By Jessica Anthony, Rodrigo Corral
Pub Date: Feb 2012
After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As we flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, we see a girl on the precipice of disaster. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to an artistic new boy, Frank, who moves in next door. The farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness. Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song "Chopsticks."
But nothing is what it seems, and Glory's reality is not reality at all. In this stunningly moving novel told in photographs, pictures, and words, it's up to the reader to decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along...
My Rating:
My Thoughts:
This book is told through pictures, Instant Messages, and there are even links to different videos as well. It's a book that you fly through, and then feel dumbfounded by the ending. I ended up flipping back through the pages and had to even look up some discussions of the book online before it really made since to me. On the back of the book it says, "But nothing is what it seems. And we must decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along..."
I recommend this book if you are a fan of picture books and definitely if you're a fan of psychology. I don't want to say too much. Just check this out from the library or spend a half hour at a bookstore and read through this. Definitely an interesting read that makes you think!
The rest of this review is going to contain spoilers, so only continue reading if you have read the book please!
The open ending is pretty frustrating. From what I can gather from other reviews, not many people can figure out where Glory went.
Most people, like myself, agree that after Glory's mother died, around two years later, she is put in a facility called the Golden Hands Rest Facility. Throughout the book Glory's mental state declines and by the end I believe she might be schizophrenic. She has basically made up Frank Mendoza in her mind from the wine bottle called Franciso de Mendoza from Argentina (which is where she said that Frank was from.) We see a painting of a flower towards the first half of the book that was apparently by Frank, however, we see Glory painting it towards the end of the book. We also see a bunch of pictures and drawings on a wall that we assume are Franks as well, but if you look in the corner you can actually see Glory's name. She made up Franks school to match the same stationary as the ones for the Golden Hands Rest Facility where she lives. She heard a boxing match where Sergio "The Marvel" Martinez was fighting. Then, the next page she is sewing the letters to her robe which was supposed to be his towards the beginning of the story, I believe. There's more connections than I've listed, and I'm sure that every time you flip through this book you will find more. The ending is, of course, up for discussion and many other parts of the story are ambiguous as well.
Over all this was interesting and makes you think, I'll give it that.
No comments:
Post a Comment