Reviewed by Sophie:
(Contains spoilers)
I was disappointed with this book. It was full of excellent plot ideas and the author could have chosen to go down anyone of them and it would have been interesting. However, I felt that they were poorly mashed together; none of them explore well enough to make it a good read. I wanted to become close to the protagonist but dispute feeling some sympathy this was quickly dropped.
Pros:
I did enjoy the lack of speech marks l, which created an inner monologue style of writing. This was the only real part I enjoyed.
Now on to the cons:
I am still questioning the brother’s choice of power…I have no idea how it links to anything and … He turns into a chair…A chair…yeah…
And the mother’s affair… totally lost. What was the point of Larry? Surely Larry would have told the mum of his conversation with Rose years prior to Rose telling her mother that she knew about the affair? And the lack of reaction from the mum.
The dad’s feeling that he knew he couldn’t go into hospitals. How did the mum not know that he couldn’t go into the before having Joseph? Where were the previous appointments for the baby held? Had the dad never had an accident or a need to visit a hospital prior to the birth?
The descriptions that Rose has about the tastes she has, begin so well but and short and direct rather than spoken about in more detail.
So basically I am left unsatisfied by the book and its content. It had good moments and wasn’t entirely awful, but it wasn’t great by all means.
Author: Aimee Bender
Publisher: Windmill Books
Release date: 1 September 2011
Lotte's Library 