When I picked up this book, I somehow missed the fact that it was Young Adult fiction. It wasn't a problem as I am a fan of well written YA. This book definitely hits the mark. Not only is it well written, but it has characters that are true to life and believable. My heart hurt when they hurt and celebrated when they celebrated. Glasgow did an incredible job of nailing the teen experience and she did it in a way that was not off-putting to adult readers. The topics written about in this book are important ones and not only for teens. Everyone will be able to find at least a little of themselves in these pages. I imagine reading this book will bring comfort and a sense of inclusion to most people who read it. In addition, there are resources listed at the end of the book for anyone who may need them. This is a fantastic book that I will recommend over and over again.

From the first few chapters i knew this was a book i had to read. I have had family members who struggle with addiction: alcoholism, heroin addiction, etc. Glasgow really nailed how difficult it is to be a bystander watching your love ones be taken from you. How you thought your love could be enough. How someone can put their own life on a back burner to prioritize trying to fix someone who may not want to be fixed. i have been in that position one too many times.

I felt like i really related to the main character and her struggles, not only with her brother (mine isn’t a sibling) but the shy, “good girl”, outcast who seemingly is overlooked because she’s the only one in the family who keeps to herself and is again the “good girl.”

I also wanted to point out all of the issues that Glasgow was able to touch on in this book, and might i say did so well: the opiate crisis, slut-shaming, homelessness, school curriculum, etc. I think this is really important read. Overall, so well written and captivating. i read almost the entire book in one sitting. I recommend this book 10000% and can’t wait to buy a hard copy when it releases!

This book captivated me, touched me, hurt me, and built me back up. It’s so easy to see addiction through the lens of “things that happen to other people.” This story made it so real and compelling to enter into that world and see how it bruises everyone in its wake. The author made it so real that I felt like I was living Emory’s life! Finishing the story left me hurt but hopeful. Wonderful book that should be read by all! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion. It was a devastating yet beautiful story.

I'm glad the author moved outward from the story of addiction into the world that often gets completely turned upside down and forced to deal with something they never chose: being the sibling of a person with an addiction. Your life, your parents life, everything really becomes about saving this person and you just keep slicing off parts of yourself to make them feel better. You love them but you also hate them and I don't want to explain why. This is a good book and I hope more teenagers (not that I am) read it and relate, feel, connect. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Warning: this book can and will rip your heart out. I should know since my eyes are tired from crying my way through this book. You’d Be Home Now is a modern reimagining of the play Our Town, which is one of the reasons I was interested in reading this book to begin with. It’s not an exact retelling, which I appreciated, but the main themes of life/ mortality, community, love, etc are imagined in a modern light. This book mainly focuses on drug addiction and the opioid crisis in America and all the different ways families and communities cope as they lose their loved ones. I don’t know if I’ve ever rooted for a character like how I rooted for Emmy as she navigated her own pain after a car crash ended the life of a classmate and sent her brother to rehab. Her growth in this story was beautiful to watch as she finally learned that she can advocate for her brother without losing her autonomy and voice in the process. You’d Be Home Now is a timely and important read but it is definitely for more mature readers (I’d recommend high school and up). I also love the cover- my favorite way to encourage teens to read is by leaving out books in my classroom that look like they aren’t supposed to be read, and I can’t wait to add this to my collection.

I honestly have nothing but positive things to say about this book. I loved the plot and the character dynamics in this story! It was written SO well and I just could not put it down — I finished it in one day! The lessons each character learned and how Emory developed throughout the story was mind-blowing. This read is going to be one that sits with me for a few days as I try to digest everything it contained!

I'd never read anything by Kathleen Glasgow before, but after reading this, I need to read all of her other books. While You'd Be Home Now was a painful story, I throughly enjoyed reading about.

There is some romance on the side, but the main relationship of the story is the sibling relationship between sixteen year old Emmy and seventeen year old Joey. A few months ago, they were in a car accident where another person in the car died. Afterwards, Joey went to rehab, Luther (the driver) went to rehab and Emmy is still feeling invisible in her own home. When Joey comes back right before the start of he school year, Emmy feels responsible for her brother and making sure he stays sober.

It was a painful read - I really felt for this family, but overall I loved this book and am looking forward to reading everything else written by Kathleen Glasgow. Emmy grows so much from the start of the book. The relationship that she had with her siblings felt very real. I also loved the side characters - Emmy's older sister Maddie, their grandma, her father towards the end of the novel and the group of friends that she makes.

[review to be posted to goodreads closer to publication date.]

After a near-death experience in a car crash, Emmy's life is turned upside down. Her brother Joey's drug problem is exposed and Candy MontClaire is killed. Her knee is messed up and Joey is off to rehab.

