[Review] Mothers and Daughters in Darling Rose Gold
The relationships we have with our parents are some of the most formative of our lives. From them we learn about love, respect, survival. They are the first people we trust implicitly. More than anything we want to believe they have our best interests at heart. Sometimes — usually — that’s true. But what happens when the people who hold the most power over us realize that power and use it against us? When to them a child is nothing more than a plaything to bend to their will because they know they can?
What happens to a child grown in manipulation? How much work does it take to break the cycle?
Stephanie Wrobel dissects these questions through the lens of a mother-daughter relationship built on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Her whole life, Rose Gold had been in and out of hospitals, on several medications, and in the complete care of her mother. As far as she knows, she’d always been ill. Until her best friend called the police and she realized there had never been anything wrong at all. Her mother had been making her sick. Rose Gold testified against her mother and sent her to prison for 5 years.
But now her mother is getting out.
And Rose Gold wants revenge for her years of abuse and no apology.
n uncomfortably tense game of familial cat-and-mouse, Darling Rose Gold dives headfirst into the effects of lifelong manipulation and how far a victim is willing to go to get revenge on her abuser — no matter who else has to pay along the way. I squirmed in my seat and had to break it up, but loved every twisted minute of it. Wrobel writes with a sinister tone that feels soft and sharp all at once. Patty and Rose Gold seep under the skin and sit there, toying with our perceptions.
With a double helping of unreliable-because-untrustworthy narrators and a genuinely shocking twist, Darling Rose Gold propels you deeper into the damaged psyches of two women inextricably tied together in their paths for vengeance and belief.
I would like to thank Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
