Title You’d Be Home Now
Author Kathleen Glasgow
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Genre Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Publication Date September 28, 2021 by Delacorte Press
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● The Book Depository ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound
From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl In Pieces comes a raw, deeply personal story about a town ravaged by the opioid crisis, and a teenaged girl struggling to find herself amidst the fallout of her brother’s addiction.
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.
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?
Mill Haven wants everyone to live one story, but Emmy’s beginning to see that people are more than they appear. Her brother, who might not be “cured,” the popular guy who lives next door, and most of all, many “ghostie” addicts who haunt the edges of the town. People spend so much time telling her who she is – it might be time to decide for herself.
A journey of one sister, one brother, one family, to finally recognize and love each other for who they are, not who they are supposed to be, You’d Be Home Now is Kathleen Glasgow’s glorious and heartbreaking story about the opioid crisis, and how it touches all of us.
About Kathleen Glasgow
Kathleen Glasgow is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Girl In Pieces, as well as How To Make Friends With The Dark and You’d Be Home Now. She lives and writes in Tucson, Arizona.
I’m now three books into what I hope (I HOPE) will be a long career writing for young adults. At this point, after writing novels that delve deeply into self-harm and depression (Girl In Pieces) and grief (How To Make Friends With The Dark), the question I’m most frequently asked is, “Why do you write such sad books?”
I don’t expect this question to abate with my new book, You’d Be Home Now, which is about what happens to a girl named Emory when her brother Joey returns home from rehab. Joey is struggling with addiction and Emory is going to try everything in her power to help him, even if it means putting her own emotional needs on the back-burner. So, yes, it’s another sad book.
I don’t write sad books just to…write sad books. I write books with messy, complicated, difficult, and painful subjects because…life is full of messy, complicated, difficult, and painful things. They’ve happened to me. And messy, complicated, difficult, and painful things have happened to you. Maybe you are open about them. Maybe you aren’t (that’s fine, too). Perhaps you can’t articulate your feelings about these things. That’s where I think books come into play and that’s why I write the books I do.
Books can be a safe place for readers to explore things they aren’t ready to talk about or can’t talk about. Books help you feel less alone and they can give you a language, a vocabulary for your feelings, that perhaps you didn’t have before.
93,331 people died from drug overdoses in 2020. 69,710 of those overdoses were opioid-related. Those are astounding and painful numbers. If you take each of those people and attach three family members, then attach friends, then attach people in their community, school…the number of people affected by addiction grows exponentially. Addiction affects everyone, not just the addict. It’s a public health crisis. It’s also a mental health crisis.
This is where You’d Be Home Now begins. Emory is just a kid, sixteen years old. She’s always been “the good one” in her family. Her older sister Maddie is “the beautiful one” and Joey is “the bad one.” Emory is the caretaker, the soother, the fixer, never a problem. She’s become so attuned to her brother’s needs and her family’s expectations that she has no room to be herself. And she’s drowning in her invisibility. The weight of Joey’s problems is emotionally heavy. Emory is breaking. You’d Be Home Now is a book for the Emorys: the ones who feel invisible. The ones who feel guilty about wanting to go to a dance, get kissed, live a life…because how can you do that when a family member is in crisis? (Spoiler: it’s by setting boundaries.)
You’d Be Home Now is also a book for the Joeys. I’m a Joey. I’ve been transparent about my recovery (fourteen years this November) and in writing Joey, I tried hard to show how it feels to be in that position: to feel like a constant disappointment, a let-down, a burden to everyone you know. Recovery is long road. Relapse happens. Addiction is a disease that requires daily management. And it deserves empathy, not shame.
You’d Be Home Now isn’t flashy, or explosive. There are no heroes (well, maybe Max DeVos, in my personal opinion). There’s just a girl, her brother, a school, a town, and, in the end, a little bit of light to hold onto. Because sometimes after everything burns down, you need to sift through the ash to see what survived, and hold onto that, and rebuild. In the end, love remains.
Kathleen has been kind enough to offer readers the opportunity to win one of two hardcover copies of You’d Be Home Now, which will be signed and/or personalized if the winner wishes. This contest is open to anyone, as long as The Book Depository ships to your country.
4 Responses
The “sad” book that has impacted me the most is The Book Thief. This book made me appreciate the fragility of life much more and to live in the moment as tomorrow I may not have the chance to tell my family I love them or really listen to what my friends say.
I love reading dark contemporaries. I read Little Universes by Heather Demetrios last year – another book that talks about addiction and loved it so much. This sounds so good and makes me want to read it more knowing that Kathleen poured her heart into this novel.
I read a lot of sad books, I have noticed. I like them, the one that has impacted me the most was This Star Won’t Go Out by Ester Earl. The challenges and her attitude, put life in a her perspective for me.
I love this!!! And thank you so much for the giveaway – I adore Kathleen’s books.
I’ve seen lots of people describe Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot as a sad book, but it really helped me recognise my eating disorder for what it is <3