seems to point to something like Asberger's. My second thought was that maybe she was an all-out sociopath. She shows absolutely no remorse about having killed Vivien, had no concern whatsoever about whether killing her sister was right or wrong.

So was the family protecting Ginny from herself and from the community because Ginny was different, because she had what would have been perceived as a mental defect back then (Asberger's or something like that)? Or were they protecting her from the fact that she was dangerous and cold-blooded?

And the whole thing with the continuation of her father's moth studies...I'm not sure she really did continue on with anything. Did she have the ability to do everything that was involved with the study of moths on that level? It seemed that she certainly understood the life cycle and behavior patterns of moths, but would she have been able to conduct studies or write reports or apply for grants like her father did?

I can't say I would recommend this book to anyone.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange, disquieting read, this book left me feeling both haunted and frustrated. It's skillfully written and the characterisation is excellent, but I couldn't help feeling the story came to an end long before it should have done, leaving too many important questions unanswered. Once it became apparent that Ginny was the quintessential unreliable narrator, I expected a resolution that would reveal the full truth; instead, the reader is left to wonder whether, for example, Ginny's success and fame as a lepidopterist ever really happened outside her own imagination. I understand that the author wanted some ambiguity to remain, but I felt there were too many loose ends for the story to be satisfying, with the result that the climactic event almost seems like a deus ex machina. The narrative voice is very convincing and overall this is an impressive debut novel; I just wish the ending had provided some real closure.

[BookAddict · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started off so very well that I thought I was in for a treat. But about midway through it started to get very bogged down in desciptions of moths and other things related to lepidoptera, which slowed the plot down to a crawl. I found myself skimming over large numbers of pages (going back periodically to see if I'd missed anything of real importance -- I hadn't) and by the time I got to the end I no longer cared what happened to any of the characters or why. When a reader of novels, I'm a character-driven reader and once I lose interest in the characters, I lose interest in the story. Someone that loves very long descriptions of flora and fauna as a way to illustrate a character's obsession or peculiarities will enjoy this more than I did.

[J-me · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow I have never read a more strange, bizarre and disappointing book. I may have to read it again just to be sure it is as bad as I think it was.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had the potential to be really good but didn't live up to those expectations. It wasn't bad and I don't consider it a waste of time but it was just "eh". The characters were not as developed as they could have been and many questions were left unanswered, for example why Vivien finally came back after 47 years. In my opinion, that is a key point to the novel and we never find out. (For those who have already read it, without giving anything away to those who haven't -- why did the author not delve a little deeper into what Ginny found inside of Vivi's locket? I suppose just because Ginny wouldn't question Vivi about anything). I didn't mind the end being left open to interpretation as to which sisters' memories were correct because I think it's obvious but there were just so many things introduced in the book that weren't followed through on. Even though it was central to the story, the descriptions of the moths and their breeding was tedious and I just skimmed through that. So again, while it wasn't a bad read, I think that comparisons to the The Thirteenth Tale are way off base as it falls far short of the bar set by that book.

[Jamie Hornych · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't "read" this book, I endured it. I skipped so much of this book and I would have quit it within the first 10 pages if it wasn't for my book club. It almost got interesting on page 142. By page 147 I was smacking the book, realizing that I was over halfway through the book and it's never going to get any better. Want me to save you the trouble? "House house big house... Time, time, I care about the time.... Moths, beetles, caterpillars, more moths, BS, BS, BS.... she was PUSHED down the stairs? You don't say... she has an anti-social disorder? no, you're kidding... and then I kill my sister." Boring, obvious, and useless.

[Cristina Izquierdo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even tho it took me quite some time to read this book and I got some spoilers from my dear David Owen, it was worth it all along!!!! I loved this book, I'm a huge fan of the Gothic so the whole ambience was a 10/10 and the constant mystery as well
I still have some questions and I would have loved to have an explanation of some of them, but at the same time, this has made me think about the book for more time than I would after finishing it.
I admit I skipped some parts which (to my opinion) dwelled too much in the moth world, but I loved the metaphor
Overall it was a great read, which I was not expecting!

