I've been in quite a book slump at the moment - probably due to being back at university, and thrown into my final year - and was in need of a book to get me out of it. The Sister Pact, though not what I expected to help, has done the job perfectly. I had a few issues with this book - which I'll mention below - but at the same time, loved every moment of it.

In The Sister Pact we meet Allie, just days after her elder sister, Leah, has killed herself. Allie is spiralling into a meltdown, as she and Leah had had some sort of 'pact' that they would deal with their problems together, and pay the ultimate price is necessary. Allie feels abandoned, and guilty. When she wants to be left alone, to deal with her grief in her own way, everyone hovers. She doesn't have many moments alone, and when she does, she self medicates to get through the day. By doing this, she sees Leah everywhere, and doesn't actually process her emotions in a healthy way.

Allie was a character I really liked, which was a good thing considering I hated just about every other character in the book. I felt like Allie was a real person - the author never shied away from showing the spiralling, the bargaining a depressed might go through. Though she felt like she needed to take the drugs, take the cough medicine etc., she knew it was wrong, and knew it wouldn't help her cope with the loss of her sister. Allie's search for herself was truly wonderful to read, and I am unbelievably happy with what position she was in at the end of the book.

To get onto the other characters, I felt like slapping the majority of them at least once in the book; and that's including Leah, the dead sister. All of them walked all over Allie, and treated her like she was some sort of burden. I mean, Leah would regularly call her 'sloppy seconds' - supposedly as a sign of affection - and forced Allie to do anything Leah wanted her too. The father has got to be the most hateful character I have met in a very, very long time. He was the cause of a lot of the family's issues, and acted as if he was above everyone else, as if he was inconveniencing himself to deal with his only surviving child, after his eldest has just committed suicide. Nothing about him redeemed himself throughout the entire story.

Allie's best friends were problematic, and I felt like every time they were close to Allie, she got a little worse. They needed to simply leave her alone, or else they'd harm her.

The only characters I sort of liked were John Strickland, and Allie's mam. Allie's mam was a problematic parent, but she did redeem herself. We saw that she was as much a victim as Allie or Leah were, and was simply struggling trying to help herself, while at the same time helping everyone else around her. John was a very surprising character. I'm glad he wasn't a love interest for Allie, but was the perfect friend she needed to get her through this trying time. John knew Leah, and they could both tell each other their 'Leah' stories, in order to grieve, properly.

This book deals with a very controversial subject, and I feel as if it did that very, very well. Ramey should be so proud of her debut, and I honestly can say I am looking forward to more of her work. I knew I was reading a book as I was reading this, but it felt like a real, non-fictional book - as if it was a biography or something. I was a part of the story, and was invested in Allie's well-being. Allie was the best thing about this book, and I think a lot of people would love her as much as me. I definitely recommend this book, especially for lovers of angsty, real contemporary books.