This constant shifting, and the complexity of the characters (including Rose Gold's half-siblings, frenemy Alex, and online boyfriend Phil) and the issues they deal with, make this a great book for discussion groups. Just as you feel sympathetic for mother or daughter, she does something that makes you recoil in dismay or horror, and your sympathy shifts. It's hard to know which woman to cheer for. All is apparently forgiven, on both sides (which is of course hard to believe). The chapters alternate in voice and time, from Rose Gold during the intervening five years when her mother was incarcerated for child abuse, to Patty when Rose Gold, now grown up and with a son Adam, takes Patty in after she is released from prison. Or so she (and the rest of Deadwick, and the country) believes. Until Rose Gold learns that her mother has been poisoning her-and her supposed illnesses are apparently her mother's design or fabrication. Rose Gold is sheltered and grateful for her mother's care and protection. Her mother Patty homeschools her and shuttles her from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. Rose Gold grows up sickly and friendless, in a wheelchair, too thin and with a shaved head and a multitude of illnesses and frailties. Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel has such a pair, though awkward is a bit.mild to describe it. Lately, I seem to be drawn to books with depictions of awkward mother-daughter relationships.
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