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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
I didn’t read what this was about and that’s my fault. Just not something I enjoy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Pregnancy
Minor: Abortion
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Gisele Glass and her two daughters, Bronwyn and Isabeau, are all witches. Their family is cursed that all males will die by the time they’re nineteen. When their brother Killian dies at the age of ten, Gisele uses a spell that binds Killian to Isabeau so that he can continue to “live.” Thus begins the saga of the Glass Girls.
This book is mesmerizing and haunting to say the least. The story of Bronwyn and Isabeau and their abusive mother Gisele is one not only of witches but of a family saga spanning decades. I found the book to be dark and haunting but also emotional and filled with turmoil. The relationship between the sisters is not good as they haven’t seen one another in years. Isabeau’s desire to save Bronwyn’s daughter from possession is a key element of the story and maybe the most fearsome part. If you like haunting stories about witches, then you’ll love Glass Girls.
I recommend Glass Girls. Read it and let me know what you think - I’d love to discuss!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
There is nothing like the feeling of reading a book by a debut author and having it turn out to be one of the best books you’ve read in its genre in ages.
Glass Girls is about 30% family drama, 30% witch fantasy, 30% ghost horror, and 10% psychological thriller, all crafted into a compelling story that immediately drew me in and truly didn’t let me go until the last page.
I often bemoan books for being too slow or for having uneven pacing, but Danie Shokoohi obviously understood the assignment because this book has a great sense of urgency, of propulsion, in the way the story is told and the manner in which it unfolds. There is a purpose for every inch of page and no filler, making for an immersive and vibrant read. Even though there is some non-linear timeline stuff that happens, it sometimes varies in how it happens and when it happens, which greatly appealed to me as a reader because it made exposition feel more organic and less planned out.
The humanity in these characters and the events that have made up their lives will hurt your heart and make you long for resolution as much as they do. I became deeply invested in what happened to the characters in this book. I highly recommend it. 5⭐️
I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Ghost Fiction/Horror/Occult Horror/Paranormal Horror/Psychological Thriller/Witch Fiction/Women’s Fiction
dark
emotional
tense
Glass Girls has so much going on in the best way. Thanks to Shokoohi’s storytelling, the mythologies around witches - at least in the Glass family - as well as ghosts and poltergeists, are interesting and easy to follow. Glass Girls primarily follows the story of Beau (or Alice, as she’s primarily known) and Bronwyn, sisters and witches, through surviving the curse which afflicts the Glass family, not to mention the generational trauma which presents as abuse at the hands of their mother. On top of that, Glass Girls is an effectively scary ghost story, as Alice (and later her niece) are haunted by earth-bound spirits by virtue of their innate powers as mediums. The relationship between Alice and her boyfriend was the only one that felt a little flat - but I think that may be because the blood-bound relationships were so much more complex and interesting, and it did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Isabeau was once a child medium in a family of witches, but she ran away from her past and changed her name to Alice. Now, she lives a privileged life with a normal boyfriend, but her life is upended when her sister finds her and threatens her so that she will return home and help deal with the ghost of her niece. Alice and Bronwyn must confront their past and shared trauma in order to save Bronwyn’s still-living daughter.
I really enjoyed reading this thriller. It’s a combination of paranormal, horror, and mystery as well, and balances all the genres well. A key theme in this book is trauma and the way it impacts us when we are older, as is seen by the quote from Bessel van der Kolk, psychologist and author of The Body Keeps the Score in the opening of the novel. This is the best-written debut novel I’ve read in a long time.
The novel goes between reflective descriptions of the pasts of the girls in the novel and the trauma they endured at the hands of their mother, Gisele, and tense plot-focused sections. I think it did a great job of highlighting how someone who is traumatized can be utterly transported from their everyday life by intrusive flashbacks. Although Gisele does horrible things to her children and grandchildren, you can easily see how the generational curse and her own mothering warped her into behaving the way that she did. She’s certainly not likeable — I’m actually not sure I’d say any of the adult characters in this novel are likeable, so if that is a turn off for you I’d advise staying away — but you do eventually understand why she turned out the way she did.
This novel is very potentially triggering with graphic descriptions of child abuse and of self-harm, so that is also something to be wary of. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel regardless, though, and I don’t believe any of the descriptions were excessive. Sometimes authors shy away from fully showing the horrors of the things they are writing about, and that was not the case in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Eating disorder, Suicide, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Alcohol
Minor: Abortion
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
A woman must use her long lost gifts to save her niece from a poltergeist – spooky! Not my typical genre, but as part of my internal Gillian Flynn Books imprint challenge, I simply had to pick it up. The writing in this book is really beautiful, and I loved the conversation around family bonds and healing after trauma. I can’t vouch for the validity of any of the witchy stuff, but I enjoyed those topics as well. Would recommend picking it up if it sounds like it'd interest you!
*Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for exchanging an e-ARC of this book for an unbiased review.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I received an arc of this through my job, which did not affect my review.
I was so immediately drawn into this story. A haunting story about family, trauma, the ties that bind us to each other, and what we owe others. I was rooting for Alice, for Bronwyn and her daughters, even as the story broke my heart and then slowly started to stitch it back together. Out in June, and I highly recommend!
I was so immediately drawn into this story. A haunting story about family, trauma, the ties that bind us to each other, and what we owe others. I was rooting for Alice, for Bronwyn and her daughters, even as the story broke my heart and then slowly started to stitch it back together. Out in June, and I highly recommend!