Glass Half Broken by Rachel Richards

Glass Half Broken is a psychological domestic thriller that deals with mental illness and its consequences on the person affected and those around them.

 

It’s fair to say Annie Bell has lived an interesting life. From her dad abandoning the family during a manic episode to her mom only being focused on what the world thinks of her to having friends who constantly disappear from her life. At least Zoey is a constant companion until the day Zoey decides to do something about Annie’s depression, setting in motion a chain of events that turns Annie’s already chaotic life upside down. Annie already has a tenuous grip on reality – will this push her over the edge?

 

This book had me divided and I still can’t work out which way I’m leaning towards. On the one hand, the author does a great job of highlighting deficiencies in the institutions meant to help people with mental illness as well as the plight of the homeless, but on the other hand, some of the “real” sections seemed highly implausible and the syrupy ending felt too much like a neatly gift-wrapped package with a big bow on it. Physically, the injuries that Annie constantly sustained healed remarkably quickly and there are a few “shock sections” that had me scratching my head as to their necessity.

 

The writing at times moves along at breakneck speed, with multiple events happening in a short space of time; then things slow down and I felt the author had done this to show how Annie’s mind works. However, in sections, it felt as though the author wanted to throw everything they could at Annie and I wanted to say: “Stop! Slow down to concentrate more on a specific scene so that the reader can feel everything about it!” Some grammar errors like mixing up dialogue and action tags and missing commas in vocative case also crept in, but otherwise, it was pretty clean.

 

What I was missing was the antagonist. I understand that Annie was her own worst enemy and technically she was the protagonist and antagonist, but I felt that this made the “thriller” part one-sided as there was never danger from someone else, just the unpredictability of Annie’s mind. It meant the story could only go one of two ways.

 

The author has worked hard on an interesting topic but just slightly missed the mark for me.

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.