Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Praise for Glory O'Brien's History of the Future:
A 2015 NAIBA Book of the Year (Children's Literature and YA)
A 2015 Andre Norton Award Nominee
A 2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Winner
A 2015 Indie Choice Book Award Honor Book
A Kirkus Best YA Book of 2014
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2014
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2014
A 2015 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book
A Boston Globe Best YA Book of 2014
A 2014 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
A Bookpage Best YA Book of 2014
A Bustle.com Best YA Book of 2014
A Mashable Top 10 YA Book of 2014
A Winter 2014-2015 Kids' Indie Next List Book
A CCBC Choices 2015 List Book* "This beautifully strange, entirely memorable book will stay with readers."—School Library Journal, starred review
*"A novel full of provocative ideas and sharply observed thoughts about the pressures society places on teenagers, especially girls."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "An indictment of our times with a soupçon of magical realism.... Will inspire a new wave of activists."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"King performs an impressive balancing act here, juggling the magic realism of Glory's visions with her starkly realistic struggle.... [A] powerful, moving, and compellingly complex coming-of-age story."—Booklist, starred review
"You won't be able to put down this futuristic story about a girl who starts having visions of both the past and the future-in which she sees an end to women's rights and a civil war between sexes."—Teen Vogue
"Glory is a wry, occasionally acerbic narrator, exhibiting the balance of truth-telling and blindness so common to smart teens. In trademark King style, the chapters alternate between daily life and troubled future, despair and humor, rage and acceptance."—Shelf Awareness
The New York Times Book Review - Rick Yancey
…wickedly clever…King has written a genre-busting battlefield of a book, in which melodrama wars with magic realism and the banal duels with the Big Idea…In the finest absurdist tradition, King stirs dark comedy into the mayhem…Maybe there are writers more adept than King at capturing the outrageous and outraged voice of teenagers, but it's difficult to think of one. Her Glory is a wondrous creation, sarcastic, witty, sensitive, insightful, the kind of girl other girls (O.K., guys too) wish they were…
VOYA, December 2014 (Vol. 37, No. 5) - E.Frank
Seventeen-year-old Glory is about to graduate from high school. She has never been the “popular” type and has avoided most of her peers ever since her mother’s suicide when she was four. In this coming-of-age novel, Glory and her sometimes-best friend/sometimes only friend, Ellie, share the blood of a petrified bat and begin to see everyone’s past and future at the same time. Glory matures, and the world opens up to her, both literally and symbolically. She begins to see things apart from her past, and begins to have hope for the future, despite the dire predictions she sees for the world around her. King has written a teen novel that seems more like a warning for depressed parents in a troubled world. The characters will stay with readers long after they finish the novel, and the lessons and short dialogue produce many quotable life lessons. “Suicide isn’t something people do to hurt other people. It’s something people do to release themselves from pain.” “Everything we see is based on where we’re standing when we see it.” “Not living your life is just like killing yourself, only it takes longer.” Themes of suicide, depression, growing up, and growing apart are all handled seriously around the teen slang in the dialogue. It would be a great discussion starter for a parent/teen book group. This is highly recommended for the way suicide, sex and friendship are handled. Reviewer: E.Frank; Ages 15 to 18.
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