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    Kiss of Broken Glass
    Kiss of Broken Glass
    Kiss of Broken Glass
    Ebook191 pages1 hour

    Kiss of Broken Glass

    By Madeleine Kuderick

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In the next 72 hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for 72 hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.

    When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for a mandatory psychiatric watch. There Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who's there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment.

    Madeleine Kuderick's gripping debut is a darkly beautiful and lyrical novel in verse, perfect for fans of Sonya Sones and Laurie Halse Anderson. Kiss of Broken Glass pulses with emotion and lingers long after the last page.

    Supports the Common Core State Standards

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperTeen
    Release dateSep 9, 2014
    ISBN9780062306586
    Author

    Madeleine Kuderick

    Madeleine Kuderick writes for anthologies and magazines and has spoken at conferences, including the International Reading Association's, where she's an advocate for reluctant readers and the teachers who touch their lives. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida and an MBA from Saint Leo University. Madeleine grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, a community with a rich literary tradition, where she was editor in chief of the same high school newspaper that Ernest Hemingway wrote for as a teen. She now lives on Florida's Gulf Coast with her husband and two children.

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    Reviews for Kiss of Broken Glass

    4/5

    9 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Yeah. Don't feel like doing normal format. Goodreads update style:rating 3.5progress(page 1 of 224)I'm starting Kiss of Broken Glass: Okay... When I requested to begin with, it didn't say anything about being in verse.... But this is a subject close to my heart, so I am trying to go in with open mind, and go ahead and connect with kenna before I beginpage 94.0%"KoBG (title) is tighter than some of the other poetry books I have read. Making it pretty easy for me to follow along and not be confused at what is actually going on. Still not my fave medium but I think I will be finishing"page 146.0%"Wondering what the Baker Act is its been mentioned several times... Said its Florida based. Thank you wikipedia... its an act that allows involuntary psych admission."page 6026.0%"Love her thought patterns and how realistic this book is. Shows how much she craves to cut and that it is something that buries in the mind and takes over life."15066.0%"Flying through. Love the group interaction and her and jag. Nothing major there, but still"page 17578.0%"Peer pressure sucks. It comes out her reasons for starting to cut... And the back of the book where it talks about she didn't have absent parents, no abuse, no sexual assault... Her reasons were different, and I can totally see how she could have felt like she had no other choice. Her friend Rennie took her under wing and helped her be in the popular circle, but its deeper than that."page 21093.0%"I loved the butterfly from another person in the ward. The premise was to draw a butterfly on wrists or where you cut and then name it. Makes it harder with a name to cut there in theory. Never heard of a strategy like that but thought it was beautiful."page 22399.0%"The ending is realistic. The book takes place in a span of 72 hours. So Kenna learned a few skills, and thought more about her reasonings. But there was no magic cure. She is sent home and told that relapse is normal... So we have hope that she has the skills to learn to stop cutting."Overall, enjoyed this. The verse worked for me here and I came away feeling emotional but sense of hope.Bottom Line: Surprised me that I connected to a main character in a book told in verse.
    • 5/5
      Kenna is Bakered Acted–after being found deliberately cutting herself in the school bathroom she isKissOfBrokenGlass sent for psychiatric evaluation for 72 hours at Adler Boyce Pediatric Stabilization Facility, aka Attaboy,In this novel-in-verse, Kenna describes her roommate, Donya, rail thin Skylar and cute Jag, both patients and several doctors and nurses. She describes how she started cutting to fit in, always feeling less loved by her mother than her perfect sister Avery. She describes her love for her little brother, Sean. She details why another student, Tara, turned her in to the principal…not necessarily for altruistic reasons.Kiss of Broken Glass is a compelling novel, in part because it is well written. While not graphic, it gets its point across, the beginnings of cutting, the need to keep doing it, that fact that three days at Attaboy isn’t going to change much…but then again it might be a small start.The second reason Kiss of Broken Glass is compelling is that it is written from personal experience. In the Author’s Note, Ms. Kiderick tells readers that her daughter was a cutter, exposed to this as early as sixth grade, a statistic I don’t want to even contemplate. Her daughter was caught and as she says “involuntarily committed under Florida’s Baker Act.”Cut by Patricia McCormick was the first book I read on cutting and quite the book it was. It may very well set the standard by which other books are judged. However, since then there is Scars by Cheryl Rainfield, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and now Kiss of Broken Glass, which certainly holds its own on this topic
    • 3/5
      Having just finished reading recently, Ghosting by Edith Pattou, I was familiar with the verse writing. Which I am slowly coming around to liking this style of writing. The only downside to this style of writing is that if the characters in the story are not strong enough, then it can leave me unattached to them. Which kind of happened with this book. I was not fully invested with all of the characters. Although, I did find it intriguing on all the different reasons why people hurt themselves. It is sad and people need to be able to get help when they need it. Thank goodness for authors like Madeleine who are not afraid to write about these subject matters and help bring light to this serious topic.
