Cammie McGovern
This first novel by the sister of actress Elizabeth McGovern (Racing with the Moon) is about the familial ties that bind—and threaten to choke. "To everyone else you look like the quiet one, but only you know—even in your silence and your stair-sitting ways—you have all the power. Or you did." So says Jemma, the envious and hyper-vigilant younger sister of Rozzie, a fey starlet with blockbuster demons. Jemma, a talented photographer, watches the tables turn as Rozzie loses her eyesight and her career. Rozzie "hates the power her family gave her years ago when she used to make adolescent rules and watch—in horror—as everyone adhered to them."
The author is a wry and keen observer of sibling love and rivalry--and Hollywood hypocrisy. The characters, though, especially Rozzie, too often come across as annoyingly muted and elliptical. (Scribner, $24)
Bottom Line: Eloquent, but not all there
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