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Like Shards of Glass
Beauty, pain, drugs, repeat. Monroe Song, who considers herself nothing more than the wife of a terrorist, is struggling, failing, and drowning, trying to find her place in a world that has left her at the brink of Her husband, Carter, has opened fire at a mental health facility, before turning the ruthless gun on his sons, then himself.
Emptied wine bottles, and pills which bring her no relief or comfort, drive Monroe into the arms of Dominique, a man half her age, who offers her the perfect antidote for her brokenness.
Monroe's oldest son, Karter, once idolized his father. Karter is now haunted by his father's face, words, and the massacre that is now his family legacy.
If Karter's hero is a monster, a terrorist, who brutally murdered innocent people, what does that make Karter?
How can Monroe and Karter move forward when life has forgotten them? Then, again, with everything so distorted, why not spiral with the storm?
Emptied wine bottles, and pills which bring her no relief or comfort, drive Monroe into the arms of Dominique, a man half her age, who offers her the perfect antidote for her brokenness.
Monroe's oldest son, Karter, once idolized his father. Karter is now haunted by his father's face, words, and the massacre that is now his family legacy.
If Karter's hero is a monster, a terrorist, who brutally murdered innocent people, what does that make Karter?
How can Monroe and Karter move forward when life has forgotten them? Then, again, with everything so distorted, why not spiral with the storm?
283 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 21, 2014
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 9, 2014
Ramsey said that “Like Shards of Glass” was a short story that took on a life of its own. In reading this story, I wondered where she planned to stop. Any missing piece of this emotional and tragic tale would have been a loss. Ramsey alternates POV between Monroe, the twenty-four year old Dominique and Monroe’s surviving son, Karter. The first hand tale of each player gives us his or her perspective on his or her past and present and soul deep fears and sorrow. As usual with Ramsey’s work, the inner workings of the characters are profound and perhaps rather inevitable. “Like Shards of Glass” takes Ramsey into the thriller genre illustrating that this author clearly owns whatever she wants to write.
Monroe is a deeply complex character. She was trapped in a relationship with a man on the edge and when he cracked, he did it in the most devastating way possible. Monroe’s curse is that Carter left her to live. She, in a lot of ways, has given up and Domnique is her enabler in the quest of forgetting. She’s on board for alcohol, drugs and sex. Whatever makes her forget works for this character. Monroe skates the thin line between sex, drugs and danger for the rare chance to feel something. Dominque describes her as a butterfly, which is descriptive of her characters interaction in the story itself.
Karter is bred in a family whose daily life is violence. His father, Carter, lost mental footholds and Karter knew early on that he was losing himself. In a flashback scene, Carter humiliates his son in front ofrelatives and friends and Karter punishes those bystanders for being there when the embarrassment happens. Monroe is horrified by Carter holds her back laughing off the violence. This scene especially defines what the character becomes for the reader and what he struggles to fight. Ramsey sets a character for us that could truly go either way and in so doing sets a tense feel. This is an author who writes for her story and takes drastic risks that won’t appeal to all audiences but readers cannot deny are brilliantly reasoned and plotted.
In common with Ramsey’s other work is that this story provides character studies of its subjects. These are wholly developed characters with defined dysfunction. None of the focal characters are good for each other and within their experiences together they either grow of refine their inability to come together as a viable support system.
As always, Ramsey gives us characters that we could be passing in daily life. It is not difficult to imagine Keith Morrison of Dateline giving the background of this story in his dramatic cadence and intonation. I have always been a fan of this author but the development of the plot is an uncharacteristic delight. I love psychological thrillers and “Like Shards of Glass” is such extremes of the human experience and general engaging dysfunction that I would mark this novel at the top the genre.
Monroe is a deeply complex character. She was trapped in a relationship with a man on the edge and when he cracked, he did it in the most devastating way possible. Monroe’s curse is that Carter left her to live. She, in a lot of ways, has given up and Domnique is her enabler in the quest of forgetting. She’s on board for alcohol, drugs and sex. Whatever makes her forget works for this character. Monroe skates the thin line between sex, drugs and danger for the rare chance to feel something. Dominque describes her as a butterfly, which is descriptive of her characters interaction in the story itself.
Karter is bred in a family whose daily life is violence. His father, Carter, lost mental footholds and Karter knew early on that he was losing himself. In a flashback scene, Carter humiliates his son in front ofrelatives and friends and Karter punishes those bystanders for being there when the embarrassment happens. Monroe is horrified by Carter holds her back laughing off the violence. This scene especially defines what the character becomes for the reader and what he struggles to fight. Ramsey sets a character for us that could truly go either way and in so doing sets a tense feel. This is an author who writes for her story and takes drastic risks that won’t appeal to all audiences but readers cannot deny are brilliantly reasoned and plotted.
In common with Ramsey’s other work is that this story provides character studies of its subjects. These are wholly developed characters with defined dysfunction. None of the focal characters are good for each other and within their experiences together they either grow of refine their inability to come together as a viable support system.
