Kristy Kiernan, Catching Genius

Catching Genius

Kristy Kiernan

Berkley, Mar 2007, $14.00

ISBN: 0425214354

Raised in affluence in Florida, Estella and Connie Sykes may be sisters, but are also best friends. That is until Estella, two years older than Connie, catches the dreaded "eyecue," whatever that is. Fearing for her beloved normal sibling, Estella drifts away from Connie, hurting her sister who does not understand why. Estella is a math prodigy while Connie is a norm.

Now years later, the two sisters, still not close, return to their Gulf Coast home to help their mom sell the family house. As they work on what to toss, what to give away, what to sell, and what to keep, their past as precocious partners and the subsequent split when they were seven and five respectively surfaces forcing both, especially the elder, to reveal family truths.

Alternating perspective, CATCHING GENIUS is a delightful look at how childhood relationships make the adults. Out of innocence and a real concern for her younger sister, Estella finds the road to hell paved with her good intentions. Though the Connie sections seem more insightful as the audience feels her decades-old, still-lingering hurt while not quite understanding how Estella coped over the years, readers will appreciate Kristy Kiernan's poignant look at the changing relationship between two sisters.

Harriet Klausner