if you liked darling rose gold, read these books
Hi again—
I hope wherever you are has not been too unbearably cold this month. (We’ve been lucky in London with 50-degree, sunny days!)
This month I thought we’d talk about research, one of my favorite parts of the novel writing process—and a valid excuse to read more books. Articles, TV shows, movies, documentaries, and podcasts all play significant roles in my research, but none more so than books. Below is the list of books—both fiction and nonfiction—that I read in 2017 to help me prepare to write my first novel. [Note: I use a 5-star rating scale.] Two areas of research I focused on were unreliable narrators and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. If you're the kind of reader who needs her/his characters to be likeable, you may want to skip this list!
Unreliable Narrators
My novel has two main characters: Patty, a mother, and Rose Gold, her daughter. Patty is a classic example of an unreliable narrator, one of my favorite character types, both to read and write. In order to get inside Patty's head, I studied other fictitious unreliable narrators.
The best unreliable narrator I read was Merricat Blackwood from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (*****). This 1962 mystery is the story of the two Blackwood sisters and their uncle Julian, who live on the decrepit family estate. The townspeople have shunned the sisters because of a mysterious poisoning that killed the rest of the Blackwood family. The story untangles itself perfectly.
I will go ahead and assume you have all read Gone Girl (*****), so I won’t spend a ton of time on this one. I’ve read this book multiple times, even deconstructing it in an Excel spreadsheet because I wanted to know how Gillian Flynn works her voodoo magic. (Still not sure I’ve worked it out.)
Lolita (****) is unbeatable on the unreliable narrator front. Of course we don’t sympathize with Humbert Humbert, the pedophiliac narrator who kidnaps and rapes his stepdaughter, but he makes for a fascinating character study. Tied with Humbert for creepiest narrator is Frederick Clegg from The Collector (****) by John Fowles. I also loved Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (****) and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (****).
What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] (****) by Zoë Heller and The Wasp Factory (***) by Iain Banks—this narrator is a real whackjob, even by my standards—are also worth a read. Less so, in my opinion? John Lanchester’s The Debt to Pleasure (**) and Edith’s Diary (**) by Patricia Highsmith.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
People—usually mothers—with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy knowingly fabricate or induce illness in their child(ren) to garner a doctor’s attention or love. The mother in my novel, Patty, has MSBP, and kept her daughter, Rose Gold, sick through most of her childhood. In order to convincingly portray this relationship, I had a lot of research to do.
Julie Gregory’s Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood (****) was the best memoir I read in 2017. Gregory recounts the bizarre horrors of her childhood in this clear-eyed, compelling and unforgettable story. The image of a little girl sucking on matches as though they’re lollipops will never leave me. If you’re interested in a more clinical dive into MSBP, I’ll point you to the medical text: Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder (***). Marc Feldman uses real case studies to explain the aforementioned psychological diseases without getting bogged down in jargon.
Bad Mothers
I could fill an entire library with books about awful mothers, but I will leave you with just one recommendation: the exquisite We Need to Talk About Kevin (*****) by Lionel Shriver. I know, I know, I’m eleven years late to the game. This book had been on my to-read list for two years, and I just knew I was going to love it once I finally got around to it. I was right. The narrator is the mother of a school shooter. She’s a woman who cares more about travel and global politics than child rearing, and is forced to question the role she played in her son’s upbringing. She is deeply flawed but captivating—the best type of character. Every page of this book enthralled me. And the twist in the last 10-20 pages was FLAWLESS. Not only was this book one of my favorites of the year, it is one of my favorites of all time. This is the kind of story that made me want to be a novelist.
In other news, my agent, Maddy, is going to submit my novel to US and UK editors next Tuesday, February 26, so cross your fingers that the March newsletter contains some exciting announcements!
Until then, enjoy the creepy narrators I’ve left you with…
Stephanie