As always, Ramsey gives us characters that we could be passing in daily life. It is not difficult to imagine Keith Morrison of Dateline giving the background of this story in his dramatic cadence and intonation. I have always been a fan of this author but the development of the plot is an uncharacteristic delight. I love psychological thrillers and “Like Shards of Glass” is such extremes of the human experience and general engaging dysfunction that I would mark this novel at the top the genre.
August 24, 2014
The Glass Cuts Deep
R. H. Ramsey’s “Like Shards of Glass” is the story of Monroe, a mother of four sons. Her husband shattered her world by killing all but one of them, shooting up a mental health clinic before taking his own life.
This story and its subject matter should have had a lot of promise, but it took a lot for me to finish it. It took so long for anything to happen. I kept trying to figure out the main character and the dynamics of her family unit. Her pain was documented but not in a way that drew me in. It didn’t hold my attention and I became bored. Had the author put more focus into going deeper into the characters and making them where readers could truly feel and care about them and their happenings, this could have easily been a more enjoyable read.
Reviewed by: Katina
R. H. Ramsey’s “Like Shards of Glass” is the story of Monroe, a mother of four sons. Her husband shattered her world by killing all but one of them, shooting up a mental health clinic before taking his own life.
This story and its subject matter should have had a lot of promise, but it took a lot for me to finish it. It took so long for anything to happen. I kept trying to figure out the main character and the dynamics of her family unit. Her pain was documented but not in a way that drew me in. It didn’t hold my attention and I became bored. Had the author put more focus into going deeper into the characters and making them where readers could truly feel and care about them and their happenings, this could have easily been a more enjoyable read.
Reviewed by: Katina
August 22, 2014
Life runs rampant and parallel to fragile in another thoughtful read by RH Ramsey. Its a slow walk from edge of insanity and back against the wall fight for control and power. How do you pretend all is normal when you are the family of a murderer? Like Shards of Glass is essentially the story of two surviving members of a family, torn apart by the mortally destructive act of one selfish person. They must try to find love and respect for each other as the fragments of what remains, crumbles around them. Ramsey, as usual, adds so many layers to her tale, and dark tunnels to climb out, that you are constantly entertained and surprised by the weaving together of each character’s representation in the drama. A highly recommended read.
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October 3, 2014It was hard for me to read this book and is even harder for me to describe in a way that does it justice. It is a novel about pain, about tragedy and trauma and what that does to people. It is also about addiction. But that description does not touch on the impact it had on me. Ramsey makes her characters so real I feel their pain as my own. I struggle right along with them as they battle their demons.
When a tortured man suffering from PTSD kills several people, including two of his sons what happens to his wife and the one son that he left alive? How to they cope with the unexplainable, the loss, the stigma. How do they relate to each other? And how are the others they are in contact with relate to them, especially when they, too, have unresolved issues?
The answers are tough to read – but they are real. Oh yes, very real.
Previously I had only an intellectual understanding of addiction. Now, upon living with these characters in such an intimate way for a while, I truly believe I understand. I understand what brings us to try drugs, and I understand the irresistable lure of the release from unbearable pain they can bring, a release which makes it so, so difficult to break loose from its hold.
I almost stopped reading this, it was so painful, as I too, suffer from PTSD. But I read it all and I’m so glad I did. If you begin, please read until the very end. If not you’ll never get all of the message.
When a tortured man suffering from PTSD kills several people, including two of his sons what happens to his wife and the one son that he left alive? How to they cope with the unexplainable, the loss, the stigma. How do they relate to each other? And how are the others they are in contact with relate to them, especially when they, too, have unresolved issues?
The answers are tough to read – but they are real. Oh yes, very real.
Previously I had only an intellectual understanding of addiction. Now, upon living with these characters in such an intimate way for a while, I truly believe I understand. I understand what brings us to try drugs, and I understand the irresistable lure of the release from unbearable pain they can bring, a release which makes it so, so difficult to break loose from its hold.
I almost stopped reading this, it was so painful, as I too, suffer from PTSD. But I read it all and I’m so glad I did. If you begin, please read until the very end. If not you’ll never get all of the message.
October 7, 2014
This an unusual story told in a highly unusual way. Monroe and her son's back story would be a novel in of itself. A tragic tale ripped from the headlines concerning a mass shooting. What we have left from those headlines is of course the survivors, complete with their guilt, confusion, fear, and anger. Their story is told from three points of view, that of the wife, her son, and her best friends son. The relationships between these characters is complex and painful. It is also highly dysfunction. The result is a very adult oriented psychological twist of contemporary fiction. The title refers to a strong and dark memory that the wife revisits as she tries to make sense of the trauma which threatens to destroy her. Anyone who has been through a severe trauma can relate to the constant replay of certain memories. The desperate attempt by the mind to try and put events in to context and order. The realism with which this story is recounted is sometimes difficult but always honest. Coupled with an ending that is as unexpected as it is logical, it is the realism that makes this novel work. It is gritty, honest, and thought provoking as it touches on some tough areas along with some sweet tender moments that draw the characters close to the readers heart, each in their own way.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews