Kathleen Glasgow

From the New York Times bestselling author of 'Girl in Pieces' and 'How to Make Friends with the Dark' comes a breathtaking contemporary YA about addiction, family and finding your voice.

The quiet one, the obedient one, the reliable one. Emmy has spent her life being told exactly who she is. Not strong-willed like her beautiful sister Maddie and not in rehab like her wild brother Joey. But when a tragic accident changes life in her small town forever, can Emmy keep up the act?

You'd Be Home Now

From the critically acclaimed author of 'Girl in Pieces' comes a stunning novel that Vanity Fair calls “impossibly moving” and “suffused with light”. In this raw, deeply personal story, a teenaged girl struggles to find herself amidst the fallout of her brother’s addiction in a town ravaged by the opioid crisis.

For all of Emory’s life she’s been told who she is. In town she’s the rich one–the great-great-granddaughter of the mill’s founder. At school she’s hot Maddie Ward’s younger sister. And at home, she’s the good one, her stoner older brother Joey’s babysitter. Everything was turned on its head, though, when she and Joey were in the car accident that killed Candy MontClaire. The car accident that revealed just how bad Joey’s drug habit was.

Four months later, Emmy’s junior year is starting, Joey is home from rehab, and the entire town of Mill Haven is still reeling from the accident. Everyone’s telling Emmy who she is, but so much has changed, how can she be the same person? Or was she ever that person at all?

Mill Haven wants everyone to live one story, but Emmy’s beginning to see that people are more than they appear. Her brother, who might not be “cured,” the popular guy who lives next door, and most of all, many “ghostie” addicts who haunt the edges of the town. People spend so much time telling her who she is–it might be time to decide for herself.

A journey of one sister, one brother, one family, to finally recognize and love each other for who they are, not who they are supposed to be, 'You’d Be Home Now' is Kathleen Glasgow’s glorious and heartbreaking story about the opioid crisis, and how it touches all of us.

Edna Aviles

Maybe people just use different things to fill up the emptiness. Until it becomes less about feeling empty and more about feeding something else. 

"Well, we don't always look for comfort when we read. Sometimes we have to read uncomfortable, difficult books. Sometimes those books are the very ones that inform our intellectual and emotional growth. Mr. Watson's eyes scan the room. He stops. "Yes. You have a question." 

Gwenifer

You have to make a Choice to fight to help those you Love survive, but you have to fight to let yourself live, too.

We follow my Brother into the bright light.

"I have to be Messe d up just to be brave enough to go get better."

He Leaves a sigh so lage I'm afraid it will break his body apart.

"I don't want to live this life an more."

"I don't know what's wrong with me," joey whisper, his voice ragged. "I just can't stop."

"There's nothing wrong with you," I say."You...need some help is all."

"I don't...I don't know how to live." He sighs deeply,his breath troubled. "Emmy, help me. Oh god, help me."

 "What I wouldn't give to be your age again" 

Did you ever feel that adults never really listen to you? 

And they say, What for? You're sixteen! What do you have to be so sad about? 

They say, Of what! I feed you, clothe you, love you, let me tell you about being an adult

They say, Oh, now, now. vou'll meet someone else, stop crying

they say, Be more outgoing! Stop staying in your room 

You say, they say, you say, they say t all runs together, words drifting into unhearing ears 

It's like they dont remember what it felt like to be us to be sad, lonely, heart broken, afraid,sometimes all at once. 

They say we should get over it, bounce back, be positive.

Its like they dont remember what Its like to be young.

They've had a lifetime to paper over their wounds Ours are still fresh, and bleeding

Tell me, what is it you Plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

This is so cute. I love Emory’s nana. ❤️

Alice Perelta

She shrugs. "You don't want to tell me, don't tell me, but I’ll tell you one thing: they should hold your hand when you go out together, no matter what. And they should never walk in front of you. They should walk next to you, because you walk through life together, do you understand?" "Nana."

Man, I have no words for this, only tears. 

 The way you have to think of it is this: high school is like the ocean, like when we went to Mission Beach. There's a lot of it and sometimes it seems scary, like if you go too far out, you'll never get back. You'll lose sight of land. And remember all the times we went under and came back up and how great it felt, the sun on our heads, like we beat something? Everybody here is just a different kind of sea creature. Some of them suck, literally and figuratively. Some of them are so beautiful you can't believe they even exist. And some have scary teeth and weird floppy things, but they’re beautiful too. And some want to eat you, because that's just the way it is. I’m sorry about that. I didn't make the rules of the ocean. The ocean, like high school, has its own laws. But remember this: sometimes the waves knock you down and it seemns like you won't have the strength to push back up, but you do, because whatever the water takes down, it gives back. But you have to adapt or die. Now, go swim. 

