What readers think of The Glass Castle, plus links to write your own review.

Just finished Glass Castle, it was entertaining, funny and horrifying all at the same time. A page turner, could not put it down. I am surprised that the author cut her parents as much slack as she did but I guess it is true that blood is thicker than water. It demonstrates that one does not have to be a product of their environment. Clearly her parents were brilliant people, but there is a fine line between brilliance and insanity and this book proves it.

I enjoyed this book so much I am having my students read it. I think it is a fascinating perspective on the homeless, and an inspiring story for those who blame their lack of success on bad luck.

Great read, heart-wrenching story with some useful life lessons. I thought it was very believable and applaud Jeanette Walls for having the guts to write her story. What puzzles me though is that there is not more emotion written into the story. Maybe this was by Ms. Walls's design - perhaps we were supposed to be teed up for own emotions to take over versus spoon-fed. Or did Ms. Walls not want to reveal certain aspects of her family's lives to us? Or, could it be that Ms. Walls cannot bear to bring all that pain to the surface to write about it?

I kept wanting to read HOW painful some of those horrific things were, HOW excited she was when something good happened. The other burning questions I have are: WHY were her wacko parents the way they were (obviously there was some serious mental illness and alcoholism -- was it genetic?) What was her mom's family of origin like? We know her dad's situation was pretty dysfunctional. How has this type of upbringing affected the siblings emotionally? There are obviously some positive attributes but there must be quite a bit of emotional scarring that has either been -- or is yet to be -- dealt with.

Overall, I enjoyed Ms. Walls's style of writing. However, it was a little too reporter-like and didn't have enough psycho-analysis. I would definitely recommend it though.