The Glass Girl

By Kathleen Glasgow

Reviewed by Lucille Rose

The Glass Girl is a stark, eye-opening book that leads the reader into the dark world of addiction. This novel follows the twisted life of Bella Leahey, fifteen-year-old alcoholic and designated adult in the Leahey family. Life has always been hard for Bella. She didn’t know when things started going sour, maybe it was her parents divorce, or her boyfriend breaking up with her, but life is one giant chaotic mess that she cannot deal with right now. Between raising her sister, her parents hating each other, and her friends relying on her for their late-night beer runs, Bella has been needing to drink. A lot. She does it quietly, just at parties and at home and, fine, maybe she sneaks some at work, but who cares? It doesn’t matter if she’s not an adult, because she’s dealing with some pretty adult things.

Her grandmother, the only person who ever truly understood her, died in her arms. She committed social suicide by yelling at her ex and his new girlfriend. She deserves a little drink every now and then. Right? Everything is going smoothly… until it isn’t. She blacks out at a party, and her so-called friends dump her on her mother’s doorstep, half dead and with a broken cheekbone. Now with her parents in on the secret, and an annoyingly perfect psychologist trying to diagnose her with alcoholism, she is exiled to rehab. Which is insane, because Bella Leahey is not an alcoholic.

The Glass Girl is a gut-wrenching, heart aching novel that showed me a part of the world I didn’t know existed. This book was striking, in the sense that it displayed a real-life problem in a realistic light. Bella isn’t just magically fixed in rehab, people weren’t always what you thought they were, and it doesn’t end with her riding off into the sunset. This novel is written in an almost poetic style which not only displays Bella’s thoughts but reveals the tenor of her mind. Sometimes chaotic, sometimes hopeful, other times miserable. Each and every feeling was displayed with controlled chaos and written in such a way as to leave the reader devastated. It’s a style I’m unused to reading, but having now experienced it am anxious to again.

I’m not one to usually enjoy sad books, but I wouldn’t exactly call this one sad. There were lots of deep, painful issues explored, which sometimes left me breathless and despairing. But there are also moments of courage, like when Bella writes letters to the people she’s hurt. There were hopeful scenes, when she finally admits to herself that she is an addict and feels a slight sense of relief. I won’t lie by saying I didn’t cry, because I did. There were sad tears, angry tears and happy tears (I would suggest not reading this in public.)

This book was filled with twists. I was especially angry at a particular betrayal, but I think said traitor showcased a very important message for readers: some people don’t want you to get better. They want you to stay in the darkness, so that they can manipulate you. This can be hurtful, and you won’t always want to believe it, but we have to move on.

“Sometimes you care about people, but they slip away, and you have to let them go.” 

Sometimes I found that the author was trying to cover too much ground, and it left many plotlines open ended. There were various characters introduced then forgotten about, mysteries left unsolved and cliffhangers where the reader dangled with no satisfying explanation. I also felt that Bella’s character was too young. The way she and others acted suggested that she should have been written as a seventeen-year-old, because being near her age myself I don’t think her age group was accurately portrayed.

Four out of five stars, I would recommend this book to ages fifteen to eighteen.

Trigger Warning: this book contains talk of alcoholism, drug addiction, self-harm, death.

Harper Collins AU 2024

Kathleen Glasgow