Book Review: Kiss of Broken Glass

Title: Kiss of Broken Glass.
Author: Madeleine Kuderick.
Series: No.
Pages: 224.
Source: MMSAI, for Review.
Publisher: HarperTeen.
Published Date: 9/9/14.
Links:
Book Depository
Goodreads

Summary:

"In the next seventy-two hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for seventy-two hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.

When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for mandatory psychiatric watch. There, Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment."

My Thoughts:

From the outside, Kiss of Broken Glass looks like a really short book, but it’s SO FAR from that. Each and every page is filled with hurt, pain, anger, and a wide array of other emotions. It’s dark, emotional and meaningful.

After being caught cutting her wrists in the school bathroom, Kenna is sent off to a physic ward, where she is suppose to do some serious “healing”. But with the constant urge to cut or hurt herself, Kenna is having a really hard time.

Kenna has to spend the next three days locked up in this physic ward, because it’s going to “help” her. While she does witness a few crazy things that make her reconsider what she’s doing, like finding one of her fellow members covered in blood and screaming, another one of the members deciding to head to a different clinic looking for true healing, and yet a third ready to finally get out and back to what she was doing before.

But after seventy two hours of meaningless meetings, sitting around and being under constant watch, Kenna is released. She knows things will go back to normal, that it will be hard to stop what she’s doing, and to change. But she’s going to do her best, to do her best for her baby brother. He’s her butterfly, that’s why.

Kiss of Broken Glass was not only a short and quick read, but so much more than the cover and synopsis are letting on. I usually like happy endings, or endings that are drastic, but Kiss of Broken Glass doesn’t have that. The ending, is more of a realization, nothing too extravagant, or bizarre, but I liked it. I liked that Kenna wasn’t “healed” after only seventy two hours; it made her a real person to me.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book, but it gave me so much more than I could have ever thought of or asked for…such a truly amazing story.