The Wonder

Read this one a while back but wanted a reread. I'd forgotten how genuinely stunning and heartwrenching this book is. Also it's impressive to get me to hate So Many Fictional Characters, so props for that! I don't think I actually realized on my first readthrough that it was the same author who wrote Room, but on rereading I remembered that and could really tell. Donoghue has a talent for like, low grade creeping horror, and revelations that hit the reader as the same time they hit the characters and you find yourself utterly horrified by what this character just told you.

Couldn't remember the title when I was trying to find this to reread it, so I typed in what I could remember into Google:
“girl child saint book fiction incest starvation manna”
Turns out multiple people have actually done academic articles on this book!

Fair warning I was caught Very off guard by the super super aggressive racism about the Irish! I'd entirely forgotten that. I know it's accurate to the time and it makes a ton of sense for the character but also, yikes, I was actively unprepared for the main character to just be moaning about how awful this entire country and all her people are!

I'm usually not much for stories set in old times (this one is set in the 1850s). I've previously read Room by Emma Donoghue, and I like stories with mysteries to solve; so I gave this one a chance.

Donoghue has written a story of a young girl who claims to not have eaten anything for four months (and doesn't need it either). An English nurse and a catholicism nun are hired to observe her for a period of time. I like that I, as a reader, spent most of the story wondering whether religion or science (biology) would win... I wasn't even sure which side I was rooting for.

In Ireland in the latter half of the 19th. century Anna, an 11 year old girl, decides to stop eating. After four months of fasting she is still reasonably healthy, it seems. She is hailed as a miracle but is she truly a saint or is she just a delusional fraud? Sister Michael, a Roman Catholic nun, and Lib Wright, a nurse who served under Florence Nightingale, are employed over a two week period to observe the child and make sure that she isn't secretly being fed by someone. Everything seems to be going well during the first week of the vigil and Lib finds herself almost convinced of this wonder but then the girl starts a rapid decline. The nurses don't have much time to find out why the child stopped eating and why she is suddenly dying, the answers to both questions could be key to saving her.

I'm in two minds about this book but I'm not sure why. It was beautifully written, descriptive but not overly wordy (it couldn't afford to be at 210 pages) and the story was good. It is just that somehow I didn't quite connect. Having said that, I became invested in Annas fate towards the end. It's worth reading but I think it needs some mulling over.

2.5
Ngl i read the 1st chap and it was a snooze fest, but I wanted to read it n see how Anna was surviving so I continued and at one point about halfway through the 2 chap I couldn't take it anymore with the main character Lib she was soo f***ing ANNOYING. And I wanted to dnf but like I said wanted to see what was going on with Anna so decided to read the chapter summaries and once I was done I skimmed thru the last 2 chapters and let me tell you its not worth it. The reason behind everything is believable and at the same time unbelievable.
So mad at myself for wasting time on this coz the 1 chap is literally 73 PAGES LONG. Like no thank you. Good bye

This was one of my top books for 2016, easily. The story is very introspective, and so not a lot of action, but I love books that can make the life of the mind and quiet revelations just as powerful.

Lib, the main character, is a no-nonsense nurse who has trained under Florence Nightingale. She takes on a patient without knowing the exact nature of the assignment, and is distressed to discover her job entailed keeping an unrelenting eye on a child (Anna) who does not appear to be eating. The locals are sure it's a miracle, Lib is sure it's a scam.

The event at the heart of the mystery is tragic, and I imagine some readers will figure that portion out, but that doesn't lessen the impact.

Lib is hard to like at first. Good at her job, ethical, but also judgemental. Her initial response to Anna, even as she suspects her of being in on what she's sure if a hoax, is off-putting. But the story is an inner journey. She does not end up where she started.

I'd only ever read Donoghue's Room before and this was very, very different. A slow and humble read but with undeniably horrific undertones. We follow Lib who is employed to watch over (spy upon) Anna, the presumed miracle child who does not need to eat. Lib is a Nightingale with the horrors of the Crimean War locked behind her tweed uniform. As they grow closer Lib tries to find out the truth, is Anna a saint in the making or is some trickery abroad?
The novel draws you gently in then refuses to let you go. I was, with Lib, quite unsure and desperate to know what was going on. Donoghue did not disappoint, keeping me gripped to the very last page.

This book was a slow starter - honestly, I probably wouldn't give most authors as long as this novel took to really hook me in. I am a bit notorious for giving a book about 20 pages to hook me, and then moving on. By that estimation, I should have given up before I had finished chapter one, but I'm really glad I didn't! (For the record, the reason I persevered with this book is because I have experience with Emma Donoghue in previous books, and I know she makes it worth my patience.)

The Wonder works because it sets a mood - the reader has to truly be able to understand the particular time and place this book is set in before Donoghue can start to peel back the layers and reveal the truth of the situation. Readers feel the frustration and confusion of Lib as she becomes familiar with the particular customs and beliefs of the small village she finds herself in - and only when they understand those beliefs can they experience the true horror of Anna's story.

Donoghue writes in an afterword that this book is fiction, but based on accounts of Fasting Girls in Ireland during this time period. Like the best historical fiction, The Wonder has peaked my interest in a part of history I had previously been unaware of, and now I'm going to do more reading about this time, and the Fasting Girls phenomenon.

This book won't be for everyone - it's moody and slow to develop, and none of the characters are particularly “likable”. For the reader willing to stay the course, however, the payoff is worth it - I thought this was a fantastic novel, and I'm glad I didn't abandon it. Recommended.

I totally fell into this. Very pleasant to read - slow paced but completely absorbing. Most of the other books I've read by Emma D have had “adult themes”, so I was anticipating some sordid twist - and it isn't exactly a twist, but when the truth (the reason) is finally revealed, it's satisfyingly corrupt.