Gem & Dixie

Sara Zarr

2017

Ratings2

Average rating4.5

Gem has never known what it is to have security. She's never known an adult she can truly rely on. But the one constant in her life has been Dixie. Gem grew up taking care of her sister when no one else could: not their mother, whose issues make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and definitely not their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than his frequent absence. Even as the sisters have grown apart, they've always had each other. When their dad returns home for the first time in years and tries to insert himself back into their lives, Gem finds herself with an unexpected opportunity: three days with Dixie, on their own in Seattle and beyond. But this short trip soon becomes something more, as Gem discovers that to save herself, she may have to sever the one bond she's tried so hard to keep.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

bianca

It felt urgent, now, to find out everything, but I also knew it was probably too late. It made me sad, the idea that for the last few years I'd stopped knowing my sister, who she had become.

— About a broken family and the complex relationship between two sisters. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the plot and the characters.

June 2, 2017

Chelsea T

Realistic, but too many lows.

“Our dad buying us food shouldn't have been a special treat, it shouldn't feel like Christmas or a trip to Disneyland; we should have had it all along. There should have been child support, there should have been someone making sure we had what we needed at school. There should have been regular bedtimes and no one working nights, leaving us home all alone. We should have been getting advice—better advice than “Don't ever go to Texas.”

This book is not what I expected.

This a book of lows with no highs to balance it out.

Dixie was annoying in how she got an attitude at Gem for things that was not even her fault. I mostly ignored her during the book and was glad when their Mom called her out that one time.

But Gem was the worst. She'd snap at Dixie and even other people for no reason or bc she was jealous of what they had. Given her situation, I get the jealous part but she didn't always have a reason. And she was also so negative, even when she was getting what she wanted, she couldn't be happy for a second. I couldn't stand her.

In one scene, Gem goes up to Dixie in the school cafeteria in front of her friends and asks for a letter that their Dad sent them. Dixie say not right now. So of course Gem gets mad and throws away the food she was complaining about not having and sticks the middle finger up to a boy that did nothing to her.

Overall she was just very unpleasant to read about.

The sisterhood. Where? They were always snipping at it each other. Gem is constantly thinking about her she has to take care of Dixie but even sometimes she has moments where she doesn't trust her. I thought it get better once they run out by themselves and maybe learn about each other, Gem manipulated her into coming and everything was the same.

This book get props for have a realistic potryal of what it like to live in poverty and how neglectful parents can affect you generationally. While the writing wasn't stellar it was pretty decent and this book was a pretty fast read. But in the end, I just did not like this one all that much.