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    Rosie Coloured Glasses
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    Rosie Coloured Glasses
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    Rosie Coloured Glasses
    Audiobook8 hours

    Rosie Coloured Glasses

    Written by Brianna Wolfson

    Narrated by Devon Sorvari

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Little Miss Sunshine meets About a Boy in this piercingly bittersweet novel which shows how the most meaningful love can last a lifetime.

    Willow’s mother Rosie isn’t like the other mums. She’s wears every colour of the rainbow, has midnight feasts, and sends Willow to school covered in paint.

    Meanwhile, Rex is the sort of father who checks Willow’s homework, has a rule for everything, and would never dream of playing in the dirt.

    Now Rosie and Rex live in different places, Willow knows her mum needs her even more. But Rosie’s multi-coloured way of looking at the world can be overwhelming. These days, it feels like Rosie is spinning off her axis – and taking Willow with her. As if, one day, Rosie might disappear for good.

    And what would happen to Willow then?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateFeb 22, 2018
    ISBN9780263927757
    Author

    Brianna Wolfson

    Brianna Wolfson is a New York native living in San Francisco. Her narrative nonfiction has been featured on Medium, Upworthy and The Moth. She buys a lottery ticket every Friday.

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    Reviews for Rosie Coloured Glasses

    3.5/5

    18 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      3.5 stars

      Rosie Colored Glasses by Brianna Wolfson is a poignant novel about a family's disintegration that results from wife and mother Rosie Thorpe's undiagnosed (and self-medicated) bipolar disorder.

      Twelve years ago, straight as an arrow and self-disciplined Rex Thorpe meets free-spirited and impulsive Rosie Collins. Despite the VAST differences in their personalities, Rex is swept away by the quixotic, fun-loving young woman and they embark on an unexpected romance. They move in together in the quirky apartment that Rex selects not because it fits his personality, but because it so perfectly embodies Rosie. Following their marriage and birth of oldest daughter Willow, Rex moves the family from the eclectic apartment to a house that is in Rosie's opinion, bland and sterile. Despite her disappointment in their new abode, Rosie is a happy wife and mom but with the birth of youngest son, Asher, she sinks into a deep depression. This is beginning of an endless cycle of the highest of highs to the lowest of lows but it is Rosie's attempts to self-medicate that lead Rex to end their marriage.

      Now the dust has settled, it is poor Willow who is feeling the worst effects of her parents' divorce. She and Asher are shuttled back and forth between their mother and father's homes. Even worse, she desperately misses her warm and loving mother's attention since her father is much more regimented and parents his kids with rules and schedules instead of compassion or affection. Willow is struggling to make sense of her new life amid teasing and bullying by her classmates. She is also dismayed by the slow downward spiral of her fun-loving mom as Rosie falls once again in depression and turns to very unhealthy means to try to cope.

      The chapters alternate between Rex, Rosie and Willow's points of view and weave back and forth in time. Willow's chapters are the most poignant while Rex and Rosie's detail the course of their relationship from dating through their divorce.  Willow is an incredibly sympathetic child whose parents do not seem to recognize that she is more than unhappy over their divorce; she is in desperate need of counseling to help her navigate her new "normal". It is also quite troubling that no one at school attempts to try to intervene or address Willow's schoolmates' shabby treatment of the poor young girl. Equally shocking is the fact that Rex does not seem to be aware that  the very things that make Rosie so unique are symptoms of undiagnosed mental problem that is crying out to be addressed.   And how on earth could Rex allow his kids to spend time with Rosie without any supervision since he DIVORCED her because of her behavior in the first place???

