You know that feeling when you’re so overtired you don’t know your own thoughts? Imagine that feeling magnified: that’s what it’s like to be in the head of Emma Glass’ protagonist in this short novel about a pediatric nurse in an abusive relationship who’s being worked to the brink.
The periple through Glass’ Laura is wayward, to say the least; it’s hard to know, sometimes, what is reality and what is fantasy. Her descriptions of fatigue are so well-wrought that I wouldn’t have minded her stepping back from what seem to be almost psychotic hallucinations, things that may be there but may not be. What is there is so powerful and poignant that these brushes with speculative elements take me out of the claustrophobic narrative, breaking the tension in a way that, with such a short novel, I do not need.
One of Glass’ major strengths is her innate knowledge of the pediatric nursing world of the NHS. Working as a pediatric nurse herself, Glass is able to provide a true glimpse at this world. One can only imagine that Laura’s own struggles with overworking and fatigue are ones shared by countless nurses in the UK and around the world. While this is not necessarily a moralistic book, it does inspire the reader to identify with just how difficult this essential profession is, and in a world where the pandemic still looms, it’s a reckoning even more poignant and palpable.
This book is difficult to recommend; it certainly isn’t for everyone. But as a study in perspective and narration, it is masterful.