Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/01/2024 At their new school, seventh-grade girls Santana and Casey become fast friends after discovering that each is her parents’ “second favorite daughter.” Each enjoys talking with someone who understands her unhappiness, based on her comparative lack of parental approval. But after they form a secret organization, The Second Favorite Daughters Club, each girl’s yearning for even-handed appreciation within her family quickly degrades into willingness to take mean-spirited revenge on her only sibling. Santana sets out to sabotage her older sister, Victoria’s near-professional-level ballet training and performances, while Casey secretly adds vinegar to the soil of her single father’s houseplants during the week when her little sister is in charge of watering them. The well-paced, third-person narration focuses more on Santana or on Casey in alternate chapters. Although the two club members’ occasional ruthlessness sometimes makes them come across as unsympathetic protagonists, events near the story’s end have a softening effect on the characters and will probably make readers glad they persevered. This involving narrative is the first volume in the Second Favorite Daughters series. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.