To make matters worse, everyone at school seems to have an opinion on Emmy and her brother. Not only that but her one and only friend has been removed from her life by her mom. Now stuck "babysitting Joey" who is back from rehab, Emmy's social life has taken an even worse turn.

Star Review: ★★★★☆ (3.5)

This book was heartbreaking. It was so frightening to read as Joey struggled through everything, but I also felt scared and the pain that Emmy felt, seeing her brother go through all of it.

It was raw and showed how real and dangerous drug addiction is. The author did not back away nor sugar-coating the results of using drugs and even though it was a little frightening to read about, it was necessary.

Overall, You'd Be Home Now was a story taking place in the broken world of the two siblings where it may or may not be fixed. We follow Emmy's journey of wanting everything to be normal as well as finding herself and self-healing.

This is an excellent, intense story of addiction, survival, and the unique ways a family can betray you and let you down. It is extremely well written and suitable for a wide range of reading audiences - not just YA but also adult readers, as it provides a (harrowing, grim) glimpse into the realities of our current culture - drugs, social media, and the ways people often struggle to cope with the human interactions that crush them. Have your tissues ready - this book is not for the faint of heart.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy fo this book.

Jesus. This was not an easy read, folks. But so worth it. So good. So good. So real. I blubbered my way through it and loved loved loved it so much. It was heartbreaking and lovely and so sad. And so beautiful, too. The sibling stories and the family stories and the friendships and the absolutely gut-wrenching reality of the situations in life that both terrify and thrill us. It’s a great read. Gonna get it for the library for sure. 💜💜💜📚

This story is so relevant in today's society- the downfalls to technology and social media, and drug addiction. . This was a quick read and enjoyable.

A raw, honest, heartbreaking look at the effects of addiction on a family, on siblings, and on a town. Though there were weak points and side relationships I wish had been more well-developed, the overarching plot was strong. It will have a readership in my library.

This book is beyond phenomenal. I have read every book Kathleen Glasgow has written and they are all gritty, real books which involve struggles with addiction but also offer hope for a better future.

In You'd Be Home Now, we meet Emory who is a forgotten child-ignored by her parents in favor of her seemingly perfect older sister and her drug addicted older brother. All of Emory's parent's energy is spent on them. After a car accident involving both Emory and her brother leaves Emory in the hospital and Joe is treatment for drugs and alcohol, Emory has even bigger problems than being ignored. When her older brother, Joey, comes home from rehab, everyone's focus is on keeping his safe and sober. While it goes well for a while, the pressure is clearly too much for Joey and he disappears. Can Emory get her detached parents to help find and save her brother or is she on her own in that search? Is it simply too late for Joey?

Set for publication in late September, this is definitely a book to add to your wish list. In the meantime check out other Kathleen Glasgow novels. Caution, all have mature themes, but all leave you with hopeful messages. There's almost always light at the end of the darkest of tunnels. You just have to hope and love and fight your way through it!

Breathe in! Breathe out! I’m just a weeping mess! The story of Emory and Joey hit harder to me than I expected! Brother-sister unique bounding stories are triggering subjects for me because of my personal loss! At some chapters, I stopped my reading, choking out, taking deep breathes, gathering my composure to turn back to my reading! But I’m honestly shaking to the core!I’m trembling!

This epic story is realistic slap across your face! It reminds you of it’s impossible to be perfect parents and it’s impossible to raise perfect kids. There’s no formula, no instruction book! I wish it could. You read the manual and fix your children’s problems like fixing an IKEA furniture. It’s obvious you will make mistakes and you cannot direct your children’s lives by putting restrictions, giving them long lists, choosing their friends, controlling the choices they make. That’s not how parenting works. You’re doomed to make mistakes, screw things over but you also try harder to learn from them.

The opening of the book is mind blowing! Emory finds herself trapped in a car, as her brother’s bestie Leonard is driving it like a madman, while Emory tries to soothe Candy who is screaming at the top of her lungs because Emory’s brother Joey passed out at the back seat of the car. He doesn’t move,probably OD’d. And BAM!

Emory opens her eyes at the hospital, her leg in a cast, confused, numb. Her sister Maddie is by her side, parents arguing because her brother was overdosed and his best friend Leonard is sent to juvie because he killed Candy- yes that innocent, sweet girl who wanted to leave the party earlier because of severe headache, trapped in a car with them and now she’s casualty of the tragic innocent.

