Customer Reviews:
 Friends forever? January 23, 2008
I completely enjoyed reading this novel. Bufflehead Sisters is the story of the friendship between Janet and Sophie from kindergarten into adulthood. The author does a great job of developing the characters and keeping the storyline moving. I found myself unable to put it down. While the "big secret" is foreshadowed early, I think it kept the story suspenseful. It reminded me that in real life, we frequently get so rapped up in our own day to day lives that we miss the clues to something obvious going on right in front of us. I enjoyed seeing the major characters deepen and mature as they aged in the novel. When the story ended, I was wishing for more.
I understand the author submitted this novel as part of a contest, and in winning had it published. I hope she keeps writing, because I want to read more of her work if it's anything like Bufflehead Sisters.
 very good read December 26, 2007
I really enjoyed this story, and would recommend it highly to anyone that has an open mind.
What a read! December 17, 2007
I read a review of The Bufflehead Sisters in my local paper - the reviewer practically offered to take potential readers to the bookstore to purchase it - that's how pleased he was with the book. So, I bought it. I must say, I have to agree on most fronts with the reviewer. It's an excellent read, with careful character developments on all fronts, with the exception of the relentless cardboard starchiness of the narrator's mother versus the openmindedness and compassion of the father - a bit much of the good cop, bad cop there. Also, Sophie's Dad was not as fleshed out as he might have been. I also figured out, almost before it happened, what the big secret was, but I'm not sure the author didn't intend it that way. In which case, what the heck took the narrator so long?? One of the interesting things about the book is the way it's set up - Chapters with scenes separated by white space, almost bloglike. It makes the book, already fabulously readable, even more intriquing, since so many people have so little time to read - but a one or two page scene is doable. Oddly, this set up made me read probably more than I would have. It's a good book, carefully and lovingly rendered, and I look forward to more from Ms. DeLois.
It's a great read November 10, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Of the two sisters of the title, Janet is the narrator. Here's how she meets the othere "bufflehead," Sophie.
A kindergarten teacher has singled Sophie out for criticism. She makes Sophie stand as she scolds her. DeLois writes: "I stole at glance at Sophie expecting to see my own mortification reflected there. But Sophie looked entirely unperturbed as she gazed around the classroom with her hands in her pockets, like someone who had just stopped by to see what a kindergarten class looked like."
DeLois is a great story-teller, and this is a fascinating tale to tell. When the two girls get to junior high, Sophie's strange abilities come more into the story. It seems she can do things like tell fortunes and turn evil back on those from whom it's coming.
It makes for one of the best coming of age stories since Holden Caufield rode that taxi through Central Park wondering where all the ducks went in winter.
But Sophie and Janet are not goodie-two-shoes. When they get to high school, sex and drugs come into the story. And Sophie's approach to things is, as always, a little different. For example, sometimes when when one of her father's girlfriends is spending the night, she borrows the car keys and goes for a drive.
DeLois writes about it:
"One night she was driving some woman's car when a policeman signaled her to pull over. She toyed with the idea of outrunning him, she told me, but she wasn't that good with the stock shift yet, and she was just stoned enough to be mesmerized by the flashing blue lights, so she stopped.
The cop asked to see her license, and she was forced to admit that she didn't have one. He asked who car she was driving, and she explained that she didn't exactly know, she had found it in her driveway. He asked for her name, and she clammed up.
As he crouched down to speak to her at eye level, she had a strange sense of deja vu, and in the middle of his speech about how much trouble she was in, she interrupted.
"I know you. You shot my mother."
That shut up the cop, because it turns out he did.
There's bound to me more "Sophie" books in the future, and when there are, you'll be glad you read this one.
It's a great read.
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