For this month, I read You’d Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow. The book is about a young teenage girl named, Emory. She was on the dance team, had a group of friends, had a good family and social life too. Except for the fact that her brother was an addict. It only took one car crash that killed Candy MontClaire, the girl everyone loved, to uncover this horrifying truth. Emory begins to face challenges her junior year due to everyone blaming her brother for killing an innocent girl. Emory has always had a problem with doing things other people want her to do. With everything that happened, she starts to see who everyone is under their thick layer and learns that people aren’t always how they present themselves. She also starts to learn that maybe it’s time to uncover who she is too and who she wants to be.

I really enjoyed this book for the month of March. I found it very interesting to see how one car crash and one drug habit changed Emory’s entire life. She saw and did things differently. It was really interesting to see the reality of someone who has to watch their brother go through an addiction with drugs. It’s truly heartbreaking to read how Emory feels about everything that happened. I really liked how the author hinted out how the car incident happened in the beginning of the book. She didn’t directly explain how it happened, she put parts of it for readers to put the pieces together.

My favorite character of the book was Joey. Joey was a thoughtful person. Even though Joey had a drug problem, he truly loved Emory. He was there for her and didn’t sugar coat anything. When Emory lost all her friends, instead of telling her she’ll make more, he told her to screw them and realize what they lost. Joey always gave advice to Emory. Page 94, “But remember this: sometimes waves knock you down and it seems 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.” This quote from Joey was to explain to Emory about how even though high school can be tough, so can she. He knows his sister had a problem with sticking for what she wants. He cares so much for Emory and tries to help her through tough love.

My favorite quote from the book is, “It’s like they don’t remember what it felt like to be us. To be sad, lonely, heartbroken, afraid, sometimes all at once. It’s like they don’t remember what it’s like to be young. They’ve had a lifetime to paper over their wounds. Ours are still fresh, and bleeding.” (Page. 136) This is one of my favorite quotes because it talks about the comparison between adults and teens. Adults view teens as young kids who make life so complicated. They tell them they have everything handed to them and their life is so easy. It goes the same way with teens too. What this quote is telling is that everyone has their own issues. No one has an easy life. No one has a perfect life. Everyone has imperfections and those shouldn’t be compared. Just because a teenager doesn’t have to work or pay bills, doesn’t mean they don’t have personal issues. Just because adults have more freedom and control doesn’t mean they don’t have stress from their daily lives. We are all just individual people with our own problems.