      Rosie Colored Glasses is an interesting novel but it is not a light or happy read.  Willow is a very relatable character and it is quite easy to understand why Rosie is the parent she gravitates toward since she is not close to Rex.  Brianna Wolfson's debut is based on her own personal experience which makes it all the more poignant to read.  The novel ends on an uplifting note but the rest of the story is far from happy.
    • 5/5
      Willows parents are a study in contrasts. Rex is solid, sturdy and stern. Rosie is flighty and impulsive. In Willows teenage mind Rosie is the fun parent and Rex is the stern task master. Willows parents divorce and she is shuttled between two homes. After the birth of Willows brother, Rosie became depressed and addicted to pain pills. After countless attempts at rehab Rosie makes a decision that devastates her family. Willow learn that sometimes what appears to be bright and fun is actually a mask to cover up a lot of pain and what appears to be stern and unyielding is what’s really needed. This is so heartbreaking and so beautifully written.
    • 4/5
      Good book. Interesting issues of drug abuse and mental illness.
    • 4/5
      Rosie is an Asshole. Rosie has some serious issues. Rosie is the reason I kept reading this book.This turned out to be a very sad tale and I felt so bad for Rosie. My afternoon with her was perplexing, wonderful, sad and very entertaining.I can't say anymore without giving anything away. I can't do that. You need to read it. I will say that I did shed tears while reading this. A lot of tears.Thanks to Harlequin (US & Canada) and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
    • 4/5
      I am sure that this book will melt the hearts of many readers (not mine). It is the story of a family with a free spirited mother and a very structured father and the problems this caused in their relationship and their children's lives. There are flashbacks to their evolution from when they first met. My problem is the OCD behaviors of the main characters. I wanted to scream every time the author mentions Rosie's love for Elton John, Prince and Fleetwood Mac, the movies Blazing Saddles and Rocky Horror and the snack Pixie Stix. This free spirit and her kids live a very narrow life. Then there are the father's lists. Drove me bonkers.
    • 3/5
      There is a lot going for this book. The story centers around 5th grader, Willow Thorpe, whose parents are polar opposites, Rosie, her free-spirited spontaneous mother, and Rex, her rigid, rule-following dad. When her parents divorce, Willow is torn between the two worlds. Many heart wrenching issues are touched in this story - divorce, bullying, drugs, mental illness and family dynamics - but, I felt that the characters seemed one dimensional. And the description of certain personality traits were repeated again and again. Yes - Willow is awkward and uncoordinated. We get that early on in the book, but we are told that again and again as she trips, struggles to kick a ball, climb a ladder, ride a bike. The good plot surrounding some very difficult issues would have made this a great book club recommendation, but I found as I got further into the story, a reluctance to even finish it.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book and cried buckets and buckets of tears. Rex and Rosie are such opposites! but still have an intense attraction to each other even though each knows deep in their hearts that it might not last. The years pass and there are two children born, Willow and Asher. They love their mother dearly - she's the fun one, getting them out of school on fake excuses so they can have adventures; their father Rex however is very rigid and makes so many rules! There's a great deal of hurt and anger when the marriage collapses. You must read this book - and don't read it if you don't believe in miracles; after crying my heart out I had a sudden craving for purple pixie sticks and cream soda....just saying :)
    • 2/5
      Willow's parents are complete opposites. Rosie is a free-spirit who believes in the power of colors, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and not keeping to a schedule, and seems to exist solely on Pixie Stix, cream soda, and pizza. Rex is firm and regimented and believes in balanced dinners and to-do lists. Opposites may attract, but they can also explode. And what happens to the kids when the attraction ends? Willow can tell you, but it's not pretty.This book had the potential to be an interesting exploration of a child's experience of navigating divorced parents. Unfortunately, Rex and Rosie are both such complete caricatures of their types that it felt like reading about cardboard cut-outs. They are almost exclusively written to type, except when they do something so wholly out of character that it's nearly inexplicable.
    • 4/5
      When I was about thirty pages into this book I wrote in the comment section of my updates, that Willow was going to break my heart. She did, but what I didn't expect was that this whole family would. It is not that I am getting marshmellowy, but rather than going into a long discourse on my personal life, I'll just say this was a novel in which I could relate. Plus, as the author tells us this is a semi-autobiographical novel, a novel it took many years to be able to writeWillow, fifth grade bullied on the bus and in her school, her mom Rosie with all her love, sense of fun, and yes irresponsibility, made Willows life bearable. Rose, a free spirit, and though it doesn't say, my guess is she was bipolar, self medicating with opiates. Gil, found something in her that he needed in his structured, routine following life, at least for a while. Asher, an adorable sounding boy, front teeth missing, causing him to lisp with his R's, the most balanced, just happy to be wherever. This little family comes apart, but there is still so much love between them, these people who tumble into a fate they have little control over. There is so much feeling in this book, despite the rather simple way it is written, hearing from each character. So much love, joy, hurt, pain, want and need. I felt them all in a very visceral way, as I said my connection with this book made it hard for me to read. There are difficult things, even dangerous moments in this novel. Many things, parenting that is easy to find fault with, but not an absence of love, in the many different ways it can be shown. Most of all it is so realistic, once again believe me I know. A wonderful, but heartbreaking novel, that the author has shown great courage in writing. The healing power of the written word.ARC from Netgalley and Edelweiss.