    • 4/5
      I received this free eARC in exchange for my honest review. When I first got this book, I wasn't sure what I was walking into. Sure it was about a girl cutting herself. But the way the author wrote this as if she actually knew what was going on? How it felt? How addicting it was? That blew my mind. No, I've never done this before, nor do I want to ever in the future. The way Kenna couldn't stop thinking about it, wanting to do it all of the time, the way she would get a horrible urge to find ANYTHING to cut, it definitely showed me that this is an addiction and not just something people do for fun. I was also shocked to see that it was in verse writing. I'm usually really horrible at reading books that are written this way, but the writing was phenomenal and I was able to read it like any book rather than a poem. To say I was surprised by this book is an understatement. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. And I definitely didn't think I would like Kenna, but somehow I did like her in the end. This book makes the reader think a lot, and think hard, about this subject. I know I won't forget it any time soon.
    • 5/5
      Find this review and more at On The Shelf!I have read only two other books written in verse, but I have found I do enjoy the ones have read and look forward to reading more.Kiss of Broken Glass deals with a hard topic – cutting – and what could drive a person to do it. I found Kenna to be very realistic and tortured, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself. Through Kenna we learn about the drive and ache of her addiction to self harm and the author does a great job of making us feel that need right along with Kenna. The book spans only 72 hours, but in that short period, things become very eye opening. The book was an incredibly fast read, but it was also powerful.The few characters we meet during the commitment weren’t around very long, but they each had their own special impact on Kenna. I especially liked Skylar and her honesty. She was very open about everything and I think that helped Kenna be more honest with herself. Donia was ok, but she was also someone who wanted to help Kenna keep cutting and didn’t seem like someone much into quitting self harm. I didn’t get to know Jag too well, but the little bit I did see of him I did like him.I definitely enjoyed this book and look forward to more work from this author!Well written, powerful, fast read, really puts you in the main character’s shoes.
    • 3/5
      This short book covered the seventy-two hours that Kenna was in rehab after being caught cutting herself at school. I must admit, I winced at her descriptions of self-cutting and the relief it brought her. It also horrified me that she made her first cut because of peer pressure and her desperate desire to 'fit in' until it became an addiction. Sadly, I think many young people could relate to this and sympathise with Kenna's flaws and insecurities. The fact that cutting, and the resulting scars, became a competition between Kenna and her friends was appalling. I also hated how Kenna felt unloved at home.My one gripe about this story would be the romance. I didn't think it was necessary. It detracted from the series issues and never felt real. Instead, I would have liked the author just to focus on Kenna, Skylar and Donya, and their struggles, hopes and developing friendship. In fact, I thought Skylar was the nicest character in the book and definitely my favourite. her poems were poignant and I loved the idea of the sharpie butterflies.Overall, "Kiss of Broken Glass" was a raw, honest read and a solid debut.
    • 4/5
      I think verse novel was a powerful way to write about the subject of cutting. The words are so carefully chosen and richly express the story. I learnt about the Florida Baker Act that allows for the involuntary detention of individuals to assess their mental health. Kenna finds herself in one of these facilities for 72 hours, the time period that the novel is set in. The characters hold back from speaking the truth about their feelings, they play it safe and say all the right things. As a reader it feels like a privilege to be able to know what is really going on for them. It reminds me there is always more to a person' s behaviour, and my response to it can be positive or negative. Kenna and the people we meet in the story have been hurt, whether physically or emotionally. It is not overdramatised but the effects are manifested in the destructive behaviour they undertake. I felt the ending allowed for hope. It intimates that the road to recovery starts with yourself despite the circumstances you are in.The content was sobering but I loved the writing. A literary feast. Highly recommended.

    Book preview

    Kiss of Broken Glass - Madeleine Kuderick

    Tuesday 3:22 p.m.

    So here’s the thing about being Baker Acted.

    You lose everything—

    your belt,

    your shoelaces,

    the perfume bottles in your purse.

    They take it all away in the emergency room

    and make you sit in the aisle with a box of Kleenex

    and a gown that doesn’t close in the back.

    There’s nothing to do except watch the clock

    on the wall and wonder how pissed your mom’s

    gonna be when she gets there.

    Tick.

    Tick.

    Tick.

    A cop guards you the whole time,

    picks his teeth with a toothpick,

    scratches his dandruff,

    stares at you like a real creeper.

    He talks about you too,

    like you’re not even there.

    To the nurses and orderlies.

    They caught her in the school bathroom, he says,

    using a blade from her pencil sharpener.

    A Pruned-up Old Nurse Comes Over

    She looks at your wrists and ankles

    and the places high on your hips

    where it’s easy to hide the dark cut lines

    even when you’re wearing short-shorts.

