The Bang-Bang Sisters

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

---

What’s The Bang-Bang Sisters About?

I’m not even going to try to pretend to be able to summarize this, so I’m going to copy and paste the official description:

Meet the Bang-Bang Sisters: Brea, Jessie, and Flo. Together, they’re a kick-ass rock band with an unbreakable bond.

But that’s only half the story. Offstage, they’re highly skilled vigilantes, traveling the country in their beaten-up tour van to exact justice on criminals who have slipped through the system. Part rock stars, part assassins, they’re a force to be reckoned with.

Drawn by a tantalizing lead, the sisters head to Reedsville, Alabama—a city crawling with destitution and corruption—where they close in on a notorious serial killer known as “the wren.” But they soon discover that they have walked straight into a trap set by Chance Kotter, a ruthless mobster with a personal vendetta.

Bruised and beaten, the sisters find themselves at the mercy of Chance and a sadistic game of survival that will pit them against each other: Forty-eight hours. One city. Three sisters. Only one of them can survive.

Full of gripping action and shocking twists that come at a breakneck pace, The Bang-Bang Sisters is a relentless, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will leave you breathless.

What did I think about The Bang-Bang Sisters?

I’m afraid if I spend my usual amount of time talking about this (or trying to come up with something coherent to say), I’m going to put it off for too long, and maybe overexplain. So let’s just go with this:

It captures the spirit of music and live performance (and inter-band dynamics) as…well, any rock novel I can think of.

You have a serial killer equal to Francis Dolarhyde.

You’ve got a violent, kill-or-be-killed, “game” as nasty as The Hunger Games, without the love triangle.*

You’ve got a violent, kill-or-be-killed, “game” as nasty and detailed as Chain-Gang All-Stars without the redeeming social commentary.

You’ve got a rich Southern guy as fat as Boss Hogg, as corrupt as Johnny Stagg, as weasely as Gríma Wormtongue.

You’ve got three great women characters with all the style, skill, and general badassery as The Deadly Viper squad.

Throw it all into a book with the violence level equal to—if not greater than—Kill Bill, Vol. 1.

It’s got the pacing of a classic rock song—with occasional bursts of speed metal.

It’s fast, it’s furious, it’s bloody, it’s raw emotion, it’s dangerous. It is so much fun. It is Rock and Roll.

If you can handle that combination, you’re in for a great ride. If one part of the above doesn’t appeal to you? Skip this.

I thought this was great, I hated to walk away from it every time I had to. Kristen Sieh’s narration was precisely what this book needed.

By the time the book ended, I felt like you do after a great concert—elated, a little worn out, and riding a high you don’t want to come down from.

* There is a love triangle, but it’s a good kind—it’s a supportive, sororal triangle.