THE RECOVERY OF ROSE GOLD by Stephanie Wrobel

Creepy, chilling and mesmerising. A mother-daughter tale totally unlike any mother-daughter relationship you have ever been part of. Patty Watts is being released from a 5 year prison sentence for the poisoning of her daughter Rose Gold. Rose Gold is now in her early '20s, a mother herself,  and is meeting her mother at the end of her sentence. She appears to be reconciled with her mother, but is she really.

Rose Gold is a very damaged young woman, due to the appalling and horrifying parenting dished out to her by her mother -  a clear case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy - this poor child in and out of hospital, on feeding tubes, underweight, malnourished. deprived of schooling. It is equally clear that Patty is also very damaged, and five years later does not see that she did anything wrong, that she  was wrongly imprisoned, but does see her release as the opportunity to start her life again. When she sees that Rose Gold now has her own child she is determined to build good relationships and find her place in society again.

What unfolds however, is very far from this lofty aim. Both women are wary of each other, neither sure of the other's love or motives. With a baby in the middle of it all, the reader fears what is going to unfold, and who is going to come worse off. I loved the voices of both Rose Gold and Patty - who is and/or was the guilty one? Their souls are bared for us to see, both are convincing and believable. What about their neighbours and others in the local community - are they who appear to be? Or are Rose Gold and Patty both delusional?  This will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat till the very end.