“I guess the scarlet letter came in handy after all”

“The only things I’ve ever been good at is letting people down”

Amanda Autumn Berrey

Someone I used to know said that’s the problem with adults. They just see kids as they want them to be, what they aren’t, and not as they are.

(and also, Lolita is completely inappropriate for high school;

Now, as then, I don’t know if I fully understand what happens in the novel, but I loved it anyway. Isn’t that strange? To love something you can’t fully grasp?

“I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t high. I’d never be brave enough if I wasn’t fucked up. That’s so fucked up and shitty, but it’s true. I have to be messed up just to be brave enough to go get better.”

“I let you down,” Joey says quietly. My father glances in the rearview. “I let you down, Joey,” he says. “I won’t do that again.”

I have a lot of respect for him reminding his daughter of that. I’m sure it’s extremely difficult to deal with this as a parent so to have to set aside your own emotions to properly communicate with her the risks so she doesn’t set her expectations too high is very respectable

“Emory, anything could happen on the drive, even when we get there. He may change his mind. And he can. He’s an adult. Do you understand that?”

I keep thinking how much I love you I keep wanting love to be enough Because if it was You’d be home now

In the car, my mom is quiet. Finally, she says, “I don’t understand why you got them cigarettes, though. Or the gin. How does that help? That just seems like exacerbating the problem.” “People go through withdrawal, Abigail. You can’t expect them to do it cold turkey, in bad weather under a bridge. How does that help anything? They could get sick doing that on their own. Choke on their vomit and freeze to death. Same with cigarettes. I’ve got a patch on right now to help me. What do they have? Restricting addictive substances to be punitive or pious… that doesn’t solve anything.”

“A friend,” I say, my heart in my throat, but in a good way. “He does not live next door, so I promise no window pictures.”

“Emmy, I know,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been here all along.”

“I’ll be here a little while longer. I’ll keep an eye out. I look for him, too, you know. When I go into town. Take the dog for a walk.”

Parents don’t make any sense. My dad works to save people, but he can’t even stop smoking. My parents send Joey to rehab, but my mother can’t sleep without a pill.

౨ৎ | “maybe people just use different things to fill up the emptiness. until it becomes less about feeling empty and more about feeding something else.”

this book was so hard to read personally. i felt so connected to emmy and what she felt like while having to look after her brother, while trying to keep herself together. it pulled out so many emotions i tried to repress and it was hard, but i absolutely adored the writing style and how kathleen wrote both joey and emmy. 

i always wish we get epilogues in her books but i understand why we dont because not every story ends happy. but i hope both joey and emmy are happy. 

also special mention to daniel and liza because i love them and what they did for emmy. gage.... i dont like you bye. 

౨ৎ | “maybe people just use different things to fill up the emptiness. until it becomes less about feeling empty and more about feeding something else.”

— ★ 4/5

this book was so hard to read personally. i felt so connected to emmy and what she felt like while having to look after her brother, while trying to keep herself together. it pulled out so many emotions i tried to repress and it was hard, but i absolutely adored the writing style and how kathleen wrote both joey and emmy. 

i always wish we get epilogues in her books but i understand why we dont because not every story ends happy. but i hope both joey and emmy are happy. 

also special mention to daniel and liza because i love them and what they did for emmy. gage.... i dont like you bye. 

Wow - I'm honestly speechless. Just finished this book and put it down. I cried. This was breathtaking, raw, accurate and heartbreaking all at once 😭. 

 is one of my favourite books so I came into this with high expectations, although it did deliver a solid book it lacked the punch to make a lasting impact.

I’ve read and watched quite a few books that tackle substance abuse and the OxyContin crisis. This is a bit “clean” and sugar coated in comparison.

As a YA book, I appreciate the author’s perception on drugs without glamorizing it, and the parallels between our other obsessions help reveal the sameness in substance abuse and other types of diseases. I think this point will be terrific for teens to grasp. The sister-brother relationship is one I really liked as well; you could feel the ache and pain between Emory and Joey as they try to overcome this ordeal.

Jawahir M

Girl in Pieces is one of my favourite books so I came into this with high expectations, although it did deliver a solid book it lacked the punch to make a lasting impact.