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ending + bad, slow beginning + whoa, that's a lotta moths = The Sister

One good quotation:
"Is it really necessary to record your life in order to make it worthwhile or commendable? Is it worthless to die without reference? Surely those testimonials last another generation or two, and even then they don't offer much meaning. We all know we're a mere fleck in the tremendous universal cycle of energy, but no one can abide the thought of their life, lived so intensively and exhaustively, being lost when they die as swiftly and as meaningless as an unspoken idea."

[Avanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review based on ARC.

This was a fascinating book, by all accounts. The narrator of the book appears, at first glance, to be a "normal" elderly woman, waiting for her sister after almost 50 years of absence. The story she tells is strange and traumatic, yet as the novel progresses, the reader becomes aware that there is not just a little bit hiding below the surface. Through inconsistencies in the narrator's story (not, however, in the author's) and questions almost begging to be asked (though, notably, not answered by the narrator), the reader becomes aware that there is an entire iceberg waiting to be discovered. I found myself quickly drawn into the story--particularly into that which occurred in the past. The only complaint I really had was that there were a few occasions where I felt the author spent just a little too long on scientific details (the butterfly/moth details). In the end, I did understand why this was done, but I felt that this result could easily have been accomplished with just a *little* paring down, leaving the reader feeling fully satisfied, yet not bogged down. All in all, a great read and very refreshing to find something unformulaic and original! Recommended!

[Robin Malcomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting (in the odd kind of way) book. It is a story of two sisters who have been estranged for the last 47 years. Out of the blue Vivian just shows up.....to the isolated mansion that Virginia has been living like a hermit in all of her life. The two sisters are in their 70's and one thing becomes apparent to me right away...but isn't really addressed...and probably wouldn't have even been considered when Virginia was a child. Virginia has Asperger's Syndrome. This is manifested in many ways throughout the story, but is really brought to light with her life study of Moths. Virginia and her father were "famous" lipodopterists. (Before reading this book I had never heard the word). This is a quirky, odd book with more information about moths than you would ever think to wonder about. The real story however, is the differing recollections of their past.

I enjoyed this book, but it may have been my curiosity about the Asperger's angle that helped move it along. I find that part really odd...I also find it odd that the author in her Acknowledgments mentions a lot about moths but nothing about that....was it intentional? Am I reading too much into some of the peculiarities? I am a little perplexed. Someone else needs to read this so we can discuss it.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really had no preconceived ideas about this book except that it was supposed to be strange & there was supposed to be a twist/surprise ending. I finished the book a couple of days ago & I'm still waiting for the surprise. In spite of way too much scientific detail on lepidoptery (the study of moths) I read rather quickly & eagerly - the author creates a potentially spooky atmosphere & some very odd characters - a nice set-up for a twist ending. Ginny is the narrator - she tells the story via her memories of her family & her childhood with her sister, Vivi. The only thing I really learned by the end is that Ginny's perceptions can't be trusted; so do I trust any of her memories? do I believe anything she "remembers"? If I can't believe in her memories than is the whole story unbelievable? In the end I think all I can be sure of is that I will never have to read any more about moths because there just can't be a single fact that wasn't covered in this book, and that Vivi was the only family member with enough common sense to get out. Why she came back is the only mystery.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I've been looking forward to for a long time and I finished it earlier today. I was completely mesmirised by the writing and enjoyed Ginny's narrative, her pespective of her life and her family members. I would agree that there is a touch of the 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' about the story, but as that is one of my all time favourite films, this only added to my pleasure.

This is a cleverly written debut novel which explores a distant relationship between the two sisters, the female characters are very strong and the plot twists and turns and is often surprising.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my god I hated this book. It had everything I usually like, weird English families, giant crumbling estates, kooky Victorian pursuits (why is it always bug collecting?) and some mysterious back story. But I had to force myself to read it and to be perfectly honest, I was seriously skimming the last third. Promising premise but with characters I couldn't like -- or that never got fully realized, and a story that just sort of fell apart. I hate to give bad reviews and I hardly ever write ones for goodreads, but do not bother reading this book. Trust me.

