Line #10 Literature/SistersNoWay


1	[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sisters_no_way2_8134.jpg]]
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3	''Sisters... No Way!'' is a novel by Irish author Siobhán Parkinson. A modern ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' re-telling, it's told in the unique form of two diary accounts for its protagonists.
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5	Cindy Ellis is a fifteen-year-old girl whose mother has just died of an unnamed illness, and she's trying to get on with everyday life. That doesn't prove easy when one too many CrocodileTears to get out of class lands her in with the school guidance counselor Margaret Magee. Margaret starts seeing her father more regularly, and the relationship soon becomes less about business.
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7	We also get to hear the story from the perspective of Margaret's oldest daughter Aishling, who is a similar age to Cindy. She and her younger sister Alva notice how close their mother and Cindy's father are growing - and all three girls soon realise that there's a strong possibility they'll all become sisters. [[TitleDrop No Way!]]
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9	----
10	!!This novel provides examples of:
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12	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Cindy gets drunk during dinner and starts telling stories about the girls in her class. Aishling's narration states that Margaret found these stories very funny, probably because she knew all the girls.
13	* AlcoholicParent: Aishling and Alva's father Philip is this.
14	* AlphaBitch: Cindy's classmate Emma. She even at one point asks if Margaret sleeps in her mother's bed.
15	* AmicableExes: Margaret and Philip seem to be this at first. But then Philip drunkenly threatens to have Alva taken off her in a custody battle.
16	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Alva, big time. Although Aishling still loves her, sometimes she's exasperated by her bratty behaviour.
17	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Aishling in the early parts of her diary talks about trying to find her mother a boyfriend. Once she starts dating Richard, she immediately lampshades the irony.
18	* BitchAlert: Aishling and Alva have this reaction when they first meet Cindy.
19	* BoyishShortHair: Imelda. Since she has no arms, it's easier for her to manage.
20	* BrattyHalfPint: Alva, even though she's fourteen. Cindy's narration even says "she's a terrible baby for fourteen."
21	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Alva and Cindy. Averted with Aishling who is a very mature and reasonable sixteen-year-old girl.
22	* ByTheHair: During an argument at the breakfast table, Aishling grabs Cindy by the hair to calm her down. Cindy does something similar to Emma earlier in the book.
23	* CatFight: Emma, one of Cindy's classmates, mocks Cindy for Margaret marrying her father. When she asks if Margaret sleeps in her mother's bed, Cindy loses it and attacks her.
24	* CoolAunt: Imelda, Richard's sister, is someone who always has time for Cindy and lets her stay over whenever she wants. Cindy even briefly imagines that she might live with her if Richard marries Margaret.
25	* CrocodileTears: Cindy uses these in her classes to avoid having to do complicated work. This backfires when she gets sent to the guidance counselor, and thus the story begins...
26	* DaddysGirl: Aishling mentions that Alva was this before their parents's divorce. Alva frequently demands to live with him.
27	* DefrostingIceQueen: Cindy and Aishling towards each other. The end of both diaries have them civil enough to each other.
28	* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: It's not said what illness Cindy's mother died of. The comparisons with cancer are drawn at some point, and Cindy says that her mother was beautiful before she got sick, so presumably it was cancer.
29	* DramaticIrony: If you read Aishling's diary first, then you'll immediately realize that [[spoiler:Robbie, the guy Cindy meets in a bar, is her ex]]. If you read Cindy's first, then you'll clue in when he phones the house.
30	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Aishling. She's pretty, popular, gets straight As and has a cute boyfriend.
31	* TheGhost: Aishling mentions a best friend called Fidelma who never factors into any key scenes or moments.
32	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Margaret gets pregnant with a man she's only been dating for a few months, while she's also a single parent of two teenage daughters, and already struggling financially. The solution is to move in with Richard, bringing Aishling and Alva with her. Granted, abortion was illegal in Ireland at the time, and she would likely have been raised conservatively to not even consider such a thing, but she and Philip had already gone to great efforts to get a divorce when that was still illegal in Ireland too. Of course the out of universe reason is that this re-telling of ''Cinderella'' requires a good reason for the stepfamily to move in.
33	* HairContrastDuo: The original book cover portrays the moody Cindy as a brunette (in the book she describes her hair as "murky brown") and the more refined Aisling as blonde.
34	* HappyMarriageCharade: Cindy assumes her friend Lisa has the perfect family, and is astonished when she realises it's not the case.
35	* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Cindy's best friend Lisa. She's ''fifteen''.
36	* HiddenDepths: Despite being a rebellious brat, Cindy is very intelligent, well-read, and gets very good grades.
37	* HotForTeacher: Cindy and her classmates have massive crushes on their English teacher Mr O'Donnell.
38	* {{Hypocrite}}: Lampshaded by Cindy when she talks about how Margaret advises girls against unprotected sex as part of her job - and yet ends up pregnant herself.
39	* IHaveManyNames: Margaret isn't aware that she has about three nicknames among her students. It's Literature/MillyMollyMandy at the beginning, and Cindy remembers it used to be Maggie-Maggie (before a third Maggie was added). Cindy herself christens her 'The Bay Tree' after her hairstyle.
