Published in 2024, Betsy Lerner’s Shred Sisters is a work of contemporary literary fiction that explores the ways in which mental illness impacts the Shred family, as well as the individual trajectory of each of the titular sisters’ lives. Older sister Olivia (usually known as Ollie) is beautiful, talented, and reckless, while younger sister Amy follows the rules and keeps to herself. As Amy narrates her story, she grapples not only with understanding her sister’s impulses but also with establishing her own identity. Over the course of two decades, Amy comes of age, navigating romantic relationships and professional choices, even while thoughts of and worries for Ollie are omnipresent. Forgiveness and self-acceptance define their journeys through late-20th-century America, with the novel exploring themes of Familial Trauma and the Power of Forgiveness, The Need for Authenticity in Understanding the Self, and Sisters as Opposites and Mirror Images. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Grove Press hardback edition. Note: Due to a printing error, this edition contains misnumbered chapters after Chapter 7. This guide adjusts the chapter numbering at that point to reflect the accurate number of chapters.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of mental illness, illness, death, death by suicide, bullying, child sexual abuse, substance use, addiction, pregnancy termination, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Nine-year-old Amy Shred is left alone after her older sister, Olivia “Ollie” Shred, crashes into a picture window while jumping on the couch. Their father (“Dad”) drives Ollie to the hospital, and Amy is left to fend for herself. Even at this young age, Amy understands that Ollie’s behavior often leads to a family crisis, and she worries not only for Ollie but also for herself—which she takes pains to hide lest she be considered selfish. 

Amy and Ollie spend their early years growing up in New Haven, Connecticut. While Amy excels at school, she does not make friends easily; indeed, she is frequently bullied. Ollie, on the other hand, appears socially gifted and becomes a star on the track team but cannot maintain focus in school. Her grades are dismal, and her behavior grows more erratic as she enters her teenage years. She begins to shoplift—even presenting her mother with an obviously stolen tennis bracelet on her birthday—and sneak out of the house.

Eventually, Ollie steals several thousand dollars’ worth of antique spoons from a friend’s house; instead of going to jail, she voluntarily enters what her parents call “The Place”—a psychiatric hospital. Amy is not allowed to see her for several months, which causes her as much anxiety as Ollie’s disruptive behavior did. When her parents finally permit her to visit, she notes the changes in her 18-year-old sister. Ollie is still beautiful, but she has cracked lips and dirty feet.

Meanwhile, Amy enters high school, full of dread that the bullying she endured in middle school will continue. She tries to comfort herself by relying on her intellect, but she is lonely and unhappy. After winning the science fair, she insists that her parents put her in a private school. For the first time, Amy thrives, becoming a stage manager for the school play and making some friends. Ollie is finally discharged from the facility as Amy finishes her sophomore year in high school. However, as soon as she returns home, she again takes off, this time for parts unknown.

Amy’s parents, forced together during Ollie’s times of crisis, are now pushed apart. Right before Amy leaves to attend college at Columbia, they tell Amy that they are divorcing. Amy knows that her father has been conducting an affair with his assistant at work, and after the divorce, he marries the assistant, Anita. While Amy’s mother (“Mom”) has a difficult time transitioning from married life, Dad moves to a gated community in Florida. When Amy finally goes to see him during her second year of college, she believes that Dad knows where Ollie is.

In fact, Amy soon learns that her older sister has been repeating a pattern of behavior for the last few years, of which Dad is aware. Ollie attempts to shoplift goods and then, if she is caught, acts as if she is confused or experiencing mental illness; thus, she is taken to a hospital rather than jail. Dad also tells Amy that Ollie attaches herself to men who care for her—some married, some not. Dad is always there to help her when needed, even after Ollie steals credit cards and absconds with investments.

Amy, now graduated from college, is conducting graduate research on the “fight, flight, or freeze” response. Her funding requests are denied, however, and she finds herself adrift. She befriends the secretary of the department, Kira, who confides in her about her own struggles. Amy also meets Josh, who recently left college to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. He ends up living in Amy’s apartment (while she, via financial assistance from Dad, supports him) until he meets another aspiring actor, Ellen. Josh leaves Amy to stay with Ellen. While Amy is hurt, she understands that the relationship between the two of them was always somewhat unhealthy; her therapist points out that Josh exhibits behavioral similarities to Ollie.

Amy decides to leave her graduate program and pursue other career avenues. By chance, she meets a lawyer named Marc Goodyear, who promises to put her in touch with his high school friend Courtney, an editor in the publishing business. Soon, Amy is working as a junior editor for popular science books, and she and Marc are planning a wedding. Ollie does not show up—she has left her most long-term boyfriend, Hunt—and the marriage founders almost as soon as it begins. Amy and Marc divorce after a year, leaving Amy again in search of an anchor.

Around this time, Ollie comes to Amy for some refuge. She only stays a month, but Amy gets to see a different side of her sister as Ollie emerges from an episode of mania. Shortly thereafter, Courtney reveals to Amy that she and Marc are dating, and Amy embarks on an affair with one of her authors, the married TJ. The affair continues even after his wife contacts Amy, but when Courtney announces that she and Marc will be getting married, Amy ends the affair.

Shortly thereafter, Amy’s mother is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Amy and Ollie watch over her from her bedside when she is placed in hospice care. Mom is happy to see both of her daughters together and wants to make certain that they will care for each other once she is no longer there. Amy wonders who will take care of Ollie, knowing full well that Ollie will never be able to take care of Amy.

In the wake of her mother’s death, Amy reconnects with Josh. They are just friends at this point, but his behavior has become worrisome, and he eventually tells Amy that he has been using methamphetamines. She helps him enter a rehabilitation facility—marrying him first so that he can qualify for her insurance benefits—but he overdoses on a combination of meth and heroin and dies while in the facility, and Amy feels guilty about her part in his death.

Ollie returns to Dad, telling the family that she is pregnant. They hope that the father is Hunt, but nobody knows for sure. Ollie asks Amy to be with her in the delivery room, and though Amy somewhat resents the imposition, she agrees. The baby, Raine (named after their mother, Lorraine), begins to heal the rift between the sisters and bolsters Ollie’s desire to seek treatment for her mental illness. While Dad bears witness to Raine’s birth, he has a stroke shortly afterward. He loses much of his independence and dies after a second stroke. Amy and Ollie again come together to bury a parent, and Ollie uncharacteristically professes her love for her younger sister.

Amy attends Kira’s wedding; she meets many interesting and accomplished people and sees the wedding as the joining of two families—unlike her own brief marriage. She also meets Ravi, a financial analyst; the two share wedding cake and their experiences of divorce. Amy decides that her time in therapy is at its end and that whatever decisions she makes going forward will be, for better or for worse, her own.