[Lieke Dekker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Draak van een boek. Sowieso vindt een boekenclublid dit exemplaar binnenkort in zijn of haar boekenkast.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sister by Poppy Adams opens with seventy year old Virginia (Ginny), a recluse, waiting for her sister Vivien (Vivi) to return to Bulburrow Court, the decaying family mansion, after being away for nearly fifty years. The novel focuses on the four day period of time when Vivi returns home. Ginny is the narrator and as she reflects about her life a picture of her childhood begins to emerge. Their mother, Maud, is gregarious and often answers for Ginny. Their father, Clive, was a famous lepidopterist and Ginny follows in his foot steps, making the study of moths her life's work.

It becomes clear right at the start that Vivi's visit is going to disrupt Ginny's carefully planned days. It also becomes clear that Ginny is an unreliable narrator and that something is not quite right about her. We know from the start that she is obsessively focused on time. We learn that she has exact rituals for making tea and for making her bed. We learn that she is unable to show emotion or interpret emotion in others.

Ginny also doles out large, obsessive amounts of information about moths - so much that the moths become another character in the book. Ginny tells us that she, like her father, is a world famous lepidopterist. While it didn't bother me, in earlier reviews of The Sister some readers were bothered by the vast amount of information and facts about moths. That may be something to take into account if you think it might annoy you. I felt that it became clear that the information about moths is important to the story and raises questions about the role of biology in a person's actions - is it nature or nurture that dictates our actions.

Adams is a talented writer and did a wonderful job building the suspense. As the present events unfold, details about the past are told in alternating chapters. It soon becomes clear that events may not be exactly as they are presented and there are more questions raised than answers given. A draw back to this is that all the loose ends are not tied up in the end so it requires some speculation on the part of the reader.

I wish some of the questions raised had been answered in this atmospheric Gothic thriller. Basically I enjoyed The Sister right up until the end when I was left feeling a little let down. highly recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/


Quotes:
It’s ten to two in the afternoon and I’ve been waiting for my little sister, Vivi, since one-thirty. She’s finally coming home, at sixty-seven years old, after an absence of nearly fifty years. opening

Did I tell you that Vivien said in her letter she was returning for good? For some final peace, she said, because now, she said, we ought to be keeping each other company for the rest of our lives, rather than dying lonely and alone. Well, I’ll tell you now, I don’t feel lonely and I certainly don’t feel as if I’m dying, but even so I’m glad she’s coming home. Glad, and a little nervous - a surge of apprehension is swelling in my stomach. I can’t help wondering what we’ll talk about after all these years and, I suppose, if I’ll even recognize her. pg. 4

She is late, however. I look at my wristwatch—the digital one on my left wrist. Her letter most specifically read one-thirty and, believe me, it's not my timekeeping that's gone awry. I keep a number of clocks just so I can be sure that, even if one or two let me down, I can always find the correct time. When you live by yourself in a house that you very rarely leave and is even more rarely visited, it's essential that you don't lose track of the time. Every minute lost - if left uncorrected - would soon accumulate to an hour, and then hours, until - as you can imagine - you could easily end up living in a completely erroneous time frame. pg. 4

It was a childhood in perfect balance, so I’m wondering what it was that came along and changed everything. It wasn’t just one thing. There’s rarely a sole cause for the separation of lives. It’s a sequence of events, an inexorable chain reaction where each small link is fundamental, like a snake of upended dominoes. And I’ve been thinking that the very first one, the one you push to start it all off, must have been when Vivi slipped off our bell tower and nearly died, fifty-nine years ago. pg. 5

I wonder what Vivien's left behind in London; I wonder if this is the start of another special bond, like the one we had many years ago. Most of all I wonder why she's decided, finally, to come home. pg. 31

I can mimic the scent of a flower so that a moth will direct itself towards the scent, even if I have made sure that in doing so it goes headlong into a wall and kills itself. Each time each moth will kill itself. It is this constancy that makes them a scientific delight - you do not need to factor in a rogue element of individuality. pg. 55

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ask me, both titles of this book are completely unsatisfactory – The Sister sounds way generic and brings up about a million hits in any google or goodreads search, while Behavior of Moths sounds like a boring textbook that no one wants to read. Here are three potential alternatives: (1) Unraveling the Mysteries of Brimstone Fluorescence – conveys the esoteric tone of the book while referencing the science experiment that Ginny (main character) and her dad were conducting when the shit began to hit the fan. Also, it uses the word “unraveling” which is kind of how the plot is laid out (it’s gradually unraveled), and also mentions the moths (a Brimstone is a moth), which are really a key aspect of the book. (2) Virginia and Vivian Go Moth Hunting in the English Countryside – may appeal to the younger crowd because it sounds both like a kids book and Victorian (which is quite the popular genre these days). (3) We Have Always Lived in the Castle – oh wait… that one’s taken. Ok, clearly I don’t have a future in book marketing, but my point is that if I didn’t happen to be an entomologist who actively seeks out insect-themed fiction, I would have never stumbled on this book. And that would be a shame.

