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Menzies Mental Health #1
The Glass House
Welcome to The Menzies. Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Amongst unrelenting hours, hospital politics, fraught relationships and new friendships, Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, navigating the conflicting practice of her boss, Nash, who puts his faith in pharmaceuticals, and his boss, Professor Gordon, who takes the Freudian line. Meanwhile, the new manager thinks they're all part of the problem.
Hannah and her fellow trainees are dealing with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has life-threatening anorexia nervosa; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
Amongst unrelenting hours, hospital politics, fraught relationships and new friendships, Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, navigating the conflicting practice of her boss, Nash, who puts his faith in pharmaceuticals, and his boss, Professor Gordon, who takes the Freudian line. Meanwhile, the new manager thinks they're all part of the problem.
Hannah and her fellow trainees are dealing with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has life-threatening anorexia nervosa; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 27, 2024
339 people are currently reading
4149 people want to read
About the author
Anne Buist
16 books156 followersAnne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry. She works with Protective Services and the legal system in cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder. Medea’s Curse is her first mainstream psychological thriller.
Professor Buist is married to novelist Graeme Simsion and has two children.
Professor Buist is married to novelist Graeme Simsion and has two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 404 reviews
March 24, 2024
When I started this book I was not sure at all what I had got myself into. There were so many characters to meet and sort out in my mind plus the writing style is unusual. Hard to describe but it seems to roll onwards all the time like a train, with no obvious places to stop and get off. Pretty soon though I had no desire to stop because it became totally gripping.
The scene is a psychiatric ward in a major hospital, peopled with trainees like Hannah, bosses with attitude, specialists with widely diverging ideas on treatment practices and a stream of patients with very sad issues. Sadly the whole profession does not come out of this very well, largely because it is a field where results are not clean cut and occasionally not even possible. It seems to be an area where guidelines are constantly changing as methods evolve which causes much debate over how to treat each individual.
We follow some of the patients from just prior to their arrival in the psych ward to what happens after they leave. There is hope for some, not for others. It is realistic, no idealism here. The Butterfly Foundation does provide some hope, as does the quality of some of the doctors and the efforts they go to.
I was totally absorbed by each patient and the events surrounding them, loved the clinical sessions and really enjoyed Hannah and her fellow trainees. The author has all the right qualifications to write this book and she has done it brilliantly. Five stars.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
The scene is a psychiatric ward in a major hospital, peopled with trainees like Hannah, bosses with attitude, specialists with widely diverging ideas on treatment practices and a stream of patients with very sad issues. Sadly the whole profession does not come out of this very well, largely because it is a field where results are not clean cut and occasionally not even possible. It seems to be an area where guidelines are constantly changing as methods evolve which causes much debate over how to treat each individual.
We follow some of the patients from just prior to their arrival in the psych ward to what happens after they leave. There is hope for some, not for others. It is realistic, no idealism here. The Butterfly Foundation does provide some hope, as does the quality of some of the doctors and the efforts they go to.
I was totally absorbed by each patient and the events surrounding them, loved the clinical sessions and really enjoyed Hannah and her fellow trainees. The author has all the right qualifications to write this book and she has done it brilliantly. Five stars.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
January 24, 2025
EXCERPT: It's an unremarkable Victorian terrace in an inner suburb of Melbourne. Only the closed curtains on a summer morning suggest that anything is amiss.
Behind them, the open living space is in disarray. Household items are scattered on the floor: cooking pots, cleaning products, a baby's rattle. But there has been method in their placement. Below the sink, three rows of tinned food mark the start of a trail that runs to the front door: literal stumbling blocks for an intruder who wanted to take the shortest route to the kitchen bench.
A woman - small, dark-haired and visibly agitated - enters from the back garden in her dressing-gown, carrying a pot plant. She deposits it in the hallway outside the nursery, then fetches a stool from the kitchen. She climbs up with the plant and balances it on top of the door.
A laugh - unnatural, fractured - escapes her. It's partly the image of the booby-trap going off, partly a perverse satisfaction that they've chosen the wrong woman to mess with and, perhaps, the only way her mind can deal with what she has to do next.
Back in the kitchen, the baby carrier is sitting on the bench. Matilda was crying all night and now she's crying again. Sian pulls a kitchen knife from the block.
ABOUT 'THE GLASS HOUSE': Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
MY THOUGHTS: I started The Glass House not knowing what to expect, but I am thoroughly impressed by its realism and honesty. Having worked in the mental health field for a number of years as a psychiatric nurse, I know there is no one answer, no guarantees and, especially when a patient is being discharged back into the same circumstances they were admitted from, often precious little hope.
For me, The Glass House was like a trip down memory lane. The infighting and one-upmanship so prevalent amongst the consultants, each with their own pet therapies they prefer and push, and their favored staff members. Other staff are either berated or ignored.
Psychiatric medicine is not a case of one size (or treatment) fits all, and this is well-illustrated in The Glass House. Each case is unique - no two minds work the same even given the same set of circumstances.
I liked the format of this book. Each chapter starts with a biopic of a psychiatric crisis prior to the patient's admission to hospital. Then we are privy to the patient's journey accompanied by one member, or sometimes more, of the diverse staff on the psych ward.
Hannah Wright, Psychiatric Registrar, is our main character. As so often is the case in this profession, she has a trauma in her background, and it is this that led her to her choice of career path. But at the same time, she is having a crisis of faith in herself. Is psychiatry the right path for her? Or should she return to general medicine where she knows with certainty that she can save lives?
Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion have written an honest and engaging novel, a book with both wit and wisdom and one that eloquently illustrates just how frail and how strong humans are. I look forward to reading more from this couple. The Glass House has a permanent place on my 'forever' shelf.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
#TheGlassHouse #NetGalley
MEET THE AUTHORS: Anne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry. She works with Protective Services and the legal system in cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder.
Professor Buist is married to novelist Graeme Simsion and has two children.
Graeme Simsion lives in Melbourne with Anne, and is a frequent traveller, walker, jogger, and drinker of wine and cocktails. He is active in amplifying autistic voices through books, events and social media and has spoken at autism conferences and seminars.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hachette Australia & New Zealand via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Glass House by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Behind them, the open living space is in disarray. Household items are scattered on the floor: cooking pots, cleaning products, a baby's rattle. But there has been method in their placement. Below the sink, three rows of tinned food mark the start of a trail that runs to the front door: literal stumbling blocks for an intruder who wanted to take the shortest route to the kitchen bench.
A woman - small, dark-haired and visibly agitated - enters from the back garden in her dressing-gown, carrying a pot plant. She deposits it in the hallway outside the nursery, then fetches a stool from the kitchen. She climbs up with the plant and balances it on top of the door.
A laugh - unnatural, fractured - escapes her. It's partly the image of the booby-trap going off, partly a perverse satisfaction that they've chosen the wrong woman to mess with and, perhaps, the only way her mind can deal with what she has to do next.
Back in the kitchen, the baby carrier is sitting on the bench. Matilda was crying all night and now she's crying again. Sian pulls a kitchen knife from the block.
ABOUT 'THE GLASS HOUSE': Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
MY THOUGHTS: I started The Glass House not knowing what to expect, but I am thoroughly impressed by its realism and honesty. Having worked in the mental health field for a number of years as a psychiatric nurse, I know there is no one answer, no guarantees and, especially when a patient is being discharged back into the same circumstances they were admitted from, often precious little hope.
For me, The Glass House was like a trip down memory lane. The infighting and one-upmanship so prevalent amongst the consultants, each with their own pet therapies they prefer and push, and their favored staff members. Other staff are either berated or ignored.
Psychiatric medicine is not a case of one size (or treatment) fits all, and this is well-illustrated in The Glass House. Each case is unique - no two minds work the same even given the same set of circumstances.
I liked the format of this book. Each chapter starts with a biopic of a psychiatric crisis prior to the patient's admission to hospital. Then we are privy to the patient's journey accompanied by one member, or sometimes more, of the diverse staff on the psych ward.
Hannah Wright, Psychiatric Registrar, is our main character. As so often is the case in this profession, she has a trauma in her background, and it is this that led her to her choice of career path. But at the same time, she is having a crisis of faith in herself. Is psychiatry the right path for her? Or should she return to general medicine where she knows with certainty that she can save lives?
Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion have written an honest and engaging novel, a book with both wit and wisdom and one that eloquently illustrates just how frail and how strong humans are. I look forward to reading more from this couple. The Glass House has a permanent place on my 'forever' shelf.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
#TheGlassHouse #NetGalley
MEET THE AUTHORS: Anne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry. She works with Protective Services and the legal system in cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder.
Professor Buist is married to novelist Graeme Simsion and has two children.
