I thought the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls was a remarkable book. When I first read the back cover, I thought it would be boring and slow, but I was wrong. I also never liked nonfiction books so I was a little skeptical before I started reading, but turns out, I quite liked it! When you start reading, you couldn’t believe that this has actually happened to someone. I liked how the beginning of the book started out as the present, then moved back to the past and worked it up all the way to the present again. You can’t even imagine what her and her siblings have gone through, and it’s just amazing being able to read someone’s deepest thoughts and memories.

I thought this book was a pretty easy read, I got through it in about a day and I thought the book moved really fast- which I liked. Sometimes it felt like you were reading a fiction book, because I honestly could not even imagine living like that. It made me feel like I was taking life for granted because Walls was hungry at lunch, and dug through trashcans for food, while I threw away my sandwich because I didn’t like mayonnaise or something.

This book made me hate her parents. Her mom didn’t care about anything but herself, and her dad was a drunk. I guess I wouldn’t understand because my parents are nothing like that, but how could she still love her parents for everything they put her through? I thought some parts of the book were a little too personal- but that’s what made it even more realistic and horrifying. Every single feeling she felt, I felt. And I just couldn’t help myself for feeling bad for her and her siblings. I know she’s rich and successful now, but if I had the same life she did, I would probably be dead by now.

I’ve never read a memoir before this book, so this was a whole new experience for me and I really liked it! I would recommend this book to almost anyone. I think it should be 13+ because of some of the language and how intimate it gets into her personal life. But this book grabs your attention and makes you keep reading. You want to know what’s going to happen to her life next, and you want to know all the details of everything that’s happening to her even if they’re good or bad. Even though the book was fast-paced it still got a little boring. The same things happened to her, until the end. Nonetheless, I still loved this book and would love to read another novel by Jeannette Walls.