Kiss of Broken Glass by Madeleine Kuderick
Written in verse, this book starts out strong with Kenna’s emotions and feelings spilling out onto the pages as she’s hauled off to the hospital. If only she’d been more careful, if only she’d waited until she returned home but the urges were just too much. It’s a competition at school with most of the girls participating. They compare their scars, sharing their “checkerboard ankles”, and any other marks that their cuts left behind. For these girls are cutters, they are a bonded group of girls known as the Sisters of the Broken Glass. The image of these girls, a substantial group of girls, bonding over something so tragic broke my heart. Instead of sharing secrets about boys, parents or teachers they are discussing how to hide their wounds and how to lie about their actions. The verse works well here and the story moves quickly. I can feel Nenna’s mood and attitude change as her situation becomes serious. The trip to the emergency room turns into a psych evaluation and now she is being closely watched by everyone, if only she had been more cautious. Nenna’s emotions are scattered when she’s admitted into the psych ward for evaluation. Donya, her roommate tells her she must play the game to the discharged. It’s inside the psych ward that I lose interest in her story. Her thoughts are all over the place and are disjointed to the point that I have a hard time seeing Neena’s story played out. She bringing too many different issues into the story, too many I feel don’t really add to the stories beginning. I truly enjoyed Nenna’s story in the beginning and I didn’t expect a complete fix of her life, I just wanted to know where her journey took her.