Graeme Simsion lives in Melbourne with Anne, and is a frequent traveller, walker, jogger, and drinker of wine and cocktails. He is active in amplifying autistic voices through books, events and social media and has spoken at autism conferences and seminars.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hachette Australia & New Zealand via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Glass House by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
April 15, 2024
The Glass House takes place in the Psychiatry Unit of the fictional Menzies Mental Health Services clinic in Melbourne. The book was written by Aussie authors Anne Buist and her husband, Graeme Simsion. Some will know Simsion from his “Rosie” novels—The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, and The Rosie Result. Aside from writing books, Buist is also a researcher and practising psychiatrist, specialising in women's mental health. Therefore, she knows of what she speaks writes! I learned today that The Glass House is just the first in a planned series about “Menzies Mental Health Services”.
The book follows four ‘Registrars’ (equivalent to ‘Residents’ in Canada and the U.S.) doing 2-year specialty rotations prior to acceptance into the training programs of their choice. Each has been assigned eight patients, and it’s these very interesting, even shocking, cases that are behind the episodic structure of the story.
Traditionally, psychiatry trainees are expected to undergo therapy themselves, and the four registrars—two men and two women in their late 20s—certainly have their share of issues, as we all do. But our main protagonist, Dr. Hannah Wright, has been burying a deeply-traumatising event for years. In fact, her entire family was traumatised, yet not a single one has wanted to deal with it—or even speak of it—all these years.
I think every reader will learn a little something from this book—and maybe a LOT! It’s a fascinating story that’s extremely relatable. And although some may find bits of it difficult to read, there are many lighter moments, as well. Simsion is known for his comedic storytelling, and I expect his contribution to the book was exactly that. Very Highly Recommended!
4.5 “Mistakes-prove-we’re-trying” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The book follows four ‘Registrars’ (equivalent to ‘Residents’ in Canada and the U.S.) doing 2-year specialty rotations prior to acceptance into the training programs of their choice. Each has been assigned eight patients, and it’s these very interesting, even shocking, cases that are behind the episodic structure of the story.
Traditionally, psychiatry trainees are expected to undergo therapy themselves, and the four registrars—two men and two women in their late 20s—certainly have their share of issues, as we all do. But our main protagonist, Dr. Hannah Wright, has been burying a deeply-traumatising event for years. In fact, her entire family was traumatised, yet not a single one has wanted to deal with it—or even speak of it—all these years.
I think every reader will learn a little something from this book—and maybe a LOT! It’s a fascinating story that’s extremely relatable. And although some may find bits of it difficult to read, there are many lighter moments, as well. Simsion is known for his comedic storytelling, and I expect his contribution to the book was exactly that. Very Highly Recommended!
4.5 “Mistakes-prove-we’re-trying” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
January 6, 2024
My Rating: 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ not blow you out of space 5stars but I really enjoyed the writing and characters!!
Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, thought she had seen everything in the Emergency Room… that is until she joins the team at Menzies Hospital in the psychiatric ward. Hannah is a country girl who has trauma in her own past that she is dealing with… or avoiding dealing with.
The Glass House is full of characters and not all of them are the patients. Hannah and her coworkers are dealing with the bizarre, the devastating, the hilarious and just plain weird sides to mental health. All each trying to find their own place in the world, dealing with their own trauma and their own issues.
So… this is my first book of the year and you can see that I am kicking off with five stars. I would like to very upfront say that anyone who reads my reviews for the thrillers will not find that here. This is a lit fic book and very character driven. It wont be for everyone and even if it is for you it might not be five stars. I have taken a week to think about my review and for me the more I think about this book the more I liked it.
It is set in Australia (I am Australian), and while I normally avoid Australian novels just because I like to get away in books… I think this one worked so well for me because it was centred around Mental Health, and the system we have here in Australia. The author is an Australian psychiatrist as well and she knows her stuff. You can tell this stuff is based of lived experience and having had some lived experience (different to the author) myself it was all very accurate and familiar. I really liked how raw and real it was.
I liked the characters… there was no one that blew me away but again this book wasn’t intended (in my opinion) to do that… but they each had a part to play. The writing is very nuanced… sometimes you don’t know why or what you are reading about … until you realise the author has tied it in so nicely that you may not have even noticed that you didn’t quite know what was going on initially. I liked not having my hand held especially for a topic that is so easily misunderstood… it would have been easy for the author to spew out medical jargon and do a play by play of this is this and this means that… but she didn’t have to at all. Her writing style allowed us to follow along in the stories that presented themselves and at all times I knew where it was going… or I found out.
Something that I liked but others may not is that there is no definitive ending to this novel, for me that makes sense, because it wasn’t over… it will never be over. It is the days in the lives of the workers, the patients and the families of those working and living with mental health… that doesn’t end. What I did love and wasn’t expecting was the tie in that the author managed to do with all the cases… I won’t go into it in depth because it will ruin it for those that wish to read it but… I really enjoyed how it very subtlety showed us what was going on throughout the book that we as the reader would and could not have been aware of… that was actually my favourite part.
I liked Hannah, and that she like all of us is flawed… and that she haunted in her own right and own way by the things that she carries with her in her life. Each of the characters have their own thing… and we learn about them throughout. I also like the authors inclusivity, there were characters from other cultures, minority groups and walks of life, all of which I felt were really well represented and written but it also wasn’t shoved in our face and explained to us in a condescending way… I enjoyed reading about their lives and struggles without it being because I’m XYZ… or because I’m from here or there… it was all very clear why these things were a very real and raw issue but you didn’t have the author shoving her own agenda down our throats it was a very nice way to represent and include people.
Overall, I think if you like Lit Fic and the subject matter is interesting to you give it a go. It is very well written I really enjoyed it. Far more than I was expecting to… I certainly didn’t go into this thinking it would be a 5 star read… but I actually was quite disappointed when it ended although I think it ended the best way it could have. I will be going and looking for more work by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Hackett Australia for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, thought she had seen everything in the Emergency Room… that is until she joins the team at Menzies Hospital in the psychiatric ward. Hannah is a country girl who has trauma in her own past that she is dealing with… or avoiding dealing with.
The Glass House is full of characters and not all of them are the patients. Hannah and her coworkers are dealing with the bizarre, the devastating, the hilarious and just plain weird sides to mental health. All each trying to find their own place in the world, dealing with their own trauma and their own issues.
So… this is my first book of the year and you can see that I am kicking off with five stars. I would like to very upfront say that anyone who reads my reviews for the thrillers will not find that here. This is a lit fic book and very character driven. It wont be for everyone and even if it is for you it might not be five stars. I have taken a week to think about my review and for me the more I think about this book the more I liked it.
It is set in Australia (I am Australian), and while I normally avoid Australian novels just because I like to get away in books… I think this one worked so well for me because it was centred around Mental Health, and the system we have here in Australia. The author is an Australian psychiatrist as well and she knows her stuff. You can tell this stuff is based of lived experience and having had some lived experience (different to the author) myself it was all very accurate and familiar. I really liked how raw and real it was.
I liked the characters… there was no one that blew me away but again this book wasn’t intended (in my opinion) to do that… but they each had a part to play. The writing is very nuanced… sometimes you don’t know why or what you are reading about … until you realise the author has tied it in so nicely that you may not have even noticed that you didn’t quite know what was going on initially. I liked not having my hand held especially for a topic that is so easily misunderstood… it would have been easy for the author to spew out medical jargon and do a play by play of this is this and this means that… but she didn’t have to at all. Her writing style allowed us to follow along in the stories that presented themselves and at all times I knew where it was going… or I found out.
Something that I liked but others may not is that there is no definitive ending to this novel, for me that makes sense, because it wasn’t over… it will never be over. It is the days in the lives of the workers, the patients and the families of those working and living with mental health… that doesn’t end. What I did love and wasn’t expecting was the tie in that the author managed to do with all the cases… I won’t go into it in depth because it will ruin it for those that wish to read it but… I really enjoyed how it very subtlety showed us what was going on throughout the book that we as the reader would and could not have been aware of… that was actually my favourite part.
I liked Hannah, and that she like all of us is flawed… and that she haunted in her own right and own way by the things that she carries with her in her life. Each of the characters have their own thing… and we learn about them throughout. I also like the authors inclusivity, there were characters from other cultures, minority groups and walks of life, all of which I felt were really well represented and written but it also wasn’t shoved in our face and explained to us in a condescending way… I enjoyed reading about their lives and struggles without it being because I’m XYZ… or because I’m from here or there… it was all very clear why these things were a very real and raw issue but you didn’t have the author shoving her own agenda down our throats it was a very nice way to represent and include people.