Emory has been already struggling from lack of social life. Her only friend Liza has been cut out of her life because of her mother’s intervention and now entire school blames her and her brother because of Candy’s death. She’s wounded, she’s pariah and she is also designated caretaker of her brother who returns back from rehab. Their mother gives them long lists filled with rules as if they’re her junior assistants instead of kids.

Emory is always negotiator, peacemaker, doing always what her parents told her, obedient, sweet, good daughter of the family as her big sister is beauty queen, smart, popular college student and her brother… her rebellious, artsy, introvert brother Joey always gets the full attention with his addiction problem.

Emory needs to be seen, to be cared, to be listened! Nobody hears her silent screams or sees invisible scars! She feels invisible, passing through two workaholic parents and her suffering brother in the house and she wants to scream: “ please let me live my own life! I don’t want more responsibilities! I want to live my own life! I want to make my own choices! “

She has a crush on her neighbor next door: Gage, making out with him secretly at the pool house. But even Gage insists to keep things secret, hiding their intimate moments in the dark, keeping her in the shadows.

The question is simple: what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?

She needs to be seen! She needs to be cared! She needs to be heard!

But she also sees her brother’s struggle. She has to help him but how can she help a person who doesn’t need to get help.

This book is deep, heart wrenching, soul crushing family drama. It’s about parenting, addiction, bullying, #metoomovement, slut-shaming, cancer, sibling bonding, friendship!

It’s touching, tear jerking, sentimental and the conclusion of the story is so realistic and gut punching!

I want to finish my review with some parts I chose from Emory’s stunning poem:

I’m a girl on a stage and I have nothing beautiful for you.
I’m a girl on a stage and you think you know my story.
But how can you know my story when I haven’t written it yet.
When I haven’t had a chance to live it yet.
How can you know my story
When you don’t even know me!

Giving my five tear jerking, self respect, self discovery, bravery, growing spine stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s / Delacorte Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I wanted this book because of the cover. I did not realize it was set as a teen/YA book. I am so glad I read it. This is a heartbreaking story yet seems to be par for our current situation across the United States. Especially when drugs and teenagers are part of it. Excellent story, I am recommending this to many different readers, not just young people or teenagers. I truly believe their are lessons for all of us to learn.

Emmy lives in a small mill town that in generations past, her family created. She lives with working parents, who have no time for them, and two siblings.. When a car accident reveals just how bad her brother's drug addiction is, her family doesn't change as much as it should.
Told with humor, sadness, and quite a bit of reality, we learn what it takes for Emmy to find her voice and try to save her brother. The characters are relatable, the topic tough, and the ending hopeful.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

Glasgow's other novels have been astounding and this one was no different. In How to Make Friends with the Dark I realized that Glasgow was a master, a writer who could rip out your heart and make you sob for people who didn't even exist. In this novel, she makes your heart ache with the sadness of the reality of life for so many people. It wasn't as gut-wrenching this time, but it was a deeper ache. If Friends with the Dark was the broken leg, You'd Be Home Now is the constant thrum in your joints when the weather changes. Constant, thrumming, and liable to spark white hot at a moment's notice.

Emory has always been the "good girl" of her family. Not beautiful and outgoing like her older sister, and not brooding and troubled like her brother, she has always toed the line. Of course, that means that sometimes she feels invisible, but who could be seen next to her siblings. But when her brother gets high one night, and a friend drives them home, ending in a crash that crushes her kneecap and leaves one girl (popular, friendly, and beautiful) tragically killed, everything changes. Joey is sent to rehab and the family has to figure out how to navigate their new life with an addict.

Glasgow takes on the opioid crisis, as well as slut-shaming, family dynamics, and small town mentality in this book. Highly recommend.

A phenomenal read that kept me invested in the characters until the end. I could feel Emory's struggle with perfection, invisibility, and finding her voice as she juggled being the perfect daughter and her brother's babysitter. She had so much love for her brother and would do anything to help him heal from drug addiction. Glasgow accurately portrayed a knee injury and PTSD (plus the thyca rep) which connected me to the story and Emory. I have read tons of books detailing injuries that brush over the healing process and was pleased Emory's recovery was included.

An addicted brother, Joey. A “good girl”, Emmy, who shoplifts and hooks up with a star athlete in secret. A “Scarlet Letter” campaign to stop slut-shaming among teens. Ruined relationships and renewed friendships; the plague of addiction and the plight of the Ghosties huddled under the bridge on ground littered with needles; the responsibility as a society to address its ills. This is a powerful and insightful novel, engaging and timely, stripping away the veneer of appearances and expectations and revealing the heartbreaking struggles of flawed people and families.

Kathleen Glasgow writes so well about the impact of addiction, especially in this case, where she explores its effects on a prominent family in a small town. This is a heartbreaking and important read.