The Glass Castle

By: Trisha Priebe, Jerry B. Jenkins

Narrated by: Jaimee Draper

Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Avery dragged her three-year-old brother behind a boxwood bush and listened for footsteps in the brittle leaves. She couldn't be sure which was louder - the person on their trail or her own heart, galloping like a stallion in her ears. With one hand over Henry's mouth, Avery looked down at the nicest dress she owned. Not only had she torn the ruffles and destroyed the hem, but the white linen stood out in the shadowy woods, making her an easy target.

If she survived this afternoon and made it home tonight - and that felt like a giant if - her father would demand to know why her dress was stained with grass and mud and tinged with blood. She would tell him the truth.

Avery, Kate, Tuck, and Kendrick take charge of an underground network of kidnapped children, inspiring them to believe that their pasts do not dictate their futures and pledging to do the hardest thing of all...reunite the children with the homes they left behind. When they discover that one among them might be the child of a man who wants them dead, will everything they are working for be lost?

©2016 Shiloh Run Press (P)2016 Oasis Audio

Fun beginning to a trilogy

I first heard of this book through Youtube where two of my favorite Christian Booktubers had read and recommended it. The plot sounded interesting to me and I have read and enjoyed Middle Grade and YA series co-authored by Jerry B. Jenkins before (The Red Rock Mysteries series, and The Wormling Series, both of which I highly recommend), so the fact that he'd co-authored this one too caught my attention.

The story jumps right into the action from the first page. Sometimes I like it when authors do this, however, this time it was the main reason I took off a star because it had me confused for a while. All I knew was that a girl and her brother were running through the woods for some reason. A gripping way to begin, yes, but even as hints were dropped about what this girl's home life was like, I struggled with how to imagine the setting. Was it modern or historical? Real world or secondary world? I finally got enough information to decide it was a alternate history setting (the characters have access to the Bible and books written by authors from real-world history, but things happened that never happened in our real world: e.g. No king declared that all the 13 year old orphans in his country needed to be eliminated.) However, I felt the story wouldn't have suffered from starting a little earlier on in the main character's day...even a half a chapter earlier would have been enough...just for the sake of setting the stage a little before throwing the reader into the action. Give us a brief glimpse of where she lived before the action started so we know what's being lost before she loses it. That kind of thing.

Once I got enough information to stop being confused, I was able to settle into the story. In fact, I really enjoyed it and thought the concept of all the 13-year-olds of the kingdom having to hide away to keep from being eliminated was very interesting. I liked seeing boys and girls of the same age joining to help and protect each other (There was one girl who was unkind to our main character, but she was the exception, not the norm). Some characters developed crushes on each other and I got the impression that the society in which they live is one where it's not unusual for people to be engaged as children and marry young (Avery was under the impression that a boy and girl were engaged and that was why the girl was being defensive about Avery having any contact with the boy. There was also a point where it seemed one of the boys was suggesting he and Avery should get married.), however, these attractions were not the main point of the story, nor did they overwhelm the main point, and all interactions between boys and girls were chaste and appropriate, so I was fine with it.

The characters were engaging and most were likable, excepting of course the ones who were unkind to others. I liked that not all the characters were open books. Even some of the 13-year-olds had secrets and I look forward to finding out what they are. The action was gripping, and the mystery had me guessing all the way through about why certain things were happening and why certain people were doing certain things. Actually, I'm still guessing about some of those things (though I have theories) because the story ended on a cliffhanger just as it seemed like Avery might discover something important. I'm hoping there *might* be at least a few answers at the beginning of the second book because having it end there just plain wasn't fair. XD

In conclusion, because of an opening that left me confused for longer than I would have preferred, and because the story is not yet complete, I'm giving this book four stars. However, it seems to be shaping up into a 5 star trilogy if the story is handled well, so I'm excited to get the next book when I'm able and eventually finish the trilogy.

Awesome audible

This is awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome I love it it’s amazingly amazing good work

The Glass Castle

This is a book you can get addicted to i almost spent all night long reading this!!!