Overall, I think if you like Lit Fic and the subject matter is interesting to you give it a go. It is very well written I really enjoyed it. Far more than I was expecting to… I certainly didn’t go into this thinking it would be a 5 star read… but I actually was quite disappointed when it ended although I think it ended the best way it could have. I will be going and looking for more work by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Hackett Australia for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 12, 2024
Really underwhelmed by this, it felt very disjointed and had too many characters in my opinion. I’d have preferred less characters and a deeper look into their stories, I don’t feel like I connected with anyone in the book because of this. Also don’t find out what happens with most of them which was annoying.
December 26, 2023
“Our patients’ problems are so complex, our treatments so crude, ourselves so human.”
The Glass House is the third novel by husband and wife writing team, Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. After three months as registrar on the Acute Psychiatric ward of the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne, twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Wright is hoping she will be able to mitigate the effects of the incident that led Professor Liron Gordon to reject her entry into the hospital’s psychiatric training program.
She has six months to impress, while treating the wide variety of admissions: pregnancy psychosis, suicide attempts, manic depressive, religious delusions, schizophrenic, histrionic personality disorder, anorexia nervosa, and PTSD; some are heart-breaking, some, like the manic, comical, although a colleague notes ”On the surface, he’s entertaining. Underneath, he’s battling a life-threatening illness”, one or two, professionally satisfying, and a few are sobering, serving as a warning: “All of us are at risk of mental illness. It can happen to any of us, out of the blue.”
Against a (sometimes distracting) background of power plays between her boss and the hospital’s new Director of Mental Health, well-meaning interventions by Child Protection, and patients’ family members with their own agenda, Hannah does manage to save some lives with a combination of training, past experience, luck, and intuition.
Well aware that she’s often seeing patients at a low ebb in their lives, Hannah tries to imagine them at their best, until another registrar points out that putting herself in their shoes, as well as assessing her patients more holistically, might prove more helpful or effective. And, of course, it’s a team effort that involves consultant psychiatrists, trainees, interns, nurses, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and the occasional student.
Hannah soon sees the value of the psych nurses’ input: “Increasingly, I’m trusting his take, and that of the other experienced nurses, on my patients. They spend more time with them than I do; I seem always to be on the phone to relatives, pathology or other hospitals and doctors. Not to mention doing paperwork.” And the time trap that paperwork is: “‘Time spent on accountability,’ Nash says, ‘is time spent away from patients. Someone should be accountable for that.’”
Discussion with her fellow registrars is always valuable for the sake of perspective. With the anorexia case, they acknowledge the associated stigma: “Would we say the same if it was sixteen admissions for asthma?’ A friend from school spent eighteen months in hospital after a motorcycle accident. We do think differently about mental illness.” More generally, they recognise the need do their best and then, if they are to survive, to detach, because “our patients will do what they will, we’re only a small factor in it.” Hannah examines the reasons she opted for this profession and certain incidents lead her to doubt her choice.
The cases that Buist gives her protagonist are intriguing and it becomes apparent that often there is no simple answer, that a mix of therapies might get the best result, or that it may require the right intervention at the right time; that the best result might not be wholly satisfactory and likely far from perfect.
Buist gives some of her characters insightful observations: “It’s tough to have your mistakes pointed out in public, and, god knows, we all make them. Review and criticism is part of every job. It can’t happen if there’s a culture of fear and humiliation – or schadenfreude”. Also “There’s a lot of pressure to treat what’s seen as urgent, and tangible. Obstetrics, blindness, drug abuse, plain life expectancy . . . plenty of work to do. Psychiatry’s seen as a luxury, as the medicine you do after everything else… Yet depression is one of the leading killers.”
This is also a novel that reminds us that those practitioners charged with the treatment of the ill and vulnerable are themselves human, and despite thorough training and expertise, may be plagued by very human flaws and failings, and their perceptions, attitudes and reactions to their patients’ presenting symptoms may be coloured by their own history.
Most chapters are prefaced by a description of the episode that results in the admission of a patient into the Acute Psych ward. The banter between the characters is often entertaining, and some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud, if blackly, funny. Of course, Buist’s background gives each aspect of the story a ring of authenticity, so this portrayal of mental illness and its treatment, and of the mental-health system, is wholly credible, but also topical, laced with humour and quite thought-provoking. Recommended for anyone who thinks and feels.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hachette Australia.
The Glass House is the third novel by husband and wife writing team, Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. After three months as registrar on the Acute Psychiatric ward of the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne, twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Wright is hoping she will be able to mitigate the effects of the incident that led Professor Liron Gordon to reject her entry into the hospital’s psychiatric training program.
She has six months to impress, while treating the wide variety of admissions: pregnancy psychosis, suicide attempts, manic depressive, religious delusions, schizophrenic, histrionic personality disorder, anorexia nervosa, and PTSD; some are heart-breaking, some, like the manic, comical, although a colleague notes ”On the surface, he’s entertaining. Underneath, he’s battling a life-threatening illness”, one or two, professionally satisfying, and a few are sobering, serving as a warning: “All of us are at risk of mental illness. It can happen to any of us, out of the blue.”
Against a (sometimes distracting) background of power plays between her boss and the hospital’s new Director of Mental Health, well-meaning interventions by Child Protection, and patients’ family members with their own agenda, Hannah does manage to save some lives with a combination of training, past experience, luck, and intuition.
Well aware that she’s often seeing patients at a low ebb in their lives, Hannah tries to imagine them at their best, until another registrar points out that putting herself in their shoes, as well as assessing her patients more holistically, might prove more helpful or effective. And, of course, it’s a team effort that involves consultant psychiatrists, trainees, interns, nurses, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and the occasional student.
Hannah soon sees the value of the psych nurses’ input: “Increasingly, I’m trusting his take, and that of the other experienced nurses, on my patients. They spend more time with them than I do; I seem always to be on the phone to relatives, pathology or other hospitals and doctors. Not to mention doing paperwork.” And the time trap that paperwork is: “‘Time spent on accountability,’ Nash says, ‘is time spent away from patients. Someone should be accountable for that.’”
Discussion with her fellow registrars is always valuable for the sake of perspective. With the anorexia case, they acknowledge the associated stigma: “Would we say the same if it was sixteen admissions for asthma?’ A friend from school spent eighteen months in hospital after a motorcycle accident. We do think differently about mental illness.” More generally, they recognise the need do their best and then, if they are to survive, to detach, because “our patients will do what they will, we’re only a small factor in it.” Hannah examines the reasons she opted for this profession and certain incidents lead her to doubt her choice.
The cases that Buist gives her protagonist are intriguing and it becomes apparent that often there is no simple answer, that a mix of therapies might get the best result, or that it may require the right intervention at the right time; that the best result might not be wholly satisfactory and likely far from perfect.
Buist gives some of her characters insightful observations: “It’s tough to have your mistakes pointed out in public, and, god knows, we all make them. Review and criticism is part of every job. It can’t happen if there’s a culture of fear and humiliation – or schadenfreude”. Also “There’s a lot of pressure to treat what’s seen as urgent, and tangible. Obstetrics, blindness, drug abuse, plain life expectancy . . . plenty of work to do. Psychiatry’s seen as a luxury, as the medicine you do after everything else… Yet depression is one of the leading killers.”
This is also a novel that reminds us that those practitioners charged with the treatment of the ill and vulnerable are themselves human, and despite thorough training and expertise, may be plagued by very human flaws and failings, and their perceptions, attitudes and reactions to their patients’ presenting symptoms may be coloured by their own history.
Most chapters are prefaced by a description of the episode that results in the admission of a patient into the Acute Psych ward. The banter between the characters is often entertaining, and some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud, if blackly, funny. Of course, Buist’s background gives each aspect of the story a ring of authenticity, so this portrayal of mental illness and its treatment, and of the mental-health system, is wholly credible, but also topical, laced with humour and quite thought-provoking. Recommended for anyone who thinks and feels.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hachette Australia.
February 9, 2025
*https://www.instagram.com/mrsb_book_r...
🙏A huge message of thanks to the super amazing @nadsylovesbooks who joined me for another buddy. This one was again filled with lots of back-and-forth discussion time and I really leaned on @nadylovesnbooks for her insight into family law. We enjoyed this one so much that we have already booked in our buddy read of the next book in this insightful series, The Oasis, which arrives in bookstores later this month
🏥The Glass House is a 2024 publication from Hachette Australia, written by double act Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. I’ve read a few books by Graeme Simsion but none by Anne Buist, so I was keen to see how this dual author novel would work. A story filled with empathy, emotion, realism, human relations, tragedy, acute observations and confrontation, this is an incredibly perceptive read on mental health care in Australia.
🏥The Glass House introduces Hannah Wright, a psychiatry registrar with a traumatic past as she battles with the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital in Melbourne. Hannah and her colleagues confront a series of difficult cases, ranging from a eating disorders, suicide attempts, to postpartum psychosis. This story offers an honest and unique look at the realities of psychiatry.
