The Glass Castle

I only heard about this book after the movie trailer came out last year. The trailer itself gave me goosebumps, but I never did go see the movie. I worked as a bookseller at a used bookstore at the time and saw Walls' memoir fly off the shelves, but never took a copy for myself.

When I finally got around to reading The Glass Castle, I devoured it in a day. The opening chapter gripped me and I couldn't stop reading. It truly felt like a car crash that I couldn't stop watching as Jeannette detailed the horrors of her childhood. I couldn't believe that it could get any worse than the first chapter detailing her burns from cooking her own food at the age of three; but, the memoir grew darker as she discussed how her and her siblings would go weeks without food, how she lived in and out of shacks or with abusive relatives, and how her father stole money that she would store away to escape her appalling living conditions.

Reading this book definitely made me look back at my childhood and feel blessed to have a mother who always put me first even when we faced similar financial difficulties that the Walls family did. The hardest part about reading this memoir was the mother's apathy towards her children's suffering and husband's addiction. Everyone should read this book at least once. It's one of those books that really makes you reevaluate your life, morals, values, and goals.