Review: Darling Rose Gold

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

True fact: I was a guardian ad litem in Florida for about fifteen years. Also a true fact: during that time I had two cases where the mother was diagnosed with Munchausen by Proxy or what is now termed Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another in the DSM-V. You can read more here. In both cases, which of course were child abuse cases, the mothers had other mental health disorders, their own history of trauma and abuse, and while they didn't go to prison (they were mentally ill) they did lose permanent custody of their children, which basically, while the right thing to do for children who needed the protection, just elaborates on trauma for those parents.

Under a spoiler flag on Goodreads:

In Darling Rose Gold we have a child abuse victim, Rose Gold, who constructs an elaborate plan of revenge on her MBP/FDIA mother, Patty. Rose Gold, who is cut from the same vicious piece of cloth as Amazing Amy from Gone Girl, builds a net that traps Patty in her trauma and memories, and finally sends her back to jail by entrapment in a fabricated crime. And that's back to jail because in this story, Patty landed in jail for her mental disorders.

The novel was a fast read with both women being characters I didn't like but for whom I felt pity. As a person with a fair amount of direct experience with child abuse, and parents with trauma issues that make them unable to safely parent, I found this book's message deeply troubling. This novel is celebrating a child abuse victim trying to systematically destroy her abuser. Of course, her abuser has herself been a victim. The simplistic handling of the familial cycle of child abuse was disappointing and callous. Rose Gold, if anything, appears to have even bigger mental health problems than her mother.

End spoilers...

Sensationalizing child abuse is apparently not my thing.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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