The Glass Girl
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces comes a raw, heart-wrenching novel about a teenager facing down her struggles with alcohol—and the journey she must take to heal.
Everyone in fifteen-year-old Bella’s life needs something from her. Her mom needs her to help around the house, her dad needs her to not make waves, her ex needs her to not be so much. The only person who never needed anything from her was her grandmother—and now she’s dead.
There’s only one thing that dulls the pressure: alcohol. Vodka, beer, peppermint schnapps—alcohol smooths the sharp edges of Bella’s life. And what’s the big deal? Everyone drinks. Besides, Bella can stop whenever she wants. But after she gets blackout drunk at a Thanksgiving party and wakes up in the hospital, it’s time to face reality. And for Bella, reality means rehab.
Gorgeously written and deeply compassionate, Kathleen Glasgow’s The Glass Girl is a candid exploration of the forces pushing young women toward addiction—and what it really takes to help them get better.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The slippery slope of teen addiction gets an honest depiction in Kathleen Glasgow’s striking novel. Fifteen-year-old Bella’s secret drinking problem stops being a secret after a couple of spectacular public crashes, the last of which leaves her battered and headed to rehab. Her parent’s messy divorce and the death of her beloved grandmother contributed to her downfall, but it’s up to Bella now to learn how to heal and cope with life without alcohol. There’s no sugarcoating here: Bella’s descent into uncontrolled alcoholism and the tenuous nature of recovery are handled with clear-eyed realism. There are no promises that she can rebuild her life and not backslide, but the author shows that there’s always a path if the person, even as a teenager, is willing to put in the work to find it. Being shattered isn’t the end point for The Glass Girl—it’s the beginning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Glasgow (The Night in Question) ruminates on substance reliance, mental illness, and recovery with the help of support networks in this powerful novel. Fifteen-year-old Bella relies on alcohol consumption to cope with her parents' divorce, the pressures of school, the responsibility of helping raise her sisters, and the death of her beloved grandmother. For Bella, "drinking gives you a voice and a person to be. Adds color to what was just plain and ugly." After attending a party on Thanksgiving ("Why are there so many kids here on Thanksgiving? Maybe their parents don't love them, either"), she wakes up in a hospital, having nearly died from alcohol poisoning. Forced by family and friends to attend rehab, Bella must reckon with the events that drove her to this point and find a better way to move forward. Pairing searing dialogue with hard-hitting story beats rendered in unfiltered prose, Glasgow puts a microscope to adolescent self-destruction that is both engrossing and devastating. Combining The Bell Jar with Euphoria, this heart wrenching read offers a resonant and compassionate look at teenage substance reliance. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.
