Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams

Release Date: Available Now from Simon & Schuster

Source: Personal Copy

Synopsis:

In one moment

it is over.

In one moment
it is gone.
The morning grows
thin, grey
and our lives-
how they were-
have vanished.
Our lives have
changed
when I walk in
on Lizzie
my sister
holding a shotgun.

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.

With raw and haunting writing reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins and Elizabeth Scott, Carol Lynch Williams is a promising new YA voice.

This was a truly powerful book that I found it impossible to put down. I read it in a matter of hours and although parts of it were hard to read, I had to finish this book and follow these characters. It definitely made me think of the works of Ellen Hopkins in the best possible way.

I always admire authors like Hopkins, and now Williams for telling such a complete story in relatively few words. I can't imagine how hard it is to put these types of stories into prose, let alone in verse. I had no doubt that this author could do that though, because I loved her novel The Chosen One; another powerful read.

Williams does an amazing job here. I was immediately pulled into the troubled world of Hope and Lizzie. Their's is a disturbing story, but an important one all the same. What I loved most about the book, though, was that beneath the sadness, there's an overwhelming feeling of hope. You can't help but feel for these girls and want them to succeed in life.

A really amazing read!!