Emory is the quiet one. The good one, who gets straight A’s and doesn’t talk back to her parents like her big sister Maddie, or make them angry like her big brother Joey. Joey has always rocked the boat, been difficult, caused friction in their household. But it was the car accident that kicked off the chaos, hurt, pain and pure anguish in Emory’s household.

It was the same accident that killed a girl, hurt Emory’s knee, and also the driver who smashed through the windscreen with his face. Joey was fine in the back seat because he was unconscious on heroin. Their parents are in shock, as are the rest of their small town of Mill Haven.

Emory’s mother is practically royalty in Mill Haven. It was her descendants that built the mill that the town grew upon. Now closed, the mill remains on its hill as a reminder where they came from. Mill Haven residents don’t see her now as anything but a rich woman in a flash house. But her high expectations of their entire family have helped it slowly erode and implode, as Joey is doing in front of them.

He is sent off to rehab and Emory misses him terribly. With all the ‘noise’ in their house among her parents and siblings over the years, Emory feels invisible. Her parents work every hour they can, even though they don’t need to, leaving Emory to find her own ways of feeling something. Shoplifting is a silent, secret thrill she shares with no other, but makes her feel a little more alive. Her other way to feel better involves her school’s baseball god Gage Galt. He lives next door, his bedroom window directly opposite hers.

When She tries for more, that too implodes, kicking off a chain reaction to the rest of her life. Joey falls from his shaky precipice of ‘clean’ and Emory blames herself and will do anything to get her brother back.

This story is harrowing in the fact that it could happen to any family and does – to millions of people in the US, and many in our own neck of the woods so to speak – in NZ and Australia. A teen becomes an addict through no fault of his own and this story explains that well. Once an addict, the fight to stay ‘clean’ is one a person can have for the rest of their life, even with a support system around them.

You’d be Home Now shows the fallout is far and wide with addiction. It is also a plea for help in many ways, for teenagers to be seen for who they are, not as they should be, how parents want them to be, or teachers expect them to be.

The main character’s parents are broken down as their son falls apart, to finally see what is around them in Mill Haven, not just in their home. It takes almost the very worst to happen for them to finally see their son.

Raw. Powerful. Beautifully written. Wow!

Author – Kathleen Glasgow

Age – 14+

(2022, Harper Collins, Drugs, Heroin, Shock, Family, Hidden Trysts, High School, Shame, Fear, Longing, Siblings, Brother, Desperation, Lies, Betrayal, Crime, Grief, Bullying, Secrets, Rehab, Wealth)