🏥I’ve had The Glass House on my review pile since it was released in March last year. It took a gentle nudge from a wonderful book friend to push this one off the pile and into my hands. The first in a new mental health series, The Glass House can be read as a standalone. I’m so grateful to have been able to have someone on the other end to discuss the various issues, characters, cases, decisions and personal responses to this one. Do proceed with caution as it does contain a few triggers. I know I felt a little rocked by the case involving a mother with a newborn baby and another involving the impact of a prolonged eating disorder on a family unit. These were tough caseloads at times, requiring some reading breaks.
What I gained most of all from this novel was the way in which it opened up such a wide and open conversation about acute mental health, its patients, causes and treatment options. It looks specifically at acute mental health facilities, the staff, external providers, the patients and the loved ones impacted. It really squashed some of my assumptions about mental health care facilities and treatment options. I was also made aware of the push down these facilities face in cost issues, the fight for bed space and the rights of the patients to be successfully reintegrated back into society, maintaining as much independence as possible. There were a variety of cases presented, which did give a slightly non fiction memoir tone to the overarching story. However, the central placement of our main narrator Hannah gives The Glass House a personalised approach.
A tale well told with a candid approach to the world of mental health care, I enjoyed this co-authored novel and buddy read experience.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4 stars
Thank you to @HachetteAus for the review copy.
🙏A huge message of thanks to the super amazing @nadsylovesbooks who joined me for another buddy. This one was again filled with lots of back-and-forth discussion time and I really leaned on @nadylovesnbooks for her insight into family law. We enjoyed this one so much that we have already booked in our buddy read of the next book in this insightful series, The Oasis, which arrives in bookstores later this month
🏥The Glass House is a 2024 publication from Hachette Australia, written by double act Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. I’ve read a few books by Graeme Simsion but none by Anne Buist, so I was keen to see how this dual author novel would work. A story filled with empathy, emotion, realism, human relations, tragedy, acute observations and confrontation, this is an incredibly perceptive read on mental health care in Australia.
🏥The Glass House introduces Hannah Wright, a psychiatry registrar with a traumatic past as she battles with the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital in Melbourne. Hannah and her colleagues confront a series of difficult cases, ranging from a eating disorders, suicide attempts, to postpartum psychosis. This story offers an honest and unique look at the realities of psychiatry.
🏥I’ve had The Glass House on my review pile since it was released in March last year. It took a gentle nudge from a wonderful book friend to push this one off the pile and into my hands. The first in a new mental health series, The Glass House can be read as a standalone. I’m so grateful to have been able to have someone on the other end to discuss the various issues, characters, cases, decisions and personal responses to this one. Do proceed with caution as it does contain a few triggers. I know I felt a little rocked by the case involving a mother with a newborn baby and another involving the impact of a prolonged eating disorder on a family unit. These were tough caseloads at times, requiring some reading breaks.
What I gained most of all from this novel was the way in which it opened up such a wide and open conversation about acute mental health, its patients, causes and treatment options. It looks specifically at acute mental health facilities, the staff, external providers, the patients and the loved ones impacted. It really squashed some of my assumptions about mental health care facilities and treatment options. I was also made aware of the push down these facilities face in cost issues, the fight for bed space and the rights of the patients to be successfully reintegrated back into society, maintaining as much independence as possible. There were a variety of cases presented, which did give a slightly non fiction memoir tone to the overarching story. However, the central placement of our main narrator Hannah gives The Glass House a personalised approach.
A tale well told with a candid approach to the world of mental health care, I enjoyed this co-authored novel and buddy read experience.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4 stars
Thank you to @HachetteAus for the review copy.
May 24, 2024
I struggled to think of this as a novel - it reads so much more like a series of case studies, albeit interconnected ones. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as any of the Rosie Project books, but I didn't dislike it either. It's certainly a quick read, and it does have the benefit of making you think about mental health issues and the way these are perceived and dealt with by society.
August 14, 2024
“Our patients’ problems are so complex, our treatments so crude, ourselves so human.”
The Glass House is the third novel by husband and wife writing team, Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. The audio version is narrated by Edwina Wren. After three months as registrar on the Acute Psychiatric ward of the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne, twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Wright is hoping she will be able to mitigate the effects of the incident that led Professor Liron Gordon to reject her entry into the hospital’s psychiatric training program.
She has six months to impress, while treating the wide variety of admissions: pregnancy psychosis, suicide attempts, manic depressive, religious delusions, schizophrenic, histrionic personality disorder, anorexia nervosa, and PTSD; some are heart-breaking, some, like the manic, comical, although a colleague notes ”On the surface, he’s entertaining. Underneath, he’s battling a life-threatening illness”, one or two, professionally satisfying, and a few are sobering, serving as a warning: “All of us are at risk of mental illness. It can happen to any of us, out of the blue.”
Against a (sometimes distracting) background of power plays between her boss and the hospital’s new Director of Mental Health, well-meaning interventions by Child Protection, and patients’ family members with their own agenda, Hannah does manage to save some lives with a combination of training, past experience, luck, and intuition.
Well aware that she’s often seeing patients at a low ebb in their lives, Hannah tries to imagine them at their best, until another registrar points out that putting herself in their shoes, as well as assessing her patients more holistically, might prove more helpful or effective. And, of course, it’s a team effort that involves consultant psychiatrists, trainees, interns, nurses, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and the occasional student.
Hannah soon sees the value of the psych nurses’ input: “Increasingly, I’m trusting his take, and that of the other experienced nurses, on my patients. They spend more time with them than I do; I seem always to be on the phone to relatives, pathology or other hospitals and doctors. Not to mention doing paperwork.” And the time trap that paperwork is: “‘Time spent on accountability,’ Nash says, ‘is time spent away from patients. Someone should be accountable for that.’”
Discussion with her fellow registrars is always valuable for the sake of perspective. With the anorexia case, they acknowledge the associated stigma: “Would we say the same if it was sixteen admissions for asthma?’ A friend from school spent eighteen months in hospital after a motorcycle accident. We do think differently about mental illness.” More generally, they recognise the need do their best and then, if they are to survive, to detach, because “our patients will do what they will, we’re only a small factor in it.” Hannah examines the reasons she opted for this profession and certain incidents lead her to doubt her choice.
The cases that Buist gives her protagonist are intriguing and it becomes apparent that often there is no simple answer, that a mix of therapies might get the best result, or that it may require the right intervention at the right time; that the best result might not be wholly satisfactory and likely far from perfect.
Buist gives some of her characters insightful observations: “It’s tough to have your mistakes pointed out in public, and, god knows, we all make them. Review and criticism is part of every job. It can’t happen if there’s a culture of fear and humiliation – or schadenfreude”. Also “There’s a lot of pressure to treat what’s seen as urgent, and tangible. Obstetrics, blindness, drug abuse, plain life expectancy . . . plenty of work to do. Psychiatry’s seen as a luxury, as the medicine you do after everything else… Yet depression is one of the leading killers.”
This is also a novel that reminds us that those practitioners charged with the treatment of the ill and vulnerable are themselves human, and despite thorough training and expertise, may be plagued by very human flaws and failings, and their perceptions, attitudes and reactions to their patients’ presenting symptoms may be coloured by their own history.
Most chapters are prefaced by a description of the episode that results in the admission of a patient into the Acute Psych ward. The banter between the characters is often entertaining, and some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud, if blackly, funny. Of course, Buist’s background gives each aspect of the story a ring of authenticity, so this portrayal of mental illness and its treatment, and of the mental-health system, is wholly credible, but also topical, laced with humour and quite thought-provoking. Recommended for anyone who thinks and feels.
The Glass House is the third novel by husband and wife writing team, Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. The audio version is narrated by Edwina Wren. After three months as registrar on the Acute Psychiatric ward of the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne, twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Wright is hoping she will be able to mitigate the effects of the incident that led Professor Liron Gordon to reject her entry into the hospital’s psychiatric training program.
She has six months to impress, while treating the wide variety of admissions: pregnancy psychosis, suicide attempts, manic depressive, religious delusions, schizophrenic, histrionic personality disorder, anorexia nervosa, and PTSD; some are heart-breaking, some, like the manic, comical, although a colleague notes ”On the surface, he’s entertaining. Underneath, he’s battling a life-threatening illness”, one or two, professionally satisfying, and a few are sobering, serving as a warning: “All of us are at risk of mental illness. It can happen to any of us, out of the blue.”
Against a (sometimes distracting) background of power plays between her boss and the hospital’s new Director of Mental Health, well-meaning interventions by Child Protection, and patients’ family members with their own agenda, Hannah does manage to save some lives with a combination of training, past experience, luck, and intuition.
