What do readers think of Wayward Saints by Suzzy Roche? Write your own review.

This is a story that started out slowly, built up speed, and then fizzled. Being a recovering Catholic, I found the sub-storyline a bit sacrilegious, but not offensive. If there was a main theme to this book, it was lost on me. In the positive column, coming of age and heading to middle-age is a tough subject, but that was actually handled quite well. The book is worth reading because it will make you think about acceptance for quite a while.

In writing a book about a former singer, it would have been easy to lean on standard cliches. Instead, Suzzy Roche delivers a book filled with interesting, three dimensional characters that you care about. The story is funny, sad, quirky and honest. I would highly recommend this book and am looking forward to Suzzy Roche’s next book.

When you get past the musical references and all of the anger associated with the genre that the author is referring to in the book, this is a really great read. At it's heart it is a love story about the most difficult relationship any woman will have in her life; that is the relationship with her mother. The story of Jean Saint, the mother, and Mary Saint, the daughter is a warm and well told and should touch you deeply. Mary is the epitome of a rebellious daughter who makes the big time in spite of herself. Her fame does nothing to solve her problems with the people in her life and her life in general. In fact, her fame accentuates the problems and the methods that Mary chooses to solve them only add to her destructive modus operandi. While Mary struggles with her own demons, her mother Jean, struggles with her own. Mother and daughter are very much alike. Mary is flamboyant while Jean is passive aggressive in dealing with the life that that share. Suzy does an excellent job of weaving the two stories together. The supporting characters that Roche has created to flesh the story out are also amazing and the sub plot that she created is worth a book of its own. Thaddeus is so real and adds so much to the story that I hope he appears in Roche’s future works. This book will be enjoyed for a long time. I know that I will recommend it to my friends and my book club.

This book started out with great promise. Interesting premise, engaging characters, and the conflicts and resolution inherent in any family drama. The Saints, Mother and Daughter, just never develop, and the father is a footnote in a drama created by his cruelty. The book just seems to try to hard to make a point that is somehow lost on the reader. As much as I wanted to care about this family I just never felt them come alive.

I was so excited to have been selected to read this book, particularly when I discovered that Suzzy Roche is the author. I've been a fan of her music for many years, and particularly love her offbeat arrangements and harmonies. She's a very talented artist. But unfortunately, this book doesn't harmonize nearly as well as Ms. Roche's music and I'm sorry to say that Wayward Saints fell flat for me. I gave it my very best shot, but just couldn't get past the stilted dialogue, contrived situations and names (Garbagio? Really?) and a disjointed plot that doesn't ring true. I give Ms. Roche an A for effort, but sadly, it's just not a very good book.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The writer’s voice is interesting, but uneven in ways that don't seem to be stylistic choices: the language is sometimes formal, almost stilted, and other times gut-punchingly in-your-face. Although a few characters were memorable in themselves, I found most of their actions to be inexplicable, and struggled to feel much sympathy for them. As a first outing it’s worth a read if you really like the Roches and want some insight into the mind of Suzzy, or to learn about some people who are most likely not like you or anyone you know. I do hope she writes a second novel for adults.

This is a good story about a mother and daughter finding themselves and each other after long years of estrangement. The writing is somewhat heavy handed with a few too many extraneous adjectives that got in the way of the plot for me. I appreciate that the author avoided a cliched feel good ending and left it up to the reader's own imagination.

Mary Saint, the wayward-has-been rock singer and Jeanne,her mother, are both victims of family violence. Mary acts out in drugs and sings angry lyrics, and her mother tries to quietly put her past behind her. Both have a lot to swallow when an invitation to sing in the small town high school brings Mary's and her mother's reunites the two. I had difficulty connecting with Mary as a believable character. Jeanne, while more credible, did not get my sympathy. I found the book casually interesting.