Book Review: The Recovery of Rose Gold – Stephanie Wrobel

Welcome back!

 

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Synopsis

Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for eighteen years.

She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair…

Turns out her mother is a really good liar.

After five years in prison, Patty Watts is finally free. All she wants is to put old grievances behind her, reconcile with her daughter – and care for her new infant grandson.

When Rose Gold agrees to have Patty move in, it seems their relationship is truly on the mend.

But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty won’t rest until she has her daughter back under her thumb. Which is inconvenient because Rose Gold wants to be free of Patty.

Forever.

Only one Watts woman will get her way.

Will it be Patty or Rose Gold? Mother or daughter?

Review

I’m going to start off by saying that I am keeping this review short-ish as it’s quite difficult to review without spoiling it, and I definitely do not want to spoil this book for anyone!

The Recovery of Rose Gold is a brilliant book. I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like it and it was refreshing to read something new and unpredictable. The synopsis lays out pretty much the story without the ending but that doesn’t stop it from being a fascinating read.

It is very much a character driven story, and both Rose Gold and Patty are fantastically written characters. I cannot applaud Wrobel enough for getting into the minds of her characters and making them deep and dark. Rose Gold was the most shocking for me; I thought I’d feel sorry for her, sympathise, be sad – but no. She’s actually untrustworthy as a character and I actually felt quite repulsed by her, which was totally unexpected.

Patty is gradually built up in the book until you understand just how warped and manipulative she is, bordering on psychopathic. I found myself thinking she’s evil – but the question is, is Patty actually fundamentally evil, or is there something else going on?

So, for me, here is the most intriguing thing about this book. When I initially read the synopsis, I thought this book was going to explore Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy (MSP), but it does not do that explicitly. At no time is MSP mentioned. If you do not know what MSP is, a quick Google will sort you out.

The reason why I mention this is because MSP is considered in the medical community to be a diagnosable illness or disorder. However, there is no escaping the fact that people with MSP inflict abuse and harm upon those who they are providing ‘care’. If Patty has Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, does that make her evil or ill? I personally don’t know the answer and I don’t know if there is an answer. All I know is that abuse is always wrong. So, where does that leave us?

I cannot recommend The Recovery of Rose Gold highly enough. It is a stunning story with a gently undulating, subtle plot that you’ll not be able to put down. Book groups will definitely need this on their lists!

Many thanks to Michael Joseph for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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You can support your local bookshop by buying The Recovery of Rose Gold through them directly, or via Hive.

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Comment below

What do you think of The Recovery of Rose Gold? Will you be reading it? Let me know in the comments below.

Wishing you a wonderfully bookish week,