Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

Starred review from August 18, 2014
High school graduation has already prompted Glory O’Brien to confront the chronic malaise she’s felt since her mother’s suicide 13 years earlier. Then she and Ellie, a friend who lives in a hippie commune across the street, swirl the ashes of a mummified bat (you read that right) into their beers, and both girls begin receiving “transmissions” from everyone they encounter: “We could see the future. We could see the past. We could see everything.” From these visions, Glory learns of a second Civil War, set in motion by misogynistic legislation aimed at preventing women from receiving equal pay for equal work. Writing an account of the events she’s learning about from the transmissions helps Glory see a future for yourself and understand the ways in which her mother’s legacy and her father’s love have shaped her into the thoughtful, mature young woman she is. The bizarre bat-swilling episode recedes, revealing a novel full of provocative ideas and sharply observed thoughts about the pressures society places on teenagers, especially girls. Ages 15–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

Starred review from September 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-King returns with another wholly original work of magical realism. This eerie, provocative title centers on Glory O'Brien, on the verge of graduating high school. Though talented and whip-smart, Glory is an outsider whose social interactions are largely limited to her only friend, Ellie, who lives across the street in a commune, and her father, a one-time painter who's been floundering since the suicide of Glory's mother 12 years earlier. Both girls realize they have the power to see the past-and future-of strangers around them, and Glory slowly understands that an incredibly disturbing, Handmaid's Tale-esque future lies in store, with the rights of women and girls being eroded and a second civil war breaking out. The teen is confronted not only by her future but by the past: she fears that she'll go down the same path as her psychologically unstable mother and begins to learn about a falling-out that took place between her parents and Ellie's years ago. As with works such as Ask the Passengers (2012) and Everybody Sees the Ants (2011, both Little, Brown), King has developed an unusual protagonist, yet one with a distinct and authentic voice. Elevating herself above the pack and imbuing her novel with incredible nuance, King artfully laces themes of disintegrating friendship, feminism, and sexuality into the narrative, as well as some provocative yet subtle commentary on the male gaze and the portrayal of women in our culture. This beautifully strange, entirely memorable book will stay with readers.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
An indictment of our times with a soupcon of magical realism. The daughter of a gifted photographer who spun out Sylvia Plath-style, Glory seems bent on following in her mother's footsteps in more ways than one as she finishes high school. But after Glory and her lifelong frenemy and neighbor Ellie make a reckless late-night decision, they are cast headlong into a spell that allows them to see the pasts and the futures of the people who cross their paths, stretching many generations in both directions, and Glory's life changes course. As with King's other protagonists (Please Ignore Vera Dietz, 2010; Reality Boy, 2013), Glory's narration is simultaneously bitter, prickly, heartbreaking, inwardly witty and utterly familiar, even as the particulars of her predicament are unique. The focus on photography provides both apt metaphors and nimble plot devices as Glory starts writing down her visions in order to warn future Americans about the doom she foresees: a civil war incited by a governmental agenda of misogyny. Glory's chilling visions of the sinister dystopia awaiting the United States are uncomfortably believable in this age of frustrated young men filling "Pickup Artist" forums with misogynistic rhetoric and inexperienced young women filling Tumblrs with declarations of "I don't need feminism because...." With any luck, Glory's notebook will inspire a new wave of activists. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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Starred review from September 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Glory and her best friend, Ellie, drink a bat. They mix its desiccated remains with some warm beer on an impulsive night, and now they see visions of the past and future for everyone they encounter. But Glory's not sure she has a future. She graduated high school with no plans for college, and she's worried that she's doomed to be just like her mom, a talented photographer who killed herself when Glory was only four. The future she sees for others, however, is plagued by misogynistic violence, and when she doesn't see herself or her descendants in any of the visions, she starts rooting around in her mother's darkroom and journals for clues that will help her free herself from a futureless fate. King performs an impressive balancing act here, juggling the magic realism of Glory's visions with her starkly realistic struggle to face her grief, feel engaged with her own life, and learn anything that she can about her mother. Imbuing Glory's narrative with a graceful, sometimes dissonant combination of anger, ambivalence, and hopefulness that resists tidy resolution, award-winning King presents another powerful, moving, and compellingly complex coming-of-age story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2015
Still haunted by her mother's suicide years ago, seventeen-year-old Glory is certain she'll die young, too, and can envision no future for herself. Until, that is, she ingests dessicated bat remains and begins receiving eerie "transmissions" from people around her -- details about and images of their ancestors and/or descendants. The scenes from the future depict a shocking Second Civil War, sparked by rampant institutional misogyny, in which a white-haired Glory is a prominent rebel fighter. Maybe she does have a life ahead of her after all. As in King's Ask the Passengers (rev. 1/13) and Everybody Sees the Ants (rev. 1/12), magical realism serves to broaden the novel's societal critique (of parasitic friendships, dysfunctional families, and anti-feminism), expanding the book's purview and allowing Glory to comment on the past, present, and future. Again, the protagonist is deeply scarred yet buoyed by a wry sense of humor and a thoughtful intelligence; again, mysterious (and fascinating) visions provide the struggling teen with hope and a reason to live. Glory has always gotten crap for being a feminist ("Why did everyone mix up that word so much?") -- but it will make her important to the future uprising; instead of following in her mother's footsteps, she now knows she's destined for a long, and meaningful, life. King's distinctive approach to fashioning a story of adolescent strife results in a book that's not only thoroughly original but also uniquely compelling and deeply memorable. jennifer m. brabander

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)