Well aware that she’s often seeing patients at a low ebb in their lives, Hannah tries to imagine them at their best, until another registrar points out that putting herself in their shoes, as well as assessing her patients more holistically, might prove more helpful or effective. And, of course, it’s a team effort that involves consultant psychiatrists, trainees, interns, nurses, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and the occasional student.
Hannah soon sees the value of the psych nurses’ input: “Increasingly, I’m trusting his take, and that of the other experienced nurses, on my patients. They spend more time with them than I do; I seem always to be on the phone to relatives, pathology or other hospitals and doctors. Not to mention doing paperwork.” And the time trap that paperwork is: “‘Time spent on accountability,’ Nash says, ‘is time spent away from patients. Someone should be accountable for that.’”
Discussion with her fellow registrars is always valuable for the sake of perspective. With the anorexia case, they acknowledge the associated stigma: “Would we say the same if it was sixteen admissions for asthma?’ A friend from school spent eighteen months in hospital after a motorcycle accident. We do think differently about mental illness.” More generally, they recognise the need do their best and then, if they are to survive, to detach, because “our patients will do what they will, we’re only a small factor in it.” Hannah examines the reasons she opted for this profession and certain incidents lead her to doubt her choice.
The cases that Buist gives her protagonist are intriguing and it becomes apparent that often there is no simple answer, that a mix of therapies might get the best result, or that it may require the right intervention at the right time; that the best result might not be wholly satisfactory and likely far from perfect.
Buist gives some of her characters insightful observations: “It’s tough to have your mistakes pointed out in public, and, god knows, we all make them. Review and criticism is part of every job. It can’t happen if there’s a culture of fear and humiliation – or schadenfreude”. Also “There’s a lot of pressure to treat what’s seen as urgent, and tangible. Obstetrics, blindness, drug abuse, plain life expectancy . . . plenty of work to do. Psychiatry’s seen as a luxury, as the medicine you do after everything else… Yet depression is one of the leading killers.”
This is also a novel that reminds us that those practitioners charged with the treatment of the ill and vulnerable are themselves human, and despite thorough training and expertise, may be plagued by very human flaws and failings, and their perceptions, attitudes and reactions to their patients’ presenting symptoms may be coloured by their own history.
Most chapters are prefaced by a description of the episode that results in the admission of a patient into the Acute Psych ward. The banter between the characters is often entertaining, and some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud, if blackly, funny. Of course, Buist’s background gives each aspect of the story a ring of authenticity, so this portrayal of mental illness and its treatment, and of the mental-health system, is wholly credible, but also topical, laced with humour and quite thought-provoking. Recommended for anyone who thinks and feels.
January 9, 2024
The Glass House: review
Mental illness has been hiding in plain sight through most of the years I have worked as a psychiatrist myself. Anne Buist is a long-term colleague, hence an invitation to read an advance copy of The GlassHouse, the latest novel she has written with her husband Graeme Simsion. Together, they propel forward and expose the rawness and pain of those presenting to acute psychiatry and the people working at the coal-face. I can report it is a forceful read which reveals the dilemmas for all in that GlassHouse – both the central space where the nurses and doctors work and observe and metaphorically those who are put under the spotlight for mental health care either voluntarily or without free choice. Sounds grim and of course many of the issues the book touches are clearly in that territory but the very real insider view that Anne brings of the psychiatric trainee’s and the signature light touch that Graeme brings to his work combined to take me along with them on a very familiar and yet compelling journey.
Each of the first eleven chapters begins well as it thrusts forward a new person and the turbulent events that will bring them rapidly to the Menzies psychiatric unit, an acute psychiatry ward in Melbourne where Dr Hannah Green has just begun to work in mental health as a junior doctor. As she struggles to understand and treat the people she meets, each one in crisis, she seeks expertise and support from the peers she is meeting, and her superiors who are very real people with their own personality hues. Yes, I believe I have met some of them! The later chapters combine to highlight the very real dilemmas for all those in the Glasshouse – mental or physical illness causing these symptoms? Where do cause and effect intersect in families when one member is in big strife? What about sexual relationships in the workplace? Is there enough evidence for using talking treatments or medication? Does psychiatric care even work? And what happens to families and workers when things go badly wrong.
Literature and psychiatry both bring me into other people’s worlds which are a continuing source of curiosity for me. I love to read a book which immerses me in a new space so at the end, I can “know it” when I get there. In Grand Days, Frank Moorhouse took me to the world of diplomacy between the World Wars, and Richard Flanagan in The Narrow Road to the Deep North into POW camps in World War Two. Recently, I romped with Paul Murray in rural Ireland with his wonderful expose of family life during an emotionally turbulent time in The Bee Sting. The Glass House will work for those of you who share any of my curiosity whether it is about how mental health systems actually work or what the lives are like for some of the people and their families who enter that world, either personally or professionally. The book raced me along as I peered into the lives of all these people, listened to their conversations and empathised with the effects of mental health problems on people, their families and the people who work with them. Anne and Graeme are unafraid of managing some of the strange life situations and decisions which must be made in the world of acute psychiatry. When people at social events ask me what I do (“no, I am not analysing you I am actually off duty – and you aren’t THAT interesting.. and I am not an analyst anyhow”) now the answer is unquestionably simple: Read The GlassHouse and understand my world.
Mental illness has been hiding in plain sight through most of the years I have worked as a psychiatrist myself. Anne Buist is a long-term colleague, hence an invitation to read an advance copy of The GlassHouse, the latest novel she has written with her husband Graeme Simsion. Together, they propel forward and expose the rawness and pain of those presenting to acute psychiatry and the people working at the coal-face. I can report it is a forceful read which reveals the dilemmas for all in that GlassHouse – both the central space where the nurses and doctors work and observe and metaphorically those who are put under the spotlight for mental health care either voluntarily or without free choice. Sounds grim and of course many of the issues the book touches are clearly in that territory but the very real insider view that Anne brings of the psychiatric trainee’s and the signature light touch that Graeme brings to his work combined to take me along with them on a very familiar and yet compelling journey.
Each of the first eleven chapters begins well as it thrusts forward a new person and the turbulent events that will bring them rapidly to the Menzies psychiatric unit, an acute psychiatry ward in Melbourne where Dr Hannah Green has just begun to work in mental health as a junior doctor. As she struggles to understand and treat the people she meets, each one in crisis, she seeks expertise and support from the peers she is meeting, and her superiors who are very real people with their own personality hues. Yes, I believe I have met some of them! The later chapters combine to highlight the very real dilemmas for all those in the Glasshouse – mental or physical illness causing these symptoms? Where do cause and effect intersect in families when one member is in big strife? What about sexual relationships in the workplace? Is there enough evidence for using talking treatments or medication? Does psychiatric care even work? And what happens to families and workers when things go badly wrong.
Literature and psychiatry both bring me into other people’s worlds which are a continuing source of curiosity for me. I love to read a book which immerses me in a new space so at the end, I can “know it” when I get there. In Grand Days, Frank Moorhouse took me to the world of diplomacy between the World Wars, and Richard Flanagan in The Narrow Road to the Deep North into POW camps in World War Two. Recently, I romped with Paul Murray in rural Ireland with his wonderful expose of family life during an emotionally turbulent time in The Bee Sting. The Glass House will work for those of you who share any of my curiosity whether it is about how mental health systems actually work or what the lives are like for some of the people and their families who enter that world, either personally or professionally. The book raced me along as I peered into the lives of all these people, listened to their conversations and empathised with the effects of mental health problems on people, their families and the people who work with them. Anne and Graeme are unafraid of managing some of the strange life situations and decisions which must be made in the world of acute psychiatry. When people at social events ask me what I do (“no, I am not analysing you I am actually off duty – and you aren’t THAT interesting.. and I am not an analyst anyhow”) now the answer is unquestionably simple: Read The GlassHouse and understand my world.
September 22, 2025
A sensitive and realistic (not idealistic) story of mental health care in Australia.
Set in Melbourne at the Menzies Hospital psychiatric ward, this story explores the experiences of many impacted by mental illness. Told largely from the perspective of Psychiatry Registrar Doctor Hannah Wright. I enjoyed how each chapter began with a glimpse into the experience of the different patients.
‘I think you try hard to be a good patient and partner and person. But I’d imagine that sometimes you get angry at the unfairness of it all.’
I teared up, laughed out loud and shook my head at times while reading this cleverly written story. This would make a great buddy or book club read, as there is plenty of topics and characters to spark discussion.
I am keen to read the next story in this new series.
Set in Melbourne at the Menzies Hospital psychiatric ward, this story explores the experiences of many impacted by mental illness. Told largely from the perspective of Psychiatry Registrar Doctor Hannah Wright. I enjoyed how each chapter began with a glimpse into the experience of the different patients.
‘I think you try hard to be a good patient and partner and person. But I’d imagine that sometimes you get angry at the unfairness of it all.’
