The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

 


Trigger Warnings: child abuse/neglect, alcoholism, sexual assault 


The Glass Castle is a memoir about Walls’ childhood into her early adult years growing up in a highly untraditional life with a dysfunctional family. I found The Glass Castle to be extremely gripping and I was never bored. The chapters are short and the way in which Walls uses anecdotes to give the reader a feeling of what her life was like gripped me from start to finish. This being said there were parts that were extremely hard to read: there were many mentions of her and her siblings being sexually assaulted as children and other instances of abuse. Walls paints a picture of a family that loves each other but is deeply flawed and takes a nuanced look at each individual. Overall I loved The Glass Castle and would highly recommend it.











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