[The Half-Sisters] does not have snappy one-liners but it does have an unflinching wit and seriousness and a sustained and subtle intelligence. And it has an idea—half-sisterhood—which may indeed be emblematic of the present state of relations among many women, whether blood sisters or not. Seton's prose takes some getting used to—she writes in what seems at first an almost fussy backhand slant—but it proves, after all, to serve her special and penetrating angle of vision on these two significantly intertwined lives. (p. 42)