Folie à Deux (Cynthia Rodriguez)

Be careful with that one.

These are the first words of advice given to Abel Sommerfeldt upon entering Silverwing Mental Institution. He has no idea what awaits him here, in a place where hope goes to die, and demons run rampant. 
Certainly not a disarmingly beautiful young woman with violent tendencies and an itch for defiance.

She’ll paint the walls red with your blood.

But Abel was never one to listen. Not even to his dead mother, whom he still hears, whispering warnings about the girl named Rose with white blonde hair who feels like fate.

Basherte.

He quickly discovers just how dangerous freedom is for Rosamunde Montgomery.
Because sometimes, the most beautiful roses are riddled with thorns. 
And he’s willing to learn the hard way.

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“In my madness, I am desperate.
In my fatuation, I am violent for Abel.”

Okay. Straight to the point: If you love psychopaths who have an undeniable attraction to each other (amongst other things) and want nothing more than to wreak havoc and mayhem together- you are going to love Folie à Deux (as well as Rose and Abel). I like to think of them as modern day Joker and Harley Quinn. That is how reckless and wild they are.

The angst between Rose and Abel is palpable. I can feel it the second that they meet. A lot of time- “insta-love” perturbs me. I am not a fan in any way. But something about Rose and Abel speaks to me. I am not sure if it’s their passion or their personalities but something about them just…works.

“Love can change you. Love can heal you. 
Love can stop the storm from rolling in and destroying the world around us.”

One of my favorite things about this story is the destruction these characters leave behind them. That’s a funny thing to say isn’t it? Well, the destruction and madness was the best part of it all. It is what made Abel and Rose. What pushed them to keep going. Instead of dealing with their feelings the “normal” way, they found a way to seek solstice in their mayhem. Together. And I really was here for it.

Cynthia really showed growth in her writing with this one. Knowing that she can take two un-fixable people and put them together and make them likable to the reader, takes incredible talent and she did a great job of doing just that. You can’t help but to empathize for these two people. And if you don’t empathize for one, you will empathize for the other. Not to mention the killer (pun-intended) twist in this story! Beautiful!

“My Rose leases a trail of thorns and dead bodies behind her. And she saves her petals for me.“

Folie à Deux is not your typical romance. Sure, there’s romance. But I feel as if it’s much deeper than that. It’s more than just a story about two people falling in love with each other. It’s about two people with demons buried down inside of them so deep they don’t know how to cope with them. So they stay together and fight them together. Through thick or thin. Or in this case- through death and blood.