I teared up, laughed out loud and shook my head at times while reading this cleverly written story. This would make a great buddy or book club read, as there is plenty of topics and characters to spark discussion.
I am keen to read the next story in this new series.
July 27, 2024
4⭐️ woah. This book was intense and I would use a bit of caution if you’ve experienced diagnosed mental illness or any scenario similar or close to the ones listed in the synopsis. Fictional - but it goes into detail of these scenarios as it explores the world of an acute ward in a psychiatric hospital. Full of interesting observations about mental health, but also scary situations where you are reminded just how vulnerable we all are to mental illness. Such a good read where I found I was balancing a whole lot of different emotions - anxiety and grief and hope of recovery.
May 16, 2024
This is definitely not a book i would reach for, but im so glad that I got the chance to read it. For someone who doesn't work in the emergency medical / psychiatric fields i really enjoyed this book! How each situation is explained is so well done and they aren't extreme over the top exaggerations, they're really life issues that could happen to anyone. This book made me question my own personal situations in a positive way, but I would definitely recommend this read.
July 16, 2024
One of the most difficult books I’ve had to grapple with due to the fact that it felt like I was reading about my own life, but also one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
February 28, 2025
Took me a bit to get into it but enjoyed it in the end. Loved the characters
February 12, 2024
Thanks kindly to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This novel was seriously impressive. As a mental health advocate based in Victoria where this story takes place, it was pretty incredible to see how much of our local context was actually reflected throughout.
Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion’s The Glass House is the first in a planned series that follows trainee psychiatrist Hannah Wright as she moves through different sub-specialities in the fictional Menzies Hospital.
This premise makes space to cover a wide range of mental health issues and their very real impacts on patients and families. For a sense of the breadth, my three standout clinical subplots related to: the mental health tribunal’s role in the treatment of a woman with postpartum psychosis (which included ECT); family based therapy involving a woman with a severe and enduring eating disorder, and a nod to sexual assault in politics.
Buist’s background as a psychiatrist also shines through, with plenty of commentary on power structures, hierarchies and politics within the medical and healthcare systems. The main protagonist is also shown navigating relationships with their colleagues, questioning their career choices and briefly alluding to a troubled childhood.
And for my queers - there was a non-binary character. Which I loved.
The plot was however a little hard to follow at times given the multitude of characters. Though it’s obvious there was a concerted effort further along into the book to re-contextualise those who hadn’t appeared for a while with a brief description.
To take this to a ‘you rocked my world’ five stars, I would have loved to have seen the authors pare down the number of elements they wanted to focus on. I think in a rush to build out this world and show just how much it has to offer (it reads as educating folks on the sheer scope of our mental health system), it loses some of its focus and brilliance.
This book is perfect for someone, like me, that is interested in a portrait of our mental health system in action. It is reminder of how the experiences of patients and their families, carers and supporters are shaped by the people and power dynamics within our current paradigm; the struggle of the well-intentioned; and how small, meaningful interactions and a commitment to helping others can make a big difference.
In an unexpected way, this novel has engendered hope.
I’ve already shared this upcoming novel with several friends, colleagues and advocates within the space, and I look forward to discussing and expanding upon the book’s themes further as part of the planned book tour.
This novel was seriously impressive. As a mental health advocate based in Victoria where this story takes place, it was pretty incredible to see how much of our local context was actually reflected throughout.
Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion’s The Glass House is the first in a planned series that follows trainee psychiatrist Hannah Wright as she moves through different sub-specialities in the fictional Menzies Hospital.
This premise makes space to cover a wide range of mental health issues and their very real impacts on patients and families. For a sense of the breadth, my three standout clinical subplots related to: the mental health tribunal’s role in the treatment of a woman with postpartum psychosis (which included ECT); family based therapy involving a woman with a severe and enduring eating disorder, and a nod to sexual assault in politics.
Buist’s background as a psychiatrist also shines through, with plenty of commentary on power structures, hierarchies and politics within the medical and healthcare systems. The main protagonist is also shown navigating relationships with their colleagues, questioning their career choices and briefly alluding to a troubled childhood.
And for my queers - there was a non-binary character. Which I loved.
The plot was however a little hard to follow at times given the multitude of characters. Though it’s obvious there was a concerted effort further along into the book to re-contextualise those who hadn’t appeared for a while with a brief description.
To take this to a ‘you rocked my world’ five stars, I would have loved to have seen the authors pare down the number of elements they wanted to focus on. I think in a rush to build out this world and show just how much it has to offer (it reads as educating folks on the sheer scope of our mental health system), it loses some of its focus and brilliance.
This book is perfect for someone, like me, that is interested in a portrait of our mental health system in action. It is reminder of how the experiences of patients and their families, carers and supporters are shaped by the people and power dynamics within our current paradigm; the struggle of the well-intentioned; and how small, meaningful interactions and a commitment to helping others can make a big difference.
In an unexpected way, this novel has engendered hope.
I’ve already shared this upcoming novel with several friends, colleagues and advocates within the space, and I look forward to discussing and expanding upon the book’s themes further as part of the planned book tour.
May 24, 2025
The Glass House follows Dr Hannah Wright, a trainee psychiatrist working in the Acute Unit at Menzies Hospital and the patients she encounters. Dr Wright was rejected into the trainee program and is trying even harder to get accepted but she must prove herself to her boss without losing herself. The patients that present to her are from all walks of life. There’s a new mum with postpartum psychosis who hid her baby, a woman with life-threatening anorexia nervosa who wasn’t supposed to be in the acute unit and a member of parliament who attempted suicide. As well as patients we are introduced to family members, bystanders and other hospital staff, each who have their own perceptions of mental health. Whilst Dr Wright works towards helping her patients she must also deal (or not) with her own trauma which prevents her from getting to where she wants to be.
The Glass House follows a tv-medical-drama structure but is so much more than just entertainment. I really enjoyed the structure and was excited to be introduced to a new patient each chapter. Although each chapter introduced the reader to a new patient, the patients’ journeys are not limited to that chapter and how they all intertwine is captivating. It did get a little confusing at times with how many characters there were, particularly the hospital staff. It was refreshing to be given insight into mental illness from a clinical perspective rather than from the person with the mental illness. I found the different attitudes and bias’ held by doctors about patients to be intriguing. The camaraderie between Dr Wright and the other trainees was heartwarming. I wish this was always the case for health professionals. The novel is a great reminder that healthcare staff are human, that they have flaws and are always still learning. Buist and Simsion give an authentic portrayal of the relationships between patients and their families. If you’re looking for perfect familial relations in times of adversity, you will not find in these stories. Despite the large cast, there is so much depth to Dr Wrights character, from her own trauma to workplace conflict, family drama and love life. Although set in a hospital, the novel is not full of medical jargon and is easy to read. The dark humour makes the stories easier to digest. Overall I really loved this book and look forward to reading more stories from the Menzies Mental Health series in the future.
The Glass House follows a tv-medical-drama structure but is so much more than just entertainment. I really enjoyed the structure and was excited to be introduced to a new patient each chapter. Although each chapter introduced the reader to a new patient, the patients’ journeys are not limited to that chapter and how they all intertwine is captivating. It did get a little confusing at times with how many characters there were, particularly the hospital staff. It was refreshing to be given insight into mental illness from a clinical perspective rather than from the person with the mental illness. I found the different attitudes and bias’ held by doctors about patients to be intriguing. The camaraderie between Dr Wright and the other trainees was heartwarming. I wish this was always the case for health professionals. The novel is a great reminder that healthcare staff are human, that they have flaws and are always still learning. Buist and Simsion give an authentic portrayal of the relationships between patients and their families. If you’re looking for perfect familial relations in times of adversity, you will not find in these stories. Despite the large cast, there is so much depth to Dr Wrights character, from her own trauma to workplace conflict, family drama and love life. Although set in a hospital, the novel is not full of medical jargon and is easy to read. The dark humour makes the stories easier to digest. Overall I really loved this book and look forward to reading more stories from the Menzies Mental Health series in the future.
May 5, 2024
Doctor Hannah Wright thought that she'd seen it all during a stint in emergency medicine. How she was wrong. Now working as a psychiatrist registrar in Menzies Hospital's psychiatric ward, she'll come across a vast array of individuals who are in desperate need of attentive and dedicated care, some with more complex issues than others. One poor moment of judgement could have remifications, as the Prof tends to remind his students time and time again.
Apart from providing treatment, Hannah receives a harsh education in her chosen speciality. There's often workplace conflict, which leads to beauracity. Growing up in a foster family dynamic, Hannah is aware of the avoidance, ignorance, and stigma attached to mental health and wants to desperately change it and make a difference. Still, has Hannah bitten off more than she can chew?