I’ve read and watched quite a few books that tackle substance abuse and the OxyContin crisis. This is a bit “clean” and sugar coated in comparison.

As a YA book, I appreciate the author’s perception on drugs without glamorizing it, and the parallels between our other obsessions help reveal the sameness in substance abuse and other types of diseases. I think this point will be terrific for teens to grasp. The sister-brother relationship is one I really liked as well; you could feel the ache and pain between Emory and Joey as they try to overcome this ordeal.

Julie Rubens

This book was not at all what I expected it to be, but it was so good! I loved how the main character was perceived as a perfect underdog you never had to worry about and I loved how the book shed a light on how unseen she felt in life. I loved the ending and I love the undying bond between Emmy and Joey. I recommend this book for everyone.

I love her books all of them are so deep and emotional and have such tragic true parts of life 

Pia 

Hit close to home and made me sob throughout, there’s probably tear marks on my pages

Haylie Lampert

From the critically acclaimed author of 'Girl in Pieces' comes a stunning novel that Vanity Fair calls “impossibly moving” and “suffused with light”. In this raw, deeply personal story, a teenaged girl struggles to find herself amidst the fallout of her brother’s addiction in a town ravaged by the opioid crisis.

For all of Emory’s life she’s been told who she is. In town she’s the rich one–the great-great-granddaughter of the mill’s founder. At school she’s hot Maddie Ward’s younger sister. And at home, she’s the good one, her stoner older brother Joey’s babysitter. Everything was turned on its head, though, when she and Joey were in the car accident that killed Candy MontClaire. The car accident that revealed just how bad Joey’s drug habit was.

Four months later, Emmy’s junior year is starting, Joey is home from rehab, and the entire town of Mill Haven is still reeling from the accident. Everyone’s telling Emmy who she is, but so much has changed, how can she be the same person? Or was she ever that person at all?

Mill Haven wants everyone to live one story, but Emmy’s beginning to see that people are more than they appear. Her brother, who might not be “cured,” the popular guy who lives next door, and most of all, many “ghostie” addicts who haunt the edges of the town. People spend so much time telling her who she is–it might be time to decide for herself.

A journey of one sister, one brother, one family, to finally recognize and love each other for who they are, not who they are supposed to be, You’d Be Home Now is Kathleen Glasgow’s glorious and heartbreaking story about the opioid crisis, and how it touches all of us.

A YA novel looking into the life of someone’s whose brother was an addict. It reminded me a lot of books I read in high school and into things I experienced after loosing friends to overdoses. Eye opening and raw, but done in a way that doesn’t seem over indulgent. I enjoyed the book from the perspective of someone who wasn’t an addict, but where drugs still changed her whole life because of addiction. 

♥️ Layla Diez ♥️

3.2
My reason behind this is the plot. First thing I should say, is that for me it not stir any emotion in me other than anger. Anger from the plot that was so inconsistent. What would you do if someone who was a druggie had got your brother and said 'if you give me all your parents money, alone and to a certain destination, I will give your brother back,'? From my view, I would phone the police. It's So Stupid. But again, you might enjoy it, but I certainly don't recommend.

This book was really Heartbreaking but also healing for me. I am in the Position of joey so I can really relate to him but I've also Been and still are in the Position of emmy so I can relate to her too. addiction is one of the worst think to go through but Loving someone who is addiction is also really painful and isnt get talked about enough. I think of her three books about mental health is this my Favorite.

Maybe I’m biased because this isn’t really the type of book I would read, but I felt like this book could have been so much better. The plot was boring and slow. All the characters execpt for emmy were boring. This book took my so long to read because of how bored I got. It wasn’t the immensely heart breaking book it was portrayed as, it was just boring.  As someone that has serval addicts in their life, yes the book spoke to me and even hit me in the hard a few times but I could not pick up this book. The only reason I finished was because I never leave a book unread in my library 

For me this book was an easy read. However, was a slow burner in my opinion. A section of the end was good, but was not a book that kept me hooked. The brother and sister friend relationship was super sweet and I think this book would be a good filler book for when you are unsure of what to read next.

logan ferrucci

Joey's character reminded me too much of what he could have been, and what he was.

The book also made me understand addiction on a much deeper level. 

Lulu Evensen

Beautiful raw and thought provoking

Joey's character reminded me too much of what he could have been, and what he was.

The book also made me understand addiction on a much deeper level. 

I went into this book thinking that I wouldn't be able to connect with as I did with Girl in Pieces. Yet I managed to find myself, feelings, and situations in Emory. In their entire family. It's just an emotional book, that can make a lot of people feel seen. 

