Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton

Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton
Publisher: Harper Tempest
Release date: January 9, 2007

Basic Plot: Unnamed teen walks in on his mother’s suicide attempt and rescues her; his mom is left alive but in a vegetative state. Through journal entries written in verse, unnamed teen shares experiences of outgrowing a best friend intent on violence & crime and meeting and falling for a girl in the school choir.

So, did I like the book? I didn’t not like it. I know that isn’t an answer, but here’s the deal…I just can’t get past the part of not knowing the main character’s name. Why – why not just throw me that bone so that I can say, “Come on Doug (or Larry or John) – life goes on and you will get through this one day at a time!” There are many things that appealed to me – the verse style worked for this story (and generally, I am not a fan of this format) and the storyline was a good one, but it was very rushed. Granted, the book is 131 pages, so it has to be a rather quick wrap up, but really, is it enough to cover working through your mother’s attempted suicide, distancing yourself from a childhood friend intent on being the new neighborhood hit-man, opening up to a new girlfriend, a yuck relationship with your dad and making a decision to euthanize your mother? I think not – I know it’s supposed to be a quick read – and that it was – and I did want to know, “What happens next!” but it all felt anticlimactic to me. That being said – are there teens who will want to read this? Yes - oh, yeah! Bring it to them – I’m just picky – picky, picky, picky. And I like to really get into the whys and whats of things, and this book cheated me a bit on that.