Seen and Heard

You’d Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow: A Book Review

Genre: Fiction – YA

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Glosgow’s You’d be Home Now follows the story of a teenage girl, Emmy, who has to adjest to life after being involved in an awful car crash that killed a girl and brought to light her brother’s drug problem. Now that her brother is back from rehab, right before/ as school starts, Emmy must find a away to figure out who she is and still overcome the chaos of her life that threatens to drown her.

If you look for grand examples of anything from me, I shall disappoint you.

Overall it was an okay story if not a tad bit redundant. I wish that Glasgow would have out more effort into Emmy’s development. Instead, it was more like a one time overflow lash out before going back to previous behaviors. With more development, I think Emmy could have been a more likeable character. She was an awful character, don’t get me wrong, but she really only invoked pity. I felt bad for her, but not enough to care what happened.

Emmy’s mom could also have been written better. Written as extremely overbearing, I think that it would have been interesting if she had a drug problem as well. Glasgow mentions it once or twice for the ironcy, but to dive deeper into the situation would have been interesting. It would have given the mother something to relate to as well as opened up a conversation between the relationship between her and her son, Emmy’s brother (Joey).

But Joey’s not a problem to be fixed… He’s a person.

Besides these two characters, I actually really liked all of the other ones, which is why I gave it a 9 out of 10. I really felt bad for Joey. I actually really related to his metaphor of the noisy being around him and he just wanted it to be quiet. Having servere depression and anxiety disorder, I have moments where there is so much “noise” that I feel like I get lost in it to. I can relate to waiting it to stop. I also really enjoyed the father character – especially at the end of the book. Daniel, Jeremy, and Lisa were all great characters as well, though I wish that they had more page time in the book. I think that they really carried the scenes that they were in.

Again, overall, it was an okay story. I kept wanting to put the word “by” between “Home” and “Now” to make it “You’d be home by now”. I think it sounds better that way. I also really thought that the “ghosties” were actually ghosts or graves rather than people down on their luck. I get the idea of it though that they were “ghosts” of their former selves.

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Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):

Enjoy – emotional pieces, coming into ones self, feel invisible, are addicted to drugs

Stay Clear – drugs, addiction, death, and profanity are triggers for you

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 Other books like the one reviewed:

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

How to make friends with the dark by Kathleen Glasgow

The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow

How it feels to float by Helena Fox

Suicide Notes by Micheal Thomas Ford

If he had been with me by Laura Nowlen

The words we keep by Erin Stewart

Holding up the universe by Jennifer Niven

Life Inside My Mind edited by Jessica Burkhart

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Plot:	9 / 10
Characters:	9 / 10
Writing:	9 / 10
Editor:	10 / 10
Total	37 / 40

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