Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams

In one moment it is over. In one moment it is gone. The morning grows thin, grey and our lives- how they were- have vanished. Our lives have changed when I walk in on Lizzie my sister holding a shotgun. Twelve year old girl Hope's life is turned upside down when her older sister Lizzie becomes an elective mute and is institutionalized after trying to kill herself. Ever since their dad died Hope and Lizzie have relied on each other from a young age. Their mother is a reluctant and unreliable parent at best, who turns tricks to support the family. Throughout the course of this lyrical and heartbreaking narrative readers and Hope discover that the mother is prostituting Lizzie and it’s up to Hope to bring the truth to light to save her sister. With raw and haunting writing reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins and Elizabeth Scott, Carol Lynch Williams is a promising new YA voice.

This story was intriguing and devastating. I wanted to choke the mother, be friends with the girls and build them up, thank the kind neighbor and go to the police.
Written a lyrical narrative, the story is from Hope's point of view. Hope and Lizzie are not only sisters, they are best friends, taking care of each other since they were six and seven. Their daddy was killed in a motorcycle accident and their mom can't hold a job so she turns tricks to support her family.
It's hard to put the book down even when the story hurt my heart.

Rating: Adult
L: swearing sprinkled throughout
V: mean and absentee parent
S: prostitution


25% test (p. 121):

"We move to the side of the road,
the whole world gray
like Florida becomes
in a good rain.

Mari pulls out a
sanitary napkin.

Put that away,
I say, looking
toward the road
Somebody might see it.

You want me to go deaf?
she says.

She plucks the filling from a
couple of pads
and puts a wad in each ear.

I'm ready now, let's go.
Mari motions with her chin
and I can just see
cotton coming from her head
like her stuffing has come loose."