    She’s holding a sheet of paper,

    with an outline on it,

    like a paper doll with no clothes.

    She marks up the paper doll

    with her fine-point Sharpie,

    across the wrists,

    through the ankles,

    on each hip.

    Slash.

    Slash.

    Slash.

    You watch that nurse,

    and while you’re watching

    you wish a thousand times

    that you’d just waited till you got home

    instead of doing it at school where that

    Two-Face Tara caught you by the sink—

    red drops running down the drain.

    You think about the tap of Tara’s heels

    as she ran to get Mr. Lane and the whoosh

    of the bathroom door as he shoved it open wide,

    and the look on faces peeking from the hallway—

    smirking,

    mouthing,

    busted!

    And Here’s the Other Thing

    You Need to Know about the Baker Act

    Even if

    the principal promises

    you’ll be home before dinner—

    Even if

    the guidance counselor says

    they’ll release you right after the ER—

    Even if

    your teary-eyed mother rushes in

    and begs the doctor not to admit you—

    She’s only fifteen for heaven’s sake!

    It doesn’t matter.

    You’re not going anywhere.

    They’re gonna lock you up

    in a psych ward

    for 72 hours.

    On My Way to the Ward

    Creeper clamps his hand on my elbow,

    and it feels rough and prickly as steel wool.

    He swipes his badge through keyless locks

    and steers me down a pale green hall

    where everything smells like fake pine,

    and the lights that flicker all look gray.

    Then we stop.

    It takes half a century for the elevator

    doors to open and the whole time we’re

    waiting I have to lean away so Creeper’s

    disgusting chunks of dandruff don’t

    flake off on me.

    Inside the elevator it’s smaller than a

    coffin, and even though I’ve never been

    claustrophobic before, this torpedo of

    panic launches in my chest and I try to

    yank my arm away and say,

    Get your freaking hands off me!

    But instead, this stupid sob spills out

    and a tear rolls down my cheek,

    and there’s nothing I can do but

    stand there in that flimsy gown

    with all my feelings hanging out.

    When the Door Opens

    I see a sign overhead:

    Adler Boyce Pediatric Stabilization Facility.

    Someone’s scribbled on the wall:

    Attaboys Prehistoric Sycho Farm

    Creeper pushes an intercom button.

    New patient, he grunts. Kenna Keagan.

    An old woman comes out,

    white hair in a bun,

    lips tight,

    shoulders stiff.

    She nods at Creeper

    and signs for me on the dotted line

    like I’m a package being delivered by UPS.

    Then

    I step into the ward.

    I thought it was gonna look like jail inside,

    with steel bars and silver toilets.

    But it doesn’t.

    It’s all rainbows and angelfish instead,

    painted on the turquoise walls,

    glued to the ceiling,

    just like kindergarten.

    And right away I think,

    it’s a good thing Avery can’t see me now.

    This is just the kind of thing my older sister

    likes to shove in my face to prove that she’s superior.

    That—

    and the way she looks like

    a runway model even in sweatpants.

    That—

    and the fact she aces every test

    with her freakazoid memory.

    That—

    and the promise that someday

    she’ll score 2,400 on her SAT,

    go to Harvard,

    and win the Miss Universe Pageant,

    while I stay home and scoop out

    my basic B existence

    like the plain vanilla,

    no topping,

    community-college material

    that I am.

    But I Guess that Figures

    Because Avery’s only my half sister.

    Her dad was some kind of med-school prodigy

    who graduated from Johns Hopkins

    and probably would’ve discovered

    the cure for cancer if he hadn’t died.

    My dad’s just the backup dad.

    The one Mom married afterward

    so she wouldn’t lose the house on Long Boat Key.

    He’s an accountant for PwC, which means

    he makes good money doing boring stuff

    and is hardly ever home.

    But I remember this one time

    when Dad’s client was in Chicago,

    he took me and my little brother, Sean, with him

    to the top of the Sears Tower—103 floors up.

    We climbed into this solid glass skybox

    and Sean giggled and danced on the invisible floor.

    Look at me, he shouted. I’m walking on air!

    And for a minute, I felt like I was too.

    We gazed out over the city

    where the blue sky meets Lake Michigan

    and the sun reflects between buildings

    like a cat’s cradle of light.

    Then my dad knelt down

    and pointed toward Lakeshore Drive

    and I wanted so badly for him to say,

    "See that building?

    The one over there?

    That’s our new home.

    Just for me and you and Sean."

    Then we’d be so overjoyed

    we’d turn into kites

    and we’d glide down 1,353 feet

    into our new lives.

    But that’s not what happened.

    Instead

    Dad muttered something like,

    Too bad your mother and Avery missed this.

    Then

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