We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

As a child, Rosemary never stopped talking, so why, now she’s a young woman at college, doesn’t she talk very much at all?

She used to have a sister, Fern, the same age as her, and an older brother, Lowell. She loved both fiercely but they have vanished from her life, for reasons she can’t face, and no one could guess. 

She may be quiet in person but on paper she’s still as exuberant as she was in childhood. So here is Rosemary’s story; utterly captivating, it’s funny, clever and swirls with ideas that will come back to bite you. 

This is going to a weird review in that it’s not really a review given that I can’t talk about the book without giving away the huge twist that the whole book is based on and I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone!

Josh bought me this book after seeing it reviewed on TV and he thought I would like the unusual twist in it, he eagerly waited while I reached the twist (which is on page 77 for anyone who is going to read this book, so you don’t have to wait until too far in the book) to see what I thought of it and well I was a little speechless to be honest. It wasn’t anything a would have ever guessed in a million years and the originality and unusualness of it blew me away. 

Although at times the writing isn’t the best out there and the short, clipped nature of Rosemary’s story telling did frustrate me at first these shortcomings are easily forgotten and made up for due to the fact it’s such a unique book.

My review and the synopsis cannot possibly give any clues as to how good this book is otherwise it would spoil the whole story. If your interest had been piqued though you should definitely get yourself a copy of this book and find out for yourself what the twist is!

Rating: ★★★★☆