My Rating: 5 stars
This was a sad story, but at the same time, it was a story so full of love! It's not often that I come across a book where I love the characters so much, having to let them go in the end felt like a piece of my heart was being taken away as well. I fell so hard for this beautiful, broken, flawed family. I fell hard for Rosie – a free spirit who infused so much life and love into everyone and everything she encountered; who embraced everything around her with exuberance and vitality; who thrived on spontaneity, chaos, disorder; who had an endless capacity for love, for sharing it so naturally and willingly; who knew how to love her children wholeheartedly and unconditionally, yet did not know how to parent or how to be the mother they needed her to be; who, in the end, could not untangle herself from the depths of depression and opiate addiction. I fell hard for Rex – a strict disciplinarian who lived a life full of rules, rules, and more rules; who couldn't stand disorder and chaos; who, through his formidable presence, always demanded that things be done his way; who was determined, fierce, strong, unwavering; who knew responsibility and how to parent his children "properly" and could be counted on to be there for them physically, yet did not know how to love them in the way they most needed to be loved. I fell hard for 10-year-old Willow – a sensitive soul who felt everything so deeply, so completely; who had unruly hair and wobbly knees and wore the same outfit every single day; who was socially awkward and kept to herself with her purple headphones, CD player, and word search book; who cared for and doted on her little brother as any responsible big sister would; who wholeheartedly embraced her mother's endless and unwavering love but hated her dad's rules and checklists and constant demand for order; who resembled her beloved mother so completely in mind and spirit but also unknowingly possessed her dad's fiery determination and strong will. I fell hard for little 6-year-old Asher – the happy-go-lucky "baby" in the family who had blond hair and big blue eyes and whose innocence and always ready gap-toothed smile were enough to melt even the most hardened of hearts; who loved his mom and his dad and his big sister wholeheartedly, unconditionally, equally; who was easy to please and found happiness anywhere, everywhere; who was equally happy and content playing with his action figures as he was playing the occasional ball game with his dad or going on an all-out "adventure" with his mom and sister; whose adowable lisp (which turned all his "r's" into "w's"), exuberance, and constant positive energy lit up every single page he was in, made me smile through the tears, and endeared him so irrevocably to my heart.
As I write this review, I am wiping tears from eyes because every time I think of this family, I feel an inexplicable sadness for what they had to go through, especially the children, but at the same time, I also feel warm and comforted with the way things turned out in the end. Like Willow's piggy bank, my heart broke into five and a half pieces throughout the time I was reading this book and the tears rarely stopped flowing, but it was a price worth paying to get to spend some time with this family, these endearing characters who found their way into my heart and now have a permanent place there. Through this wonderful story, I learned so many things, but most importantly, I learned that there are different ways to love -- to show love, to be loved -- that even after one too many missteps, after tragedy and heartache, there is still a chance at redemption, as long as the heart is willing.
This was an emotional read for me, but well worth the effort! In addition to the characters, I also loved the writing, which was simple, but yet lyrical in places and at times felt almost magical. I didn't pick up on this until a few dozen pages in but there was actually an underlying cleverness to the way this story was written – for instance, the sections where the same sentence structure was used but certain words were changed to reflect a particular character's perspective yet at the same time, showing how it paralleled or contrasted with another character's perspective. Yet this was used sparingly and blended so smoothly into the narrative that it did not affect the flow at all, at least not for me – in fact, I loved the subtlety of this approach! In her Author's Note, we learn from the author Brianna Wolfson that, despite this being a work of fiction, it is semi-autobiographical in nature, with the character of Rosie based on her own free-spirited mother who also struggled with opiate addiction -- knowing this enhanced the reading experience for me, as it made the story feel so real. This is an important story, a timely one given the current opiate crisis, a story I encourage everyone to experience for themselves...just have a box of tissues handy!
Received ARC from MIRA Books via Edelweiss
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