Ms. Hen reviews The Chicken Sisters

 

The Chicken Sisters

KJ Dell'Antonia

Putnam

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she read about it, and found out that it's about chickens! She doesn't think there's anything better than chickens, so she decided to give this book a chance.

This novel is about rival chicken establishments in rural Merinac Kansas. The original two owners were sisters, Mimi and Frannie, and a legend says that they became rivals and fought over their restaurants. Through the generations the families fought over the businesses. Amanda is the daughter of the owner of Mimi's, the smaller restaurant, which is just a shack, but she married Frank, the son of the owner of Frannie's, the larger sit down restaurant with a bar and an extensive menu. Amanda distanced herself from her mother. Mae, Amanda's sister, disdainful of Merinac and everything about her family, went to college and moved away to New York, and became a cleaning guru with her book LESS IS MOORE about how to clean your space.

Amanda writes an email to a show called FOOD WARS, a reality show in which neighboring restaurants battle it out. She writes to Mae, who is appearing in another reality show in New York, SPARKLING, about cleaning, from which she has just been fired. Mae goes back to Merinac with her two children and the nanny to help her mother with the show, which she thinks will help her career. The family feud begins, with each sisters trying to display how the other sister is a negative person. Amanda and Mae's mother's house is a mess, and always has been. Andy is the cook at Mimi's, which Mae thinks is strange at first because she never hired outside help before.

This book would be considered women's fiction, but it is not a romance novel. It's a novel about work and families. This is not great literature. This is a fluff novel, and Ms. Hen does not read books like this often, but once in a while it's good to read something light.

On the cover of this book it says that it is one of Reese's book club picks. Ms. Hen understands that Reese Witherspoon has a book club, but her choosing this does not say a lot about her taste in great books. Ms. Hen actually thinks that this novel would make a much better film, and she wonders if Ms. Witherspoon is planning on acting in the movie. Ms. Hen thinks that she would be fitting to play the part of Amanda, the sister who stays in Kansas, marries her high school sweetheart, and wants to be on a reality show.

There are so many chickens in this book it's too difficult to count them. Amanda likes to draw chickens, and she drew the sign on Mimi's years ago, which Mae paints over. Amanda also draws a comic about chickens; she creates one that a story similar to the book CARRIE by Stephen King. Amanda also keeps chickens in her yard.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel will not change anyone's life, or help people see the world through different eyes. But it could be a great movie someday. Ms. Hen loves chickens, and she cannot help but be charmed by a book that contains so many.