My oldest and I went to Chicago when they were six. It was Father’s Day weekend. I’ve wanted to go to Chicago since I was a kid. I’ve been a Blackhawks fan since I was in Mites. If you don’t know, I was seven or eight. I’ve been fascinated by it. By the lake, the river, and the sports teams.

We went to the Adler Planetarium. We stayed at the Hotel Lincoln, where I had a ghost experience and attended a Cubs game at Wrigley.

Cina knows Chicago. She knows what the air tastes like in the winter. How the river freezes, leaving chunks of ice floating through it in the winter. She brings this knowledge to every story about Chicago. Its presence drips from the prose in her books and stories.

She takes you into her stories and their fairy tales the way no one can. She knows the city, the fairy tales she reconstructs and places them into the city’s history.

We should all know the story of the Little Mermaid, either from Disney or Hans Christian Andersen, but it’s Andersen’s version she takes hold of in Forgotten Sisters.

It opens with two sisters. They’ve suffered a tragedy, but we don’t know what it is early on.

The sister’s link to a series of deaths in Chicago opens many things about the story. Cynthia takes hold of the narrative of death, intricately weaving a tale about grief, loss, and death. The death from long ago and the death of the sister’s parents weave a tapestry rich with the history of Chicago, the ghosts who haunt the city, of which there are many, and take us on a journey of discovery with the main character.

Anyone whose lost a loved one knows this journey. We’re angry about what happened. We wish we could have fixed it, but in the end, we find our way to dealing with it the best way we can.

We think about that person often. We remember the good times we had. We consider what we lost when they left, and we sit in these memories.

We are born in a world where loss is inevitable. Sometimes we see it coming. Other times, it strikes when we least expect it.

Cina is one of my favorite writers. She carries a story through to the end. She makes the connections. I found tears in my eyes when I finished this book.

I try not to give spoilers in my reviews. You should come into Forgotten Sisters blind. I didn’t give much away. This has jumped to one of my favorite reads of the year. I can’t wait for its release.