Review of Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia

 Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia 

If this quarantine is getting you down and bored then there is nothing I could recommend other than this novel. It was funny, snarky, and entertaining. KJ tells a story filled with sibling and family rivalry, reality tv shenanigans, and finding yourself. I have to say I truly enjoyed this story because at every moment it was exciting and unexpected that had me laughing out loud. It's a story about family and coming-of-age and good fried chicken. I tend to enjoy plots about fictional reality shows where we get a behind the scenes look at what really happens on those sets. 

This story is about two restaurants that couldn't operate more differently but were started in the late 1800s by two sisters and the tradition continued up until the present. Mimi's and Frannie's, two chicken restaurants in the same town owned by families who want nothing to do with each other. After betraying her family and the family business of Mimi's, Amanda marries Frank the son of Frannie's. As the years go by Amanda is shunned from her family and becomes part of Frannie's. But then she gets a brilliant idea to enter into Foof Wars a reality show that pins two similar restaurants against each other. What could go wrong? 

Stand out quote: 

"Choices only move in one direction" pg 140 

Some questions to ponder: 

1. Would you ever enter a reality show? 
2. How does this story comment on the wounds your parents leave you? 
3. How are Mae and Amanda the same and how do they differ? 
4. Do you think Barbara will go back to her old ways? 

Thanks for popping by! 

-MDB