Sibling relationships can be complicated. You don't get to choose your family; brothers, sisters and siblings are usually the luck of the draw. Sometimes your siblings are your best friends, sometimes they’re strangers who happen to live in the same house as you, and sometimes they’re your worst enemy, or all of the above!
In honor of Siblings Day, here are some teen reads in which the relationships of siblings are complex, comforting, disturbing and always surprising.
In Three Dark Crowns, the first in a series by Kendare Blake, royal triplet sisters are born every generation and must compete against each other using magic, to see who will be the ruler of the country.
In The Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith, Stefan Salvatore is considered a “good” vampire, while his brother Damon is supposedly evil. However, the connection between these brothers is far more complicated.
Sibling responsibility can also be complicated. What do you do when you feel a need to protect your sibling, but you know they may be dangerous? In The Demon's Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan, brothers Nick and Alan navigate a web of family secrets.
To be fair, siblings aren't always out to kill you or are secretly in love with your girlfriend, but they may still have the power to hurt you. In Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, Cath must deal with the fact that her twin sister, Wren, no longer shares Cath’s enthusiasm for their favorite series of books and the online fandom they both used to adore. As Wren seeks to demonstrate her independence as an individual, Cath learns what it means to be a sister whose identity is separate from that of her twin.
Sometimes parents treat siblings differently, even unfairly favoring one child over another. In Katherine Paterson’s classic Jacob Have I Loved, Sara Louise’s beautiful and talented twin sister, Caroline, has always been praised over her. In order to see herself for who she truly is, Sara Louise must look for a life outside of Caroline's shadow.
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