Review: Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams
Title: Glimpse
Hardcover, 496 pages
Author: Carol Lynch Williams
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: June 22, 2010
Source: Library
Buy: Amazon
Book Summary:
Twelve year old girl Hope’s life is turned upside down when her older sister Lizzie becomes an elective mute and is institutionalized after trying to kill herself. Ever since their dad died Hope and Lizzie have relied on each other from a young age. Their mother is a reluctant and unreliable parent at best, who turns tricks to support the family. Throughout the course of this lyrical and heartbreaking narrative readers and Hope discover that the mother is prostituting Lizzie and it’s up to Hope to bring the truth to light to save her sister.
Review:
Oh how happy I was when I went to my new local library and saw Glimpse on the shelf! I probably looked a little crazy snatching it (considering I had just quickly grabbed a few others, too), but I digress.
A beautiful cover, which made me forget about the heavy topic it deals with (if you’ll remember, I am one to read a summary of a book once, and only once – meaning usually I forget most of the details included by the time I read a book). I also had forgotten it was in verse (though I soon remembered because this book is rather large due to verse and spacing).
Our time is spent with Hope, whose sister Lizzie is found trying to take her own life. Quite the way to start out a story.
Verse is a dangerous territory for me, because I love Ellen Hopkins and all of her books, which are completely written in verse – and the good thing is that Carol Lynch Williams did a great job. It would have been easy for me to write the book off, comparing it with Crank or Glass or Identical (books by Hopkins) right from the get go, but I didn’t, and I didn’t really want to, either.
The emotion of Hope as she tries to live without Lizzie and tries to figure out what’s wrong is very strong and realistic. This is obviously very important since Hope is our main character and the verse is written from her point of view – and Carol Lynch Williams did a fine job.
There were a few times in the verse that the spacing threw me off and I had to reread to understand what was going on (or who was talking, more commonly). This happened more towards the first half of the book, so I’m not sure if I got used to the writing style or if the awkward phrases are only in the first half.
A little mystery and a lot of heavy topic and emotion, Glimpse is a strong verse novel. I would recommend reading it on a free evening so that you can start and finish it without too much delay – you’ll want to know what happens with Hope and Lizzie.
Buy: Amazon
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Cover is pretty! Sounds great but yes, verse is quite tricky for me too.
I didn’t do well in high school with poetry units, either. My brain doesn’t like thinking that way, I guess!
I really enjoyed this book. I thought that it was more subtle and a little slower than Hopkins’s books, but ultimately loved how this story built. Thanks for your review!
I am really really glad that it wasn’t so close to Hopkins’ books that I needed to compare, because you’re right – it’s more subtle and slower, but it definitely works with how the author wrote it!
Thanks for the review – Was considering the read and am now convinced – although I don’t think I’ll be able to consume all 496 pages in a single evening!
Ha! Goes faster than you think because it’s in verse