40	* IdiotBall: Aishling finds a pregnancy test in the bathroom bin and immediately assumes that it belongs to Alva, her fourteen-year-old sister, as opposed to Margaret, who's in an actual relationship.
41	* IronicEchoCut: Aishling and Alva pride themselves on the two kilts they wear to dinner with Cindy and Richard - as well as getting matching pearl earrings with Margaret. Cindy's narration in the diary mocks them for looking silly.
42	* {{Jerkass}}: Cindy, although her angry and cynical attitude is understandable, sometimes she goes too far and can be very unpleasant.
43	* LadyDrunk: Cindy, actually, when she first has dinner with Margaret and her daughters. Cindy actually passes out at the table.
44	* LegFocus: Aishling has this reaction when Alva wears a short skirt that exposes her legs.
45	-->"[Alva] has a nice figure, she should show it off a bit more".
46	* TheLostLenore: Cindy's dead mother for her father.
47	* MaybeEverAfter: Cindy and [[spoiler: Robbie/Bob]]. They do hit it off and could possibly see each other again. However it's doubtful considering Cindy is living [[spoiler: with his ex]].
48	* MeaningfulName: Cindy - a young girl who gets a stepmother and stepsisters. Her last name is Ellis too. (Cindy Ellis = Cinderella).
49	* MissingMom: Cindy's mother died and the story starts just after her funeral.
50	* MistakenForPregnant: Played with. Aishling finds a pregnancy test in the bathroom bin and assumes it's Alva who used it. But it's Margaret's instead.
51	* {{Narm}}:[[invoked]] When Cindy is launching into her rant on Alva, she notes in her diary that the girl has an unintentionally funny reaction on her face.
52	* TheNicknamer:
53	** Cindy has nicknames for all her teachers - Aishling notes in her diary that they're not very original.
54	** Alva nicknames Cindy "The Noxious".
55	** Later in Aishling's story, we learn that she comes up with the nickname "Bob" (short for Robert) for her boyfriend and she and her family are the only ones who use this nickname. [[spoiler: Everyone else, including Cindy, calls him Robbie.]]
56	* NotSoAboveItAll: Aishling. She comes off as the mature NiceGirl and OnlySaneWoman, especially compared to Alva, but she was actually quite awful to her (ex-)boyfriend Bob, dumping him ''twice'' for little to no reason. Also when Margaret hears that her daughters have a nickname for Cindy, Aishling says "[[TakeThat it's accurate]]..."
57	* PerspectiveFlip: The two diary accounts.
58	* ProperLady: Cindy views Aishling as a modern example, referring to her as "Miss Prim".
59	* PunnyName: Margaret Magee - Maggy Magee. Lampshaded by Cindy who wonders why her parents would call her that. Turns out it's her married name.
60	* RewatchBonus: Discussed by Cindy in her diary. She remarks that once you hear a new word, you start to see it everywhere and wonder how you could possibly have lived without it.
61	* SecondLove: Richard and Margaret for each other. Also Margaret's ex Philip is now HappilyMarried to Naomi.
62	* SheCleansUpNicely: Aishling has this reaction when Cindy comes over to dinner for the second time. The first time she wears jeans and dirty shoes but the second time she wears a dress, does up her hair and puts on a lot of makeup. Ultimately subverted as Aishling thinks she overdid it.
63	* ShouOut: One of Margaret's many nicknames among her students is Milly-Molly-Mandy, which references the children's book series ''Literature/MillyMollyMandy''.
64	* TheShrink: Margaret is a Type 2 - well meaning but doesn't really help Cindy.
65	* SiblingYinYang: Aishling is composed, mature and refined while Alva is loud, obnoxious and a complete brat.
66	* SlobsVersusSnobs: Played with in regards to Bob/Robbie's choice of "snob" Aishling vs "slob" Cindy. Aishling is actually poorer than Cindy but is a lover of classical music and literature while Cindy is a more stereotypical teenager.
67	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Discussed by Cindy. Her mother apparently wanted it to be spelt "Cyndi" but her father stopped her.
68	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Cindy at one point puts on some of her mother's clothes, and when her father sees her he does a DoubleTake because she looks so like her.
69	* TerritorialSmurfette: Suggested with Cindy towards her father.
70	* UncannyValleyMakeup: Aishling reacts this way to Cindy's make-up at the second dinner. "Her make-up made you want to run for a face cloth".
71	* WhatTheHellHero: The first line of Cindy's diary. She takes offense to someone suggesting that her mother's death was a "happy relief". Her father explains he meant as in a happy release from the pain of her mother's illness but Cindy still finds it rude.
72	* WhenSheSmiles: Margaret's smile is her best feature. At one point Aishling notices how old she looks but then Margaret smiles and she relaxes. Cindy remarks "she's not a very attractive woman but she does have a nice smile".
73	* WickedStepmother: Subverted of course. Margaret is shown in a complicated light and portrayed as a sympathetic character. Cindy hates her and doesn't want her as stepmother but admits she is a nice person.
74	* WildTeenParty:
75	** Averted. Aishling has a birthday party at the house and it turns out more like a formal ball than anything else.
76	** Cindy alludes to Lisa and her friends going out "on a drinking binge" to celebrate their Junior Cert results, but she chooses to stay home.

Context Literature / SistersNoWay