PositiveBookforum...the novel unfolds with exquisite suspense. Though there seem to be three possible resolutions—Anna is a fraud, Anna is a miracle, Anna is being manipulated—I had no inkling of where it all might end up. As in her 2010 novel, Room, Donoghue masterfully creates drama within small domestic spaces ... Compelling is the puddled, peaty landscape that Donoghue paints, riddled with mystery and tinged with tragedy ... Listening to Lib denigrate everyone around her is tiresome, especially when it's so obvious we're not meant to agree. Still, we are swept away by the story. In creating a world and immersing us, The Wonder is a great success. But in answering some of the finer questions Donoghue raises—particularly with regards to Lib's disregard for the Irish—the novel falls short.
