Willow likes to spend time with her mother Rosie, listening to music, painting, and eating candy and pizza. What Willow doesn't like is spending time at her father's house where, with his rules and checklists, she doesn't have any fun. Rosie and Rex met twelve years earlier and, even though they were completely the opposite - she was carefree and saw life with colour, he planned everything ahead and stuck to his rules - they fell completely in love with each other. But after leaving New York for Virginia, getting married, having Willow, and then another child, Asher, things started to go completely wrong until their marriage ended. Rex wishes that Willow would love him as she loves her mother, Rosie wishes to emerge from her state of depression and be there for her children, Willow just wants to be her own person without criticism from her father or the other children at school.
I started reading this novel thinking that it would an easy and light novel about a child and her odd mother, but it turned out to be an emotional and superb novel about love, about the lengths parents would go for their children, about bullying, about addiction and depression. The story is heartbreaking and I shed a few tears at the end, but it's worth it. With its realistic and likable characters and its intense and captivating plot, this novel is a must-read. (NP)
Brianna Wolfson admits her debut novel, Brianna Wolfson, is partly autobiographical. The summary says: "Just as opposites attract, they can also cause friction, and no one feels that friction more than Rex and Rosie's daughter, Willow. Rex is serious and unsentimental and tapes checklists of chores on Willow's bedroom door. Rosie is sparkling and enchanting and meets Willow in their treehouse in the middle of the night to feast on candy.
After Rex and Rosie's divorce, Willow finds herself navigating their two different worlds. She is clearly under the spell of her exciting, fun-loving mother. But as Rosie's behaviour becomes more turbulent, the darker underpinnings of her manic love are revealed.
Rex had removed his Rosie coloured glasses long ago, but will Willow do the same?" Rosie Coloured Glasses is out in February 2018.