Lib had a dizzying sense that time could fall into itself like the embers. That in these dim huts nothing had changed since the age of the Druids and nothing ever would. What was that line in the hymn they’d sung at Lib’s school? The night is dark, and I am far from home. I loved this book so much. So much. I can easily see why it won't be for everyone - truth be told, the plot moves fairly slow - but I was just so engrossed in the story and atmosphere. I suppose it just depends how much this

4.5 Stars. Eleven-year-old Anna O' Donnell insists that she's been living off the manna of heaven for the last four months and no longer needs food to survive. Her parents and community seem to blindly accept the claim. People travel from great distances for a chance to interact with this living miracle. To appease any skeptics, a committee hires two watchers to observe Anna over a two-week period. One of the watchers is Lib Wright, a nurse who worked under Florence Nightingale during the Crimea...

NO SPOILERS AT ALL in this review:"More Water?" She offered the spoon. "Anna's eyelids flickered but didn't open; she shook her head. "Be it done to me". I kept thinking about "Be it done to me". What's the source of an 11 year old girl feeling resigned -powerless? Or, do those words mean something else, altogether to the child? A little girl won't eat. Religious reasons? Something else? Her parents are convinced she can live without food. Incredible? skeptical? Outrageous fraud? There have been...

My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...I've only read one other book by Emma Donoghue but I loved it. "Room" is one of my favorite books. Because I enjoyed it so much I was worried that anything else I read from the author would pale in comparison. However, after reading the description for "The Wonder" I was very intrigued. Eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell has become somewhat of a tourist attraction. A miracle girl who has apparently survived for four months witho...

This review can be found on Amaranthine Reads.A young girl in Ireland has supposedly lived on no food at all for months on end, claiming that she is living off "manna from heaven" and English nurse Lib has been sent over from England to watch her to make sure the claim is valid. Surrounded by religious superstition, Lib must get to the bottom of the miracle-or stop the destruction of a young girl's life.This book was basically a short story fleshed out with too much inner monologue and chatter a...

i wouldnt consider this the most riveting story out there - some parts are actually quite uneventful - but i would be lying if i didnt say i was captured by this tale. i understand why many readers wont be able to get on-board with the slow narrative and obvious agenda, but its the atmosphere of the novel that i became enthralled with. its quiet, dark, its mysterious, its rural, its emotional. its the kind of story that takes time to warm up to, but an inevitable subtle bond is created with the

Sometimes I just want to smack characters in a book and this is one of those times!Assigned by her mentor (Florence Nightingale) to watch over an eleven year old "miracle" child in Ireland who hasn't eaten in four months, a skeptical British nurse believes an easy task is at hand to quickly prove foul play and return home, but soon finds herself in the midst of a strangely complicated and religiously close-knit Catholic family.Somewhat slow going while the story builds and characters are develop...

4.5 When Libby a nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, fought alongside of her in the Crimea, contracts to work with a family in Ireland, she has no idea what she is letting herself in for. Eleven year old, Anne, is said to have not eaten any solid food for over four months and Lib's job will be to observe her for two weeks, to see if the claims are true. She will alternate this duty with a nursing sister of the same Catholic faith as the family.Extremely atmospheric, I felt the same frustratio...

Lib is a nurse, a Nightingale, trained by Florence N. herself. She is living in London, when she’s called to Athlone, Ireland, smack dab in the middle of Ireland, for a two-week nursing task in a private capacity. She arrives at her housing, a room above a small grocery, after a lengthy and bumpy ride in a jaunting car. She can’t believe anything about this is right, the village is nothing more than a few haphazardly buildings huddled together, with a whitewashed building up from there, standing...

Hmmmm . . . well, not too sure about this one. I enjoyed it okay, but it made me uncomfortable and I wasn’t satisfied with the plot progression. I am not sure that I have a great way to explain it other than it is a “feeling” I have.I actually probably felt more comfortable with the writing in this one than I did with Room and Frog Music and I found myself into the plot much sooner than I did with both of those. But, I just couldn’t get comfortable with what was happening in this story. It reall...

The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue is a 2016 Little, Brown and Company publication. ‘Room’ is the only book I had read by this author before this one. I was so impressed with that novel, I put this on hold at the library, the instant it was released, but by the time it became available, after a whopping two month wait period, I’d already forgotten what the synopsis was, and my interest had waned somewhat.That, and the very different subject matter, the depressing tone, and the very slow pacing made th...

4.5 Stars rounded up!  First off I have never been so riled up while reading a book before as I was with this one!  I wanted to give a few characters a piece of my mind!  I wanted to throw my book at them but gently as I would never want to hurt my precious books but some of those characters sure needed to be smacked around a little! THE WONDER by EMMA DONOGHUE was an intriguing, gripping, mesmerizing, and a beautifully written Historical Fiction novel which was set in a small Irish village from...

''...and besides, we should speak nothing but good of the dead.'' For me, The Wonder was one of the most anticipated novels of the year. It ticked all the right boxes: Ireland, Florence Nightingale's nurses, ambiguous religious issues, provincial superstitions. So, once it knocked on my door, I started reading it immediately.We find ourselves following Lib, a young, educated nurse, trained by the legend called Florence Nightingale, to beautiful, mystical Ireland and on a strange mission, a fe

3.5★This story about the investigation into claims of a young Irish Catholic girl living on nothing but water for four months was initially slow to engage me. I think this was because I disliked the main protagonist so strongly. Town and church officials have hired an outsider to continually monitor the girl-wonder to try and discern the truth. Lib is educated and harshly skeptical, believing she will unlock the mystery quickly to expose a ruse. But there is more going on than she knows and Anna...