SuitabookThe life of glass
Jillian Cantor
- Reading
- If grief feels close to home, read alongside the book rather than treating it as a problem to solve.
- Themes
- Grief, memory and moving forward: Melissa’s father has died from cancer, and she uses his memories and journal while trying to come to terms with grief. The story presents remembering her father and gradually engaging with the present as meaningful parts of Melissa’s development.
- Beauty and inner worth: Melissa compares her father’s view of deeper beauty with the attention given to appearance around her, including her sister’s beauty-pageant interests. The contrast places greater value on looking beyond appearance, while leaving room for characters to be more complicated than their first impressions.
- Love and changing relationships: Melissa’s friendship with Ryan, Ryan’s interest in Courtney and Melissa’s mother’s new relationship all affect how she thinks about love. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the reader would welcome a story centred on a parent’s death and continuing grief. The book also involves a mother dating again, romantic uncertainty, social comparison and a later tragedy whose nature is not established.