Book Review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can honestly say I've never read a book like We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. The blurb on the back was vague enough to not give anything away while still intrigue me.
I really wanted to read something that was about families, and the relationships within them and this was a perfect 'family study'.
Without giving too much away this book follows Rosemary Cooke. We meet her while she is at university, not sure of which path to take and still struggling with the loss of her brother and sister.
Right from the beginning her sister Fern is mentioned but it's not entirely clear what happened to her. Rosemary starts her story from the middle, so finding out Fern's fate is slowly unravelled. I must admit that's what kept me going through most of the book, the unknown, the mystery.
While I enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler's style of writing, and was easily swept into the story I didn't particularly care for any of the characters. I was inside Rosemary's mind but I didn't feel anything towards her, no sympathy, I didn't feel any fondness towards her brother and I found Harlow to be really irritating.
Once the mystery was revealed I was still interested in Rosemary's story, as, like I said before, I'd never read anything about the subject matter. In all honestly, I wasn't aware that it happened. The way her parents reacted to certain things somewhat surprised me and I can't say I agreed with every decision but I think that's the point. This is the kind of book that's supposed to instigate discussion.
So overall I gave this book a three. Despite some reviews stating that they had great emotional reaction I found the book a bit hollow. But it didn't take me to long to zip through it. I may read some more of Karen Joy Fowler in the future.

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