No matter how loving its members may be, it’s the rare stepfamily that doesn’t have at least some messiness attached to it. In her second novel, Newfoundland’s Jill Sooley examines the delicate dynamics of one blended family via the alternating perspectives of three females: Marie (mother and stepmother), Floss (Marie’s daughter), and Lolly (the daughter of Marie’s second husband, Ray). As girls, Floss and Lolly both struggle to find a place in their newly created family, and Marie fights to be the perfect wife and mother. Floss resents her mother for marrying Ray, Lolly hates Marie for monopolizing her father’s affections, and Ray and Marie are regularly at odds with each other due to their respective daughters’ inability to make peace.

Baggage demonstrates that there is always more than one side to a story, and it’s impossible to pick any one of these characters to root for over the others. Sooley excels in dramatizing the doubts that infuse their relationships, not only showing the uncertainty the characters feel about their new family and its complicated dynamics, but also displaying the lasting effects this early turmoil has on the two young girls as they enter their twenties.

Lolly, now a young single mother, has trouble coping when her son is introduced to his father Gabe’s new girlfriend, and Floss finds herself in the role of the “other woman” to her new boyfriend’s daughter. Although it sometimes feels like the connections between the women’s stories are a bit too convenient, Sooley pulls them off via beautiful writing and character development.

Although the novel’s focus is on the three women, Ray and Gabe are given almost equal emphasis. While we’re never presented with their perspectives directly, Sooley does an excellent job developing their personalities and conveying their significance for the women. In contrast, two other male characters, Carson and Leo, are virtually interchangeable. Both are on hand only to propel Floss and Lolly’s stories forward, and their own issues aren’t given enough weight to warrant the reader’s empathy.