Book Review: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

 Book: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Genre: historical fiction-ish (man who thought naming a genre would be so hard lately?)

Rating: ★ ★ ★

We read this one for book club this past month and I must say, it's one of the weirdest books I've read in a long long time! I went in expecting absolutely nothing, but what I got was REALLY not expected. LOL!

It's about a girl in Ireland in the 1800s who appears to be starving herself, but staying alive. So people are starting to look at her like she is something divine, some sort of saint... a "wonder!" So a couple of nurses (well, our main character nurse and a nun) are sent in to watch her 24/7 to make sure that her family isn't sneaking her food and then claiming her to be this saint-like thing. 

Our main character girl goes in with a really bad attitude about it thinking she is going to figure it all out right away and that every one is really stupid and she is going to be in and out and yeah... she is just rolling her eyes over it all. 

Turns out things are much more complicated than she expected, and suddenly she finds herself  much more invested in this girl and everything that's going on than she planned!

The first half or so of this book was VERY slow... and it seriously was just us as readers going every day into this girl and watching her.... and absolutely nothing was happening. Our main character did A LOT of complaining and such... but yeah. I was like... please let something happen soon!

And yet I felt this weird draw to keep reading and to see what WOULD happen. And what was actually up with this girl. And in the end it started to get much more crazy and...like I said.. .so very weird, that the last bit I read nearly in one sitting until it was done. Such a crazy story!

Not based on a true story, but based on stuff like this that really happened, which makes it all even weirder. Anyway, I'm glad it showed up on our list this year and added some diversity to my reading for sure. Be warned though, reading this while you are hungry is not recommended! It will make you even hungrier!