ARC, 201 pages
Release Date: September 9, 2014Published by: HarperTeenStand-aloneSource: ATWATFor fans of: Verse, Realistic Fiction,Madeleine Kuderick’s gripping debut is a darkly beautiful and lyrical novel in verse, perfect for fans of Sonya Sones and Laurie Halse Anderson. Kiss of Broken Glass pulses with emotion and lingers long after the last page.
In the next seventy-two hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for seventy-two hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.
When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for mandatory psychiatric watch. There, Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I was so excited to read this because it was my first book in verse. And it was about such an important subject. I chose this one because if I would have read it as a regular book I was sure to have loved it in verse as well.
“‘[So] I tell them my whole story/ about the bathroom/ and the pencil sharpener/ and Tara-the-Two-Face.’“
pg. 22
For my first verse novel I was expecting a bunch of rhyming and just some poems and some just as a regularly written story. What I got was something completely different. Kuderick has written a story in such a unique (to me) way that I can’t wait to read more from her. It’s completely told in verse and even with the poem like structure I was completely captured in the story. It was easy for me to be swept away. And it wasn’t at all like a childish book with a bunch of rhymes. I learned from this that just because it’s a verse book doesn’t mean it has to rhyme. I’m more happy that it didn’t because I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. It would’ve felt too Dr. Seuss like to me.
“‘It’s kind of like a club, I say/ Sisters of the Broken Glass.’“
pg. 23
As for the character, I felt really bad for her. So many things were happening to her and her family. And her friends and their peer pressure wasn’t any better. And then seeing what all they did to her just made her hot rock bottom. But she still did it with a brave face. As for the rest of the people where she was,they all taught her something. Whether it be something good or something bad, she was taught something. And each item was important.
“‘[…] Maybe it’s the little prolems that pile up the worst/ Deeper and darker/ one after another/ Until there’s no light at all“
pg. 96 & 97
I also got immersed in the emotion in this. So many times I was so moved I had to put the book down just for a little bit. I needed to wrap my head around the fact that these kids could be so depressed about things they hardly understood about. They just saw the outside and wanted to harm themselves after that. It hurt me to see how much they were hurting.
“‘Eat chocolate./ Hug a puppy./ Read John Green./ Make jewelry./ Join a fandom./ Write a poem..’“
pg. 150
Kuderick has written a novel that will teach you something you never would’ve thought children were doing. It really opened my eyes to a lot of the things that they try so hard to hide. If nothing else, this book definitely made me watch my younger cousins and family members a little more carefully.
Overall, I give this
