I bought this book when it first came out, started it soon after, then lost it in the bin on the floor by my bed. A few weeks back, I unearthed it, and last night I stayed up way late to finish reading this, the last book in the Casson family series.
Hilary McKay (last name rhymes with "McFly", by the way) is brilliant at capturing what feels like an authentic child's voice. I enjoyed
Saffy's Angel, the first book, but not nearly as much as several friends who'd recommended it seemed to like it. Nevertheless, I scooped up
Indigo's Star as soon as it came out, and I found that I adored it with a big, big love. And then I read
Permanent Rose and Caddy Ever After as well. What McKay does well in all her books is to convey the essence of the characters, even as their physical descriptions are left rather sketchy. As a reader, one has a distinct impression of who these characters are, with a fair amount of freedom to determine what one thinks they look like.
In Forever Rose, the youngest Casson child again takes the role of narrator. Her father is still in London, but has broken up with his girlfriend. Her mother is ill and trying to complete a batch of paintings before Christmas. Caddy, the eldest Casson, is off who-knows-where being mysterious. Saffy is still focused on school and her time with her friend Sarah; Indigo is still focused on his music and still friends with David, the drummer. And Rose is . . . well, Rose is mostly alone at the start of the book, and wishing very much that she weren't.
The way that McKay weaves her character threads together is masterful (as always), and in this final Casson tome, she manages to bring the book to a conclusion in a most satisfying way, including excellent resolutions for all the characters her readers have come to know and love - even the non-Casson characters like David and Michael and Tom.
The inside flap says it's for ages 12 and up, but I'd recommend it for middle-grade readers who are independent readers even if they're under that age. (I suspect that the age recommendation is to do with how much time Rose is alone and unsupervised more than anything else, but hey - in Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards, the MC is alone for much of the book, and I'd recommend that one for ages 8 and up, so there's that.) I also highly recommend this book (and indeed, the other four Casson books by McKay) for writers interested in reading books that excel at establishing individual characters through showing character traits and development. By all means, read all five books.