Book cover of Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

Book description

In September 2017, a knock on the door upends Michelle Horton's life forever: her sister had just shot her partner and was now in jail. During the investigation that follows, Michelle learns that Nikki had been hiding horrific abuse for years. Stunned to find herself in a situation she'd only…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Dear Sister as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

We don’t usually hear about the toll that incarcerating a mother, a daughter, or a sister takes on the family left behind. Michelle Horton’s beautiful memoir gives us access to that experience. Horton’s life was upended after her sister, Nicole Addimando, was arrested for killing her partner in self-defense.

Horton documents the next several years of their lives as she, her parents, her son, and Nicole’s children (who Horton took guardianship of while Nicole was in prison) navigated Nicole’s arrest, trial, and imprisonment. Illustrative in the mechanics of putting together a successful survivor-defense campaign, it is heartbreaking and infuriating in…

Taking meticulous notes in the face of a very daunting experience is a bit of the background to Michelle Horton’s memoir, Dear Sister. Imagine you get a knock on the door by the police to inform you that your sister is in jail. One can only imagine what went on in the author’s mind. All is conveyed in a nonfiction, "can’t put the book down" account of her sister who managed to hide the physical, not to mention mental, abuse she was experiencing by her boyfriend and father of her two children.

Michelle just accepted her sister, Nicole Abbimando,…

If you love Dear Sister...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Dear Sister?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Dear Sister.

Browse books like Dear Sister

Book cover of Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered, Black Women
Book cover of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
Book cover of All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,395

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Dear Sister, you might also like...

Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…

Book cover of Tsunami

Tsunami by LeeAnn Pickrell,

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…

5 book lists we think you will like!