Review: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

My Rating:


I would like to thank Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

The Wonder is a beautifully written book that explores the power of religion and how faith can prevent someone from seeing the truth of what's going on right before their eyes. It's a slow moving story that's full of atmosphere and superstition. It was disturbing and hard to read at times and created a slow drawn out feeling of dread as the story progressed. I had to put it down every so often to collect my thoughts and distance myself from what was occurring. I can't really go into why I had to do this as that would mean giving spoilers, but I can say that I felt the same anger and frustrations as the main character and I found myself getting angry at some of the choices and decisions that were being made due to religious beliefs.

I have to admit, I struggled a bit in the beginning. I couldn't connect to the main character, I didn't like her, but there is a point around the 30% mark where that all changes and you start to understand her more and get a bit more of her background. At that point I began to like her, my whole reading experience changed and I was really drawn into the story.

Like I said before it's a slow burner and generally I'm not too keen on slow moving stories but it very much suited the storyline. The events take place over a two week period and it feels like the longest two weeks in history. That may sound like a bad thing, but it enhances the feeling of dread and helplessness of the situation.

The only things I had a problem with was how unaware the main character was at realising that the situation was going downhill, she should have picked up on it much sooner. I also felt the ending was a bit too movie-esque.



Reviews also posted to my blog: Scarlet's Web
Facebook | Twitter | G+ | BookLikes