Addiction's effect on a whole community, through one adolescent's painful family experience.

I loved Girl in Pieces, and this sounded quite as hard-hitting and deep. One girl is struggling here with what should be a position of privilege in her town, but of course nothing is ever as straightforward as it looks.

Emory's family built the mill on which her town's fortunes were built. Seen as a rich girl with no worries in the world to outsiders, her standing changes one fateful night when the car she is travelling in after a party crashes because her brother is high on drugs, killing another girl and injuring Emory's knee.

Now she's not even Emory. She's Joey Ward's sister, made his minder by their image-conscious mother. She's her 'hot sister' Maddie's younger sibling. She's also a secret for the next door neighbour. Emory is caught in so many ways and feels responsible more than anything for Joe's drug recovery when he returns from rehab.

This story is Emory's but about far more than one person. We see the drug crisis as exemplified by one teenage boy but through the story, this widens to the whole community, and to those caught up in it like Emory.

Showing us the perils of addiction and how it can all start, this is powerful and depressing, with Emory a growing character who has her own teenage worries mixed up with those of Joey's and the whole town's.

The audiobook was a good one, easy to follow and well-narrated, a good way to access the story.

Not an easy read, but a topic we can't ignore and one that many of us are touched by, whether we admit it or not.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I will look the others books of the author
Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

A very powerful and thought-provoking read detailing the impact on sibling relationships and the family system as a whole when addiction issues prevail.
Beautifully written and sensitively narrated this book will make you think about the far reaching implications of drug use and the extent to which people will go to to try and save others.
I am grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced listener copy of this book and am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

🎧4⭐️

YA contemporary fiction read by Julia Knippen who does a good job with distinct voices for the characters plus adding a good level of emotion.

It tells the story from the angle of how drug addiction impacts on the family. In the eyes of the small town residents the family have everything as they are the wealthiest family.
The story is told by Emory who feels unseen between her brother who is in the throes of drug addiction getting the focus of their parent’s attention and her beautiful sister. Emory has a close relationship with Joey, but finds herself becoming his minder. Emory has her own issues trying to find herself.
It starts slowly. You need to concentrate as the flashbacks just pop in. The second half has a much faster pace, with lots going on, looking at several teenage themes, I found it a lot stronger.

I was rooting for Emory and Joey, I felt for them both. It’s moving and poignant, although a little predictable, and alittle preachy in places. I felt that Emory was overly naive for her age. I started off not liking the parents, but that changed.

I’m not the target audience for the book, although it’s a genre that I enjoy dipping into. I really enjoyed it, I just wish that the pacing in the first half was faster.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

As a fan of Glasgow’s writing, I had high hopes for this novel however it felt quite flat. Her characters veered away from the romanticisation of addiction which was well done however a lot of the dialogue was questionable and came across as Glasgow using them as a mouthpiece, making them feel inauthentic.

A lot of the parts which should have been emotional and raw came across flat which limited the power these scenes should have had.

Ultimately, this wasn’t the strongest work by Kathleen Glasgow but it wasn’t a weak title by any means.

Oh Emmy.
Oh Joey.
Sad, and moving and touching in all the right places.
If this doesn't make you feel something, then I'm not sure anything will.

An utterly compelling read. I think it’s pitched as a YA and I’m clearly not in that demographic but I enjoyed it so much. The cover is unassuming and I’m not sure what I expected exactly, but not something as raw and profound as this, thats for sure.

I loved Joey. I’ve know so many Joeys, and lost so many Joeys. Therefore I thought the fact that the story was told from his sister Emmys POV was really impressive, that life on pause feeling when you’re trying to rescue someone from themselves, that was written so beautifully. My heart broke for Emmy and the poor decisions that she made purely to stop the feeling of isolation. The side characters were all written so brilliantly too, just enough of a story for each of them. I loved the drama teacher, and there’s a beautiful scene between him and Emmy that was so poignant.

I don’t really know what else to say, beautiful, heartbreaking, powerful and inspiring.

Kudos to the author for her courage and honesty and of course the number of years she’s spent in recovery.

The narration was pitched perfectly, I felt like I knew Emmy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for permission to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest review.