In my opinion, this book was a find especially in audiobook format which is how I consumed it. It had a simple plot with lots of interesting twists of varying levels of predictability. The cast of characters was small, and each one had their own memorable quirkiness (very important for audiobooks, as I’m discovering. This way there’s no getting mixed up between characters). And the descriptions of entomological research – from methodological details to big picture theory to important discoveries from a historical perspective – were scientifically accurate, succinct and interesting. It is very possible that some people may find the entomology excessive, but I would whole-heartedly disagree. First of all, it was an effective literary tool to showcase the main character’s obsessive personality (hence all the detail). Secondly… and feel free to disagree with me on this one… the main character’s love for entomology was not really conveyed as an unhealthy and irritating obsession with moths above all other organisms, but as an extreme love of science and the scientific process, and the brilliant ways in which moths as a study organism can teach us about the world if we look closely enough. This is a subtle but important difference. Example: As Rex pees on your leg thinking it’s a fire hydrant, irritating dog owner says, “Rex is the most brilliant dog ever don’t you think he’s adorable?” vs. “Aren’t dogs interesting creatures? I wonder what it is in their DNA that makes them think that legs look like fire hydrants?” In other words, blind and illogical admiration of a specific disgusting dog is hard to connect with from the outside, while an interest in dogs in general and the reasons behind their behavior, is much more accessible.

Four stars because I wasn’t “amazed”, but I did really enjoy it.

[Joy H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

_The Sister_ by Poppy Adams (2008)
Added April 26, 2009.

My Goodreads friend, Jeff, recommended this book to me because I enjoyed Diane Setterfield's _The Thirteenth Tale_ so much.

Jeff wrote: "Joy, if you liked The Thirteenth Tale, you'd also probably really like Poppy Adams' The Sister. It's superb gothic storytelling, much like the Setterfield."

I'm looking forward to reading this book.

9/23/11 - I started reading this book several days ago. The author likes to describe things and loses my attention. So I'm having trouble getting into it. I like a plot to move along. I'm on Chapter 3, p. 32, right now.

10/10/11 - I finished reading this book yesterday. I'm glad I stuck with it because the ending was gripping and suspenseful. While reading the book, I wondered where it was going. It seemed very weird. The characters were very strange.

The story is told in the first person, present tense, by the narrator, Ginny (Virginia Stone). Her sister's name is Vivi (Vivien). Although the story is told in the present tense, the flashbacks and memories are necessarily in the past tense. Using the present tense makes the action very immediate for the reader. Alternating between the different tenses was a bit confusing at times, but not so much as to ruin the story.

Ginny and her father, Clive, were lepidopterists, experts on moths and butterflies, and very dedicated to their research. I learned a good deal about the metamorphosis of these insects from Ginny's detailed explanations. In fact, as I read, I realized what a miracle the changes are: from larvae to caterpillar to butterfly (or moth). The change from a liquid state to a butterfly is amazing (reminding me that we take the chick hatching from an egg for granted).

Along the way there is an interesting discussion of free will, about how the insects go through all their changes without making any choices as to what those changes may be. It's something to think about. On p. 253, while speaking of her actions, Ginny, (speaking first about the domino effect) says: "It is the consequence of my lifetime experiences on the character I was given... It's as strictly governed as a mathematical equation. ... I'd like to think that, for once, I am in control of my actions, but I also like to know I am not."

Once I got into the story, I enjoyed the book, but it was stop and go for a little while. I can now recommend the book as a good read.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn.

I'm not interested in the anatomy of moths, which seemed to be a huge focus of the book. I got halfway through and decided that there are much more interesting gothic novels out there, and I shouldn't be wasting my time on one that takes so long to develop.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, and would reconsider picking this up again if someone convinced me it gets better. Until then, it's back at the library.