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A review by karlyo83
The Glass House by Graeme Simsion, Anne Buist
5.0
My Rating: 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ not blow you out of space 5stars but I really enjoyed the writing and characters!!
Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, thought she had seen everything in the Emergency Room… that is until she joins the team at Menzies Hospital in the psychiatric ward. Hannah is a country girl who has trauma in her own past that she is dealing with… or avoiding dealing with.
The Glass House is full of characters and not all of them are the patients. Hannah and her coworkers are dealing with the bizarre, the devastating, the hilarious and just plain weird sides to mental health. All each trying to find their own place in the world, dealing with their own trauma and their own issues.
So… this is my first book of the year and you can see that I am kicking off with five stars. I would like to very upfront say that anyone who reads my reviews for the thrillers will not find that here. This is a lit fic book and very character driven. It wont be for everyone and even if it is for you it might not be five stars. I have taken a week to think about my review and for me the more I think about this book the more I liked it.
It is set in Australia (I am Australian), and while I normally avoid Australian novels just because I like to get away in books… I think this one worked so well for me because it was centred around Mental Health, and the system we have here in Australia. The author is an Australian psychiatrist as well and she knows her stuff. You can tell this stuff is based of lived experience and having had some lived experience (different to the author) myself it was all very accurate and familiar. I really liked how raw and real it was.
I liked the characters… there was no one that blew me away but again this book wasn’t intended (in my opinion) to do that… but they each had a part to play. The writing is very nuanced… sometimes you don’t know why or what you are reading about … until you realise the author has tied it in so nicely that you may not have even noticed that you didn’t quite know what was going on initially. I liked not having my hand held especially for a topic that is so easily misunderstood… it would have been easy for the author to spew out medical jargon and do a play by play of this is this and this means that… but she didn’t have to at all. Her writing style allowed us to follow along in the stories that presented themselves and at all times I knew where it was going… or I found out.
Something that I liked but others may not is that there is no definitive ending to this novel, for me that makes sense, because it wasn’t over… it will never be over. It is the days in the lives of the workers, the patients and the families of those working and living with mental health… that doesn’t end. What I did love and wasn’t expecting was the tie in that the author managed to do with all the cases… I won’t go into it in depth because it will ruin it for those that wish to read it but… I really enjoyed how it very subtlety showed us what was going on throughout the book that we as the reader would and could not have been aware of… that was actually my favourite part.
I liked Hannah, and that she like all of us is flawed… and that she haunted in her own right and own way by the things that she carries with her in her life. Each of the characters have their own thing… and we learn about them throughout. I also like the authors inclusivity, there were characters from other cultures, minority groups and walks of life, all of which I felt were really well represented and written but it also wasn’t shoved in our face and explained to us in a condescending way… I enjoyed reading about their lives and struggles without it being because I’m XYZ… or because I’m from here or there… it was all very clear why these things were a very real and raw issue but you didn’t have the author shoving her own agenda down our throats it was a very nice way to represent and include people.
Overall, I think if you like Lit Fic and the subject matter is interesting to you give it a go. It is very well written I really enjoyed it. Far more than I was expecting to… I certainly didn’t go into this thinking it would be a 5 star read… but I actually was quite disappointed when it ended although I think it ended the best way it could have. I will be going and looking for more work by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Hackett Australia for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, thought she had seen everything in the Emergency Room… that is until she joins the team at Menzies Hospital in the psychiatric ward. Hannah is a country girl who has trauma in her own past that she is dealing with… or avoiding dealing with.
The Glass House is full of characters and not all of them are the patients. Hannah and her coworkers are dealing with the bizarre, the devastating, the hilarious and just plain weird sides to mental health. All each trying to find their own place in the world, dealing with their own trauma and their own issues.
So… this is my first book of the year and you can see that I am kicking off with five stars. I would like to very upfront say that anyone who reads my reviews for the thrillers will not find that here. This is a lit fic book and very character driven. It wont be for everyone and even if it is for you it might not be five stars. I have taken a week to think about my review and for me the more I think about this book the more I liked it.
It is set in Australia (I am Australian), and while I normally avoid Australian novels just because I like to get away in books… I think this one worked so well for me because it was centred around Mental Health, and the system we have here in Australia. The author is an Australian psychiatrist as well and she knows her stuff. You can tell this stuff is based of lived experience and having had some lived experience (different to the author) myself it was all very accurate and familiar. I really liked how raw and real it was.
I liked the characters… there was no one that blew me away but again this book wasn’t intended (in my opinion) to do that… but they each had a part to play. The writing is very nuanced… sometimes you don’t know why or what you are reading about … until you realise the author has tied it in so nicely that you may not have even noticed that you didn’t quite know what was going on initially. I liked not having my hand held especially for a topic that is so easily misunderstood… it would have been easy for the author to spew out medical jargon and do a play by play of this is this and this means that… but she didn’t have to at all. Her writing style allowed us to follow along in the stories that presented themselves and at all times I knew where it was going… or I found out.
Something that I liked but others may not is that there is no definitive ending to this novel, for me that makes sense, because it wasn’t over… it will never be over. It is the days in the lives of the workers, the patients and the families of those working and living with mental health… that doesn’t end. What I did love and wasn’t expecting was the tie in that the author managed to do with all the cases… I won’t go into it in depth because it will ruin it for those that wish to read it but… I really enjoyed how it very subtlety showed us what was going on throughout the book that we as the reader would and could not have been aware of… that was actually my favourite part.
I liked Hannah, and that she like all of us is flawed… and that she haunted in her own right and own way by the things that she carries with her in her life. Each of the characters have their own thing… and we learn about them throughout. I also like the authors inclusivity, there were characters from other cultures, minority groups and walks of life, all of which I felt were really well represented and written but it also wasn’t shoved in our face and explained to us in a condescending way… I enjoyed reading about their lives and struggles without it being because I’m XYZ… or because I’m from here or there… it was all very clear why these things were a very real and raw issue but you didn’t have the author shoving her own agenda down our throats it was a very nice way to represent and include people.
Overall, I think if you like Lit Fic and the subject matter is interesting to you give it a go. It is very well written I really enjoyed it. Far more than I was expecting to… I certainly didn’t go into this thinking it would be a 5 star read… but I actually was quite disappointed when it ended although I think it ended the best way it could have. I will be going and looking for more work by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Hackett Australia for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.