The Glass House is an interesting, insightful, and factual look into the current mental health status. I particularly enjoyed both Sian and Chloe's cases and the comparisons between their families. Still, whilst I appreciate where the authors were going with Xavier, I felt it got a bit too political in parts.
To make up for this slight matter, I can't fault the strong presence of diversitity and the respect for the foster care system that this book brings. By doing this, each and every character became more three-dimensional.
Anne and Graeme have created such a compelling read, one that should be added to your TBR list.
4.75 🌟
Apart from providing treatment, Hannah receives a harsh education in her chosen speciality. There's often workplace conflict, which leads to beauracity. Growing up in a foster family dynamic, Hannah is aware of the avoidance, ignorance, and stigma attached to mental health and wants to desperately change it and make a difference. Still, has Hannah bitten off more than she can chew?
The Glass House is an interesting, insightful, and factual look into the current mental health status. I particularly enjoyed both Sian and Chloe's cases and the comparisons between their families. Still, whilst I appreciate where the authors were going with Xavier, I felt it got a bit too political in parts.
To make up for this slight matter, I can't fault the strong presence of diversitity and the respect for the foster care system that this book brings. By doing this, each and every character became more three-dimensional.
Anne and Graeme have created such a compelling read, one that should be added to your TBR list.
4.75 🌟
January 17, 2024
Reminded me why I chose psychiatry as a career, why in the early days I nearly left, and why I stuck it out and would do it all again.
The authors know a bit about a life in psychiatry and among mental health staff, patients, families and the rest of us, and have set themselves a huge task here: do justice to everyone who cares about mental health care, and make it entertaining too.
The protagonist gets a love interest of course, but putting the book down at the end (no spoiler) I realised the love affair it’s really about is with the job of mental health work: of caring for people who are suffering in body and mind because of how they think, feel and act. That could be any of us.
So working in psychiatry and its related disciplines can be thought of as a love affair with humanity. Bruising at times, enough to make you want to walk away. But if you choose to stick it out for the right reasons for you, it’ll give back like nothing else.
The authors have therefore given us so much more than a page-turning entertainment.
It pulls off the feat, compassionately representing me and everyone else with a stake in how we look after the most human of suffering. It does that eschewing easy laughs, formulaic romance, heroes and villains, medical procedural drama or any other lower hanging fruit.
The acknowledgments show it has had first readers from among the best clinicians I know; we are all invested here in seeing our field and those it cares for and about portrayed fairly.
That said, for all I know, this book kept me guessing to the end.
It’s set in places few would dare to tell a love story, but a love story it is.
The authors know a bit about a life in psychiatry and among mental health staff, patients, families and the rest of us, and have set themselves a huge task here: do justice to everyone who cares about mental health care, and make it entertaining too.
The protagonist gets a love interest of course, but putting the book down at the end (no spoiler) I realised the love affair it’s really about is with the job of mental health work: of caring for people who are suffering in body and mind because of how they think, feel and act. That could be any of us.
So working in psychiatry and its related disciplines can be thought of as a love affair with humanity. Bruising at times, enough to make you want to walk away. But if you choose to stick it out for the right reasons for you, it’ll give back like nothing else.
The authors have therefore given us so much more than a page-turning entertainment.
It pulls off the feat, compassionately representing me and everyone else with a stake in how we look after the most human of suffering. It does that eschewing easy laughs, formulaic romance, heroes and villains, medical procedural drama or any other lower hanging fruit.
The acknowledgments show it has had first readers from among the best clinicians I know; we are all invested here in seeing our field and those it cares for and about portrayed fairly.
That said, for all I know, this book kept me guessing to the end.
It’s set in places few would dare to tell a love story, but a love story it is.
March 26, 2024
“The Glass House was inspired by the courage of patients and the dedication of mental health workers who deal with issues which are often poorly understood, inadequately resourced, and for which there are few complete solutions. We hope this book will contribute to a better recognition of the challenges they face.”
– AUTHOR NOTE
If the above was the intent of this novel, then the authors got it right. The Glass House is not for the feint hearted, but for those who reach for it, you will not be sorry. It’s primarily about the mental health crisis in Australia but focuses on the psychiatrists and psychologists who are literally on the frontlines in our hospitals assessing and treating, attempting to help, surviving themselves in a field that is overrun by patients and under resourced universally.
As someone who has navigated the mental health system with a family member, as well as having a daughter who is studying towards a career in psychology, I found this novel fascinating, thought provoking, and deeply affecting. Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion have written a truly excellent novel that many will find both compelling and deeply contemplative. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
– AUTHOR NOTE
If the above was the intent of this novel, then the authors got it right. The Glass House is not for the feint hearted, but for those who reach for it, you will not be sorry. It’s primarily about the mental health crisis in Australia but focuses on the psychiatrists and psychologists who are literally on the frontlines in our hospitals assessing and treating, attempting to help, surviving themselves in a field that is overrun by patients and under resourced universally.
As someone who has navigated the mental health system with a family member, as well as having a daughter who is studying towards a career in psychology, I found this novel fascinating, thought provoking, and deeply affecting. Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion have written a truly excellent novel that many will find both compelling and deeply contemplative. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
February 8, 2025
I enjoyed The Glass House, but didn't find it a 'couldn't put down book' and often found myself distracted. We follow Dr Hannah Wright, trainee psychiatrist, as she goes about seeing her patients. We get to know a bit about her colleagues, and her flatmate and family. I enjoyed the support the registrars gave each other and found the support group dinners fun. There are many different characters with different mental health illnesses and you could tell it seemed like a realistic representation of both the illnesses and the working conditions. I would have liked perhaps less characters but more indepth into the ones we had.
I choose to read this book as I really enjoyed The Rosie Project trilogy by Graeme Simsion, but it was very different, so maybe not quite what I was expecting.
I choose to read this book as I really enjoyed The Rosie Project trilogy by Graeme Simsion, but it was very different, so maybe not quite what I was expecting.
May 16, 2025
4 stars ⭐️
i really enjoyed this book! i loved that it was set in australia. i loved a few of the main characters, and i loved the setting (within a mental health facility).
there were lots of tough subjects and themes explored, and the authors did a great justice with diversity and representation.
i felt that the writing was not overly complicated when discussing medical terms (which was good), but occasionally felt clunky and i had to re-read paragraphs to make sense of what was said.
the mental health patients were my favourite part of the book - they were all unique, struggling and mostly, wanting help.
i connected to hannah, and sympathised with her situation. i used to want to be an emergency medicine doctor, but had the same doubtful thoughts about my competence as hannah.
i’m (hopefully) purchasing the next book in the series (or duology?) today!
i really enjoyed this book! i loved that it was set in australia. i loved a few of the main characters, and i loved the setting (within a mental health facility).
there were lots of tough subjects and themes explored, and the authors did a great justice with diversity and representation.
i felt that the writing was not overly complicated when discussing medical terms (which was good), but occasionally felt clunky and i had to re-read paragraphs to make sense of what was said.
the mental health patients were my favourite part of the book - they were all unique, struggling and mostly, wanting help.
i connected to hannah, and sympathised with her situation. i used to want to be an emergency medicine doctor, but had the same doubtful thoughts about my competence as hannah.
i’m (hopefully) purchasing the next book in the series (or duology?) today!
September 6, 2025
A powerful story and wonderfully engaging read. I didn't want it to finish. A frank and sensitive assessment of mental health care in Australia.
November 18, 2024
4.5 stars
Full review when book club is finished!
Full review when book club is finished!
August 13, 2024
Oh man, what a hard one to review.
I liked the overall storyline but found it very hard to read, not because of the content, but the way it was written. It started off appearing to be a very clinical set of short stories about cases in a psychiatric hospital and how the front line workers handle each case.
It reads like a clinician's case notes. Not enough feeling and not enough explanation of how a psychiatrist works (prescribing meds), rather than a psychologist (talking).
Once I realised there were 2 authors, this made sense as there were definitely 2 chunks.. story and clinical notes. Feels like an editor needed to smooth over the transition from "notes" to "novel".
The reader follows a group of interns (Hannah, Carey, Alex, Jon and Ndidi) who are learning their craft. All are very different. Some come from medical backgrounds and some have no experience whatsoever.
I like the reality of that, but felt their background stories should have been fleshed out more and earlier in the story.
As well as following the interns, we are shown the dynamics of the professors they intern under. The arrogance and the empathy. I felt this was realistic and a great addition.
The other confusing/off putting element for me was the background of Hannah's character with her siblings in the present.
She is obviously traumatised by something in her families past, and is processing all that whilst she is an intern. It takes a long time in the novel to point out what the trauma actually was. It's alluded to and we, the reader, gets the fact that Hannah seems to be the key to keeping everything together, but it takes a bloody long time to find out what from!
