Opposites may attract, but there’s plenty of friction along the way

Rosie Coloured Glasses by Brianna Wolfson was a book that unexpectedly moved me, as I initially felt little personal sympathy for the adult characters. However, the characters of the children really engaged my attention.

Flighty, bohemian and dressed in vintage clothing Rosie Collins flitted from man to man, job to job, place to place until she met the staid and stern Rex Thorpe. In spite of being completely opposite in their personalities, values and looks, the two fall deeply in love. Proving the old adage that opposites attract they marry in a flurry of romantic hormones without truly considering how deeply different they are.

We revisit them years later when they are living in Rex’s ideal family home in Virginia. Rosie, realising that concessions have to be made in this marriage tries to settle into this new life. Willow is born, and Rosie bonds with her in a deep way, because she is very much her little double. When baby brother Asher is born, the cracks in the marriage start to show when Rosie succumbs to an intense and unshakeable bout of postpartum depression.

Brilliantly written from the point of view of the characters themselves, Brianna Wolfson manages to engage the reader’s sympathy with the rigid but perplexed  Rex, the zany and outrageous Rosie and also the main narrator – Willow the child who has learned to think like an adult in order to fit in. She is bullied at school and is still a bedwetter.

The adults separated and both Willow and Asher need to learn to negotiate the rules of two households – that of their flighty, loving and bohemian mother in her outrageous clothes and car to their staid and rule-abiding, list-making father who seems unable to show any affection to his children.

Seen through the eyes of a child who has to make adult decisions to cope, Rosie Coloured Glasses by Brianna Wolfson is a totally absorbing read. The author drew from her own unconventional childhood upbringing to bring a poignancy and authentic tone to the novel. It was uncomfortable to read at times, yet the characters engaged me totally so I was spellbound from beginning to end.  

The conclusion has its own pathos, but I had a seismic shift in my sympathies as I finally understood what had motivated the characters. This debut novel was not always easy to read, yet it was a totally satisfying book. It is one I won’t forget in a hurry and is one that I would highly recommend.

Rosie Coloured Glasses by Brianna Wolfson is available in printed and digital editions from the publisher HQ Fiction click here for details.