Guinevere Filiaggi

Loved her writing style but more could have been done in terms of plot…..I wish they developed the mill storyline a little more

Abby Kelsall 

From the New York Times bestselling author of 'Girl in Pieces' comes a breathtaking contemporary YA about addiction, family and finding your voice.

Emmy is the good one. Not strong-willed like her beautiful older sister, Maddie, and not difficult like her brother, Joey. She takes up as little space as possible. When Joey returns from rehab, her parents ask her to act as his guardian. She's also expected to keep on top of her grades and hold everything together after the tragic events of that summer. The only person who makes her feel seen is her secret lover, Gage, but no one can find out about that ...

How long can Emmy keep up her careful balancing act before it topples?

I think the book was a raw way of dealing with people in addiction and the way you search for the way they were before the addiction. It's easy to wonder who you are and how you fit into it and I think it was very well written and i liked the way she brought forward the way of describing people in addiction as something more than "dirty addicts" and how easily someone you love can fall under the umbrella of people who struggle with addiction. 

Hope Aaron 

A very amazing novel about a teen struggling with addiction and the way it effects the people around him

lexi macham 

THIS BOOK!!!! oh. my. god. mind = blown. so many problems addressed in such a delicate way. THE WRITING IS SO SUPERIOR WHAT THE ACTUAL. i love kathleen. this is either well researched or straight from the heart. this book has numbered chapters unlike girl in pieces which i think is a nice change. i’m now really excited to read ‘how to make friends with the dark’!!! this book ovs made me cry a lot but you kinda have to - i was so involved. 100% recommend but possible trigger warnings!!

Caroll-Ann

This book is so good. I don‘t want to give away too much of this book BUT I love the realistic presentation of what it‘s like to either deal with addiction yourself or to have someone close to you suffering from addiction. Life isn‘t always beautiful and it‘s so important to also show the ugliness of life and we all know that this exists. So I am thankful for Kathleen create this book and hopefully also start conversations about this important topic.

Trigger warnings for this book:
Suicide
Addiction
Death
Depression

Important book to read for anyone who has somebody going through addiction. It’s a good book that summarises it through the lens of a teenager, and helps the reader empathise with why people do what they do

Mia Conway

screaming,crying, throwing up rn my favorite book I’ve ever read I think about it every single day

Wow okay, 

Kathleen Glasgow is now one of my fav authors. 
The way she manages to put feelings into words that don’t make sense but yet do is astounding. 

No words actually, no feedback, critique or comments. That’s usually a positive thing with me

Good read, definitely a recommendation

First thing about this book, is that you probably can predict it, but it has drug use. So if you’re sensitive about that topic, you should probably not read this

(Just my start of the book, skip if you don’t want to read my reading journey)

I wasn’t planing of reading any books, when I picked this up. I had a trip in 2 weeks, which I already had a book in mind to bring. But when I started reading this book, I was tired tbh, so I didn’t like it as much. When I got home I set myself a quest, by trying to finish this book before I leave. Spoiler I just didn’t finish it. I got to page 290 something, and 100 pages, on a 12 week trip? 

Millie Rose

First thing about this book, is that you probably can predict it, but it has drug use. So if you’re sensitive about that topic, you should probably not read this

(Just my start of the book, skip if you don’t want to read my reading journey)

I wasn’t planing of reading any books, when I picked this up. I had a trip in 2 weeks, which I already had a book in mind to bring. But when I started reading this book, I was tired tbh, so I didn’t like it as much. When I got home I set myself a quest, by trying to finish this book before I leave. Spoiler I just didn’t finish it. I got to page 290 something, and 100 pages, on a 12 week trip? 

(Finishing this later)

Mijs Franssen

5/5 ✨ this book left a mark on me.

Wow. This book was very very good. It is raw, beautiful, heartbreaking and real. I told my friend just now, I don’t think I’ve ever cried this much with a book before. It is a very real story of family, and the struggles they can bring, addiction, and how that impacts someone. This might be the most beautiful book I have read so far.

Thanks Kathleen, for telling this haunting, beautiful, real story.

Isabelle 

Good book. To quote from the book “Now, as then, I don’t know if I fully understand what happens in the novel, but I loved it anyway.” Some parts of the book went above my head, but I loved it so much that the gaps filled themselves. The ending of this is so good, I had chills down my spine and goosebumps on my arms.

You'd Be Home Now

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