Although this might be realistic, I found it a distracting storyline. I kept forgetting who Jess was to Lennon. I think it would work better having that storyline all in the past and revealed once as she did when she blurted her background out to the other interns. Keep it simple authors!
Oh and I hated the nearly love interest with Alex. Either get them together or don't. All the interference from others in that relationship made me want to throw the book away. And then they still didn't get together.
Each chapter starts with a new case study. I can see how the authors wanted this, but as a reader who isn't familiar with this world, it got really confusing who was who. It would read better for me if all the irrelevant cases weren't named, but just outlined in anonymous form. Maybe even drawn on a piece of paper, so it's obvious it's clinical notes, and although interesting, completely irrelevant to the story.
My favourite storyline was the development between Elena and Hannah and Hannah's internal struggle of figuring out where she should specialise.
Overall, a very different read and on a subject that is not written about enough. Not sure I would recommend anyone to read it though, for all the issues I found with it. Maybe someone who works in the field would appreciate it more.
As I didn't really like the writing style, I am unsure if I care about the characters enough to come back and read the sequel when it's released....
I liked the overall storyline but found it very hard to read, not because of the content, but the way it was written. It started off appearing to be a very clinical set of short stories about cases in a psychiatric hospital and how the front line workers handle each case.
It reads like a clinician's case notes. Not enough feeling and not enough explanation of how a psychiatrist works (prescribing meds), rather than a psychologist (talking).
Once I realised there were 2 authors, this made sense as there were definitely 2 chunks.. story and clinical notes. Feels like an editor needed to smooth over the transition from "notes" to "novel".
The reader follows a group of interns (Hannah, Carey, Alex, Jon and Ndidi) who are learning their craft. All are very different. Some come from medical backgrounds and some have no experience whatsoever.
I like the reality of that, but felt their background stories should have been fleshed out more and earlier in the story.
As well as following the interns, we are shown the dynamics of the professors they intern under. The arrogance and the empathy. I felt this was realistic and a great addition.
The other confusing/off putting element for me was the background of Hannah's character with her siblings in the present.
She is obviously traumatised by something in her families past, and is processing all that whilst she is an intern. It takes a long time in the novel to point out what the trauma actually was. It's alluded to and we, the reader, gets the fact that Hannah seems to be the key to keeping everything together, but it takes a bloody long time to find out what from!
Although this might be realistic, I found it a distracting storyline. I kept forgetting who Jess was to Lennon. I think it would work better having that storyline all in the past and revealed once as she did when she blurted her background out to the other interns. Keep it simple authors!
Oh and I hated the nearly love interest with Alex. Either get them together or don't. All the interference from others in that relationship made me want to throw the book away. And then they still didn't get together.
Each chapter starts with a new case study. I can see how the authors wanted this, but as a reader who isn't familiar with this world, it got really confusing who was who. It would read better for me if all the irrelevant cases weren't named, but just outlined in anonymous form. Maybe even drawn on a piece of paper, so it's obvious it's clinical notes, and although interesting, completely irrelevant to the story.
My favourite storyline was the development between Elena and Hannah and Hannah's internal struggle of figuring out where she should specialise.
Overall, a very different read and on a subject that is not written about enough. Not sure I would recommend anyone to read it though, for all the issues I found with it. Maybe someone who works in the field would appreciate it more.
As I didn't really like the writing style, I am unsure if I care about the characters enough to come back and read the sequel when it's released....
January 12, 2025
It took me quite a while to get into this book (like, 200 pages!) but once I was into it I was really into it! At first I found it really frustrating that every chapter introduced new characters but once I started thinking of it like episodes of a medical drama on tv I started to really enjoy it! I think it shows the flaws in the system and the fact that when industries are not resourced enough that people end up working themselves to the bone and patients slip through the cracks
May 1, 2025
Thank you Netgalley & Hachette Aus for providing me with an Advanced Ready Copy of The Glass House. This is my honest review.
Wife & Husband duo Anne & Graeme’s latest novel follows trainee psychiatrist Hannah working in a psychiatric ward. The author Anne works in psychiatry herself which I found really interesting going into this book because even though this is a work of fiction, it really gives depth to the main character and her experiences. The bulk of The Glass House follows various patients from presentation to diagnosis to treatment (in the middle it started to feel a bit formulaic and repetitive but it didn’t slow me down too much!) as Hannah tries to prove herself to the powers that be and genuinely help those at their lowest in a broken healthcare system.
All the while, just like anyone else, she is dealing with workplace conflict, the interference of others, dating, and figuring herself out in a life where you seldom ‘come first’. Hannah and the other hospital staff were all fleshed-out characters with a clear purpose, a couple did feel a little one-note but I believe this is because the authors wanted to focus on the complexity of the patients instead and I’m perfectly happy with that compromise. Speaking of the patients, a wide range of psychological illnesses are covered in this book including eating disorders, postpartum psychosis and schizophrenia so just be mindful of triggers. I think the patients and their family members were incredibly layered for the most part with a couple of minor exceptions who are a bit forgettable.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I consider it very unique! Of all the books I’ve read set in a mental health institution/ward, this is possibly the only one that isn’t from a patient’s perspective and the detail that the authors could incorporate from lived experience really elevated it. This book has shimmers of humour and I also found it pretty philosophical, it makes you think about the way we treat and think about mental illness and how many people are affected when a loved one suffers.
Wife & Husband duo Anne & Graeme’s latest novel follows trainee psychiatrist Hannah working in a psychiatric ward. The author Anne works in psychiatry herself which I found really interesting going into this book because even though this is a work of fiction, it really gives depth to the main character and her experiences. The bulk of The Glass House follows various patients from presentation to diagnosis to treatment (in the middle it started to feel a bit formulaic and repetitive but it didn’t slow me down too much!) as Hannah tries to prove herself to the powers that be and genuinely help those at their lowest in a broken healthcare system.
All the while, just like anyone else, she is dealing with workplace conflict, the interference of others, dating, and figuring herself out in a life where you seldom ‘come first’. Hannah and the other hospital staff were all fleshed-out characters with a clear purpose, a couple did feel a little one-note but I believe this is because the authors wanted to focus on the complexity of the patients instead and I’m perfectly happy with that compromise. Speaking of the patients, a wide range of psychological illnesses are covered in this book including eating disorders, postpartum psychosis and schizophrenia so just be mindful of triggers. I think the patients and their family members were incredibly layered for the most part with a couple of minor exceptions who are a bit forgettable.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I consider it very unique! Of all the books I’ve read set in a mental health institution/ward, this is possibly the only one that isn’t from a patient’s perspective and the detail that the authors could incorporate from lived experience really elevated it. This book has shimmers of humour and I also found it pretty philosophical, it makes you think about the way we treat and think about mental illness and how many people are affected when a loved one suffers.
January 7, 2024
I was blessed with a pre-release copy of this. Another Simsion/Buist production with a tight story line, engaging characters, and plenty of colour. To look through a window into the challenging world of clinical psychiatry, informed by a top professional, guided by two expert authors, is probably a unique opportunity to be exposed to one of the hidden mysteries of our world - mental health. News bulletins only ever give us a snapshot into mental health events, but this book unwraps the end to end journey of the patients and the clinicians in a witty and informative way. It is not a treatise on psychiatry, but it puts the profession in the context of the wider medical sphere with a strong sense of realism as well as a small amount of furniture removal. A truly enjoyable novel.
September 2, 2024
Recommend by my lovely aunty, this was one of my favourite reads. I don't know if it's my nursing background or passion for mental health that sparked such an enjoyment, but it's such a raw and real telling, based in Melbourne inpatient psych units, that feels all the more relatable. While I've read a lot of books that cover mental health, this one feels real and comes from the perspective of clinicians, so it isn't romanticised. The crux of the story is awarewness, that at the end of the day any one of us could become mentally unwell, there is no discrimination. To tackle the truth of acute mental health, it's impact on clinicians, families and the individual, while also breaking down the system in all its triumphs ans tribulations, I'll be recommending this book to many.
January 23, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The writing style was interesting, and I liked meeting a new character each chapter and getting to know them while their own story was intertwined into Hannah’s experience as a registrar. I found that having been a patient in a psychiatric facility before, I related heavily to some of the practices in the book, dodgy and not dodgy. In fact it was interesting reading the book and imagining the story being set in the facility I was in (the name was insanely similar to one in the book!). I found that the story really highlighted the dismissal of mental health and the stigma surrounding it, as well as the funding towards psych facilities and doctors in Australia (another point for it being set in Australia! I always enjoy books that are). Whilst incredibly dark in some parts, I found this book to be relatively realistic. Don’t read it if you’re feeling vulnerable or emotionally/mentally unstable, as it does delve into common, uncommon and awful demons we face as humans. In saying that, I thought it was an important read and I look forward to the second in the series coming out!
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