ARC Review: You’d Be Home Now

“Sometimes your life falls to ash and you sift through, waiting for the pain to pass, looking for the remnants in the debris, something to save, when really all you need is right there, inside you.”

Honestly, I don’t even know how to start this review. I finished reading it yesterday and it’s still sitting with me. I have so many emotions swirling around in my head that it’s dizzying. I connected with Emory and Joey’s story not because I have personal experience with addiction, but because I live in a small town that has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. This book is important for our young people to read, so that they know they are not alone.

I’ve read other books with characters dealing with drug addiction, but in You’d Be Home Now, Katherine Glasgow give a realistic and heartbreaking portrayal of the devastating effects of addiction on not just the addict, but their families and friends and the whole community. Real-life addiction stories don’t always, or even usually, have a “they came out of rehab and lived happily ever after” ending, and I’m glad the author gives us an honest look at life after rehab. A look at Joey trying to deal with the issues that led him to drug use in the first place, issues that are still very present in his mind and in his life. A look at Emory trying to navigate high school being That Girl, the one whose brother almost OD’d, the one people blame for the death of a beloved classmate, the one with her own secrets. And a look at their parents, just trying to do what they believe is the right thing, just trying to keep their child alive.

You’d Be Home Now is an important book for our young people. I hope that teachers use it in their classrooms and develop supportive lesson plans around it. I have already recommended it to one of my students and will continue to do so. It’s a tough read in places, and it made me cry – especially when I got to the part that the title comes from – but this subject needs to be talked about more openly and this book is a great jumping-off point for honest discussions with our teens.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing a copy of this book for review.