You'd Be Home Now

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Somehow Emory ends up taking responsibility for her brother. She has to shadow him when he goes to his PT job at a hoagie shop, they are in different grades in the same school and except for when they are in class, they are supposed to be together at all times, she shadows him when he goes to rehab meetings. Emory has NO life of her own, except for the major crush she has on Gage, the senior who lives next door. It would have been easy for an addict to write a story about an addict, right? Maybe too easy. Maybe that's why she decided to write the story from the POV of Emory, whose brother Joey is an addict. This was an excellent decision. It is easy for people to say "I would never become that," but is it so easy to say that no one you love will ever become that? More than twenty million people struggle with substance abuse each year, and the age it starts gets younger and younger. We have spent two years now living through the COVID-19 pandemic, but the opiate epidemic has not gone away. It is still there, silently creeping up on your loved ones, preying on their insecurities and telling them to just try this, and maybe everything won't hurt so much anymore. 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?

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. You don’t know what is going to happen, or how things are going to end, and we probably get into way too much trouble trying to plan for and predict these things.”Emory feels invisible--always has--in the spotlight of picture-perfect older sister Maddie. Her brother Joey has struggles of his own, which culminate after a party one night, where Joey's drug use finds him in a car with bad influence and "friend" Luthor...and leaves a young girl dead after a tragic car crash. Emory was also in the vehicle, and both siblings have become pariahs at school in their own ways, as Emory recovers from a leg injury and Joey begins a stint at rehab. This is all part of their parents' plan to maintain social standing and 'fix' their children. But Emory has secrets of her own, and aside from her time playing babysitter to Joey during his recovery, she vacillates between wanting someone to see her and fearing the repercussions of her double life. When her worlds collide months later, can Emory discover the path she is meant to take and help keep her brother above water...before she loses him again? There is a White Feminist character named Liza who I found insufferable. I'm not saying that all white feminists are bad. I also believe that teenagers are smarter than we give them credit for and that they can inspire and/or push movements when necessary.

Emory starts the book with really no support system (hence the reason Gage is so impactful). Her mother is cold, and if she received any remotely bad news, she'd probably just yell at Emory anyway. And her dad spends so much time at the hospital, he's oblivious to anything going on in the house. She's lost all her kinda friends from dance team because they don't want to be associated with a girl who was in the car when Candy died in the accident that ruined Emory's knee, got her brother sent to rehab, and finally busted Luther. Over the course of the book, though, Emory finds a new, better group- Luther's younger brother who gets Emory's exact struggle, Jeremy, Emory's ex-childhood best friend, Liza, and Daniel from English class who always wears the scarves. Liza is so incredibly smart and witty, and I immediately both wanted to be Liza and be her best friend. And Daniel offered Emory a look at what real, genuine love is. Each of her new friends is dealing with their own family trauma or past struggles, so there's little judgement and heaps of compassion to go around. I'm very thankful to the publisher for providing me with this ARC to share my honest thoughts on this bookwith all of you. I loved all of the friendships in this, and how Emory managed to find her group of people despite everything that has happened. Sometimes your life falls to ash and you sift through, waiting for the pain to pass, looking for the remnants in the debris, something to save, when really all you need is right there, inside you".You'd Be Home Now is the story of a teenage girl figuring out life in all it's beauty, pain, joy, and struggles. Emory, for her whole life has been told who she is. In the town of Mill Haven, Emory is known as the rich kid, the great-great granddaughter of the mill's founder. The mill is basically like a little shopping center strip mall, stores, dry cleaners, places where people can get help if they struggle with addiction. At school, Emory is known as hot Maddie Ward's younger sister. Maddie is now away from home in college, but since she went to the school the Emory now goes to, everyone knows Emory as Maddie's younger sister. At home, Emory is known as one of the good Ward kids, but also known as her stoner brother, Joey's babysitter. One night, everything was turned on it's head, Joey and Emory attended a party where drinking and drugs were involved. Emory only had about two drinks, Joey was high out of his mind, and their friend Luther was completely wasted. There was another girl there, Candy MontClair.

At one point in the midst of this little spat Emory overhears the lit teacher complaining to another teacher about the whole thing. He's definitely on the dusty boomer side so I don't totally side with him, but he makes a good point about how teenagers nowadays refuse to ever be uncomfortable any more. On the outset that may seem like a good thing. Except discomfort is a natural part of life that needs to be worked through rather than avoided. Sometimes discomfort is solely a /you/ thing that you need to examine and deconstruct. Discomfort is not necessarily a sign something is wrong in an objective sense. It could be that something about a person, place or thing is setting you off for some reason. With social media becoming so ubiquitous it has become so much easier for teens to slip into echo chambers where they refuse all outside logic meaning discomfort is anything that makes them feel 'bad' - an all encompassing nebulous descriptor. Glasgow’s books are always sure to take an emotional toll, but they are an important addition to the YA realm. The issues are hard-hitting, important topics, and I hope that these stories will make it into the hands that need them. These traits make two of her three kids feel like failures. Her middle child, Josh, feels his failures so acutely, he turns to drugs to drown out the negative voices and feelings he has. His dad is a doctor, his mother is a lawyer, they are wealthy (his mother’s family established the little town the live in), and he sees himself as the royal screw up of the family. His self-esteem is pretty low, thanks to his mom always being on him about his faults and the need to improve across the board (or military school is the next stop for him). emory ward has spent her entire life being told who she is, while she stays underwater, feeling invisible. her sister is the hot and intelligent one, away at college, and her brother, joey, takes up all of her parent’s energy with his recently-revealed drug addiction, which is worse than anyone even knew. everything is flipped on its head after a car accident, where not everyone survived.Emory is always negotiator, peacemaker, doing always what her parents told her, obedient, sweet, good daughter of the family as her big sister is beauty queen, smart, popular college student and her brother… her rebellious, artsy, introvert brother Joey always gets the full attention with his addiction problem. The characters: I loved (most of) the characters. I always love Kathleen Glasgow's characters. They are always really realistic. I've talked about this before but something I love about Kathleen Glasgow is how she justifies her characters. A character does something stupid? Glasgow will explain why and what lead up to it and make you understand. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. The book begins in the aftermath of a fatal car crash involving brother and sister, Emory and Joey. The entire town of Mill Haven is shaken by the events of that night but not all of the repercussions are really seen until months later.