Incredibly moving and wonderfully written. And so pertinent to these tempestuous times. Emma Glass' voice is striking, strange and thrillingly memorable. I highly recommend this urgent read.

A meandering stream of consciousness - and a portrayal of the struggle when you get no sleep or any kind of life.
I’m not sure what I thought of this to be honest - but I read it in under 24 hours. Dark, a little eerie, immersive

Tempted by the books cover one of favourite paintings. Can not see the relevance of the picture to story.
Really struggled with this book, very depressing , not one light moment in it. Not sure what it is trying to say. I can imagine that working NCU would be difficult, draining and emotional, but tone of book was very distressing. Nurse had personal problems and past issues which I could not identify.

Laura is a paediatric nurse who works long and unsociable hours. She starts to experience sinister hallucinations. Her relationship with her boyfriend is falling apart. Laura is overworked and sleep deprived. She's in a mental and emotional decline.

This is a strange but moving novella. It's quite an eerie read. A short story about life and death on a pediatric ward.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) and the author Emma Glass for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

A poetic story with a dark twist.

I did enjoy this it’s great writing and I appreciated the imagery it was creating however I did think at some points the language was a bit too much.

For people reading this I think it’s all a preference thing. Nothing actually wrong with it I thought it was just fine.

⭐ 5 STARS ⭐

Dark yet luminous, sensual yet chilling, ringing with strange music and laced with dread.

Rest and Be Thankful is a visceral depiction of life and death on a pediatric ward. Darkly poetic with a lyrical writing style consistent with Glass's poetry, this novel maintains a level of accessibility for new readers in its eloquence. The imagery intertwines with the plot to create a concise exploration of loss in all its forms. Her growth as a writer is wonderful, Glass writes with such vivid intention I found it difficult to not read this all in one sitting.

Burnout becomes Laura. It is as much a part of her character as her job or her relationships. Tiredness becomes weariness, and we experience eerie feverish dreams that are both reality and nightmare. Laura shows the reality facing many medical professionals they are overworked and underpaid. Samantha the student acts as her foil and expertly demonstrates the effects of this job on the body and soul. It mirrors Glass's own experiences as a Sister in a medical wing, her life informs her storytelling and creates a scintillating memorable account of fatigue.

The impact of mental health on relationships is explored through Laura's interactions with the other characters. Particularly in her relationship with her partner. I enjoyed how her mental health informed how little we know about her relationship. She is losing interest in them and thus has no reason to over-describe them to the reader. This is contrasted nicely with the equally mysterious Doctor Wilf who is at once characterised with the warmth Laura is lacking in her current relationship. Character dynamics are strong in this novel and nowhere is this more clear than with Laura's interactions with the babies and their families. She takes on as much as she can until she can't take anymore. The final chapter is at once raw, moving and distressing.

You Should Read This Book if you Like:
+ Short Emotionally Impactful Books
+ Nuanced depictions of Mental Health
+ Troubled Characters

⚠ Trigger Warning ⚠: Hallucinations, Eating Disorders, Medical Procedures, Infant Death.

PREORDER to receive your copy when it's released on March 19th 2020.

4.5 stars - What the hell did I just read. This was both the weirdest book I ever read while being the most relatable book I have ever read. Glass painted such a eerie tale in so few pages. I think the discussion behind depression and burnout was particularly interesting. I was afraid for Laura (a tired, pediatric nurse) while at the same time being afraid of her. Glass' writing is exactly what I love: descriptive, lyrical and odd. The entire reading experience put me on edge and I had no idea what was happening the entire time because Glass depicted Laura's feelings so well, that I felt like I was Laura. The ending of the novel made me want to throw my iPad across the room; she was able to evict this emotion from me. I really appreciated what Glass did and definitely want to read her previous novel now.

Devastating and haunting, this book will stay with me for a long time. After the dream like atmosphere of the rest of the novel, the final lines are like being woken by a slap to the face.

There were aspects of this book that I really didn't like. For instance, I wanted to know more about Laura. Why was her relationship with her boyfriend falling apart, what was her life like before we met her, why was she so close to burning out completely. I reminded myself that a book doesn't have to be a whole life story and that I very much enjoy short stories which are just a snapshot of a life or a moment or ...

But, I did feel as though I was in the middle of something I didn't understand and that was distressing and difficult. That, however, is on me, not on the book. The writing is beautiful at times and there are moments that are moving and even moments of humour and the belief that, yes, things can get better.

Ultimately not for me but a rather strange and beautifully moving novella all the same.

I was thrilled to get a copy of this given Peach was one of my favourite debuts of the last few years. I quite often find myself disappointed with the "difficult second novel" but thankfully, Rest and Be Thankful exceeded my expectations and I loved it. I wondered how much Glass would draw upon the wordplay and sort of absurd style of Peach (that was one of the things I enjoyed most about that book, despite struggling with it at first) but the main comparison I could draw was her absolute willingness to be as raw and as unflinching as you can be in her exploration of difficult topics and the various traumas of the human condition. The subject matter is difficult (I always find reading anything set in healthcare quite hard) but she writes so fluidly and passionately that I can get past my own prejudices and immerse myself in the world she has drawn. I loved the thriller aspect of the book too; to my mind this makes it a slightly more accessible read than Peach and that's no bad thing if it brings Glass to a wider audience. I really loved it, one of my top picks of the year so far.

A book with a difference. It’s a short read yet full of detail and interest.
Beautifully written and good story.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review

I’m on the fence here to be honest I am not sure what I think of it. It was a hard read for me and I can’t make up my mind whether I liked it or not!!

I wasn't keen on Emma Glass's debut so I came to this tentatively, but I enjoyed this one much more. The choppiness and mediocre use of language does make sense for the protagonist, so it didn't grate the way it did with the previous book. I didn't love this, but it's great to see Glass's writing develop, and I will definitely read her next book.

4.25 stars

So glad this was a short book,I don't think I could have coped with hundreds of pages of something so emotional.
The heartbreak of the job,the turmoil of a broken relationship,the sheer physical exhaustion of no sleep... the final page.
Raw is the word that sprang to mind when I read it.
Superb is the word I'm using now.

Emma Glass paints an accurate and gruelling picture of life in a neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We watch Laura drag herself to work each day after little sleep and many nightmares. Her hands are raw and she is emotionally and physically exhausted. Her relationship with her partner is suffering and he has no compassion. If this sounds depressing you are right. However the writing is honest and lyrical and the reader cannot help but feel Laura’s pain.
I appreciate the point of the novel but found it very hard going and agree with the other reviewers who found the ending abrupt and unsatisfying. I would have liked a brief glimpse of the light at the end of Laura’s tunnel.

Rest and Be Thankful is a short, chilling novella about a nurse on a paediatric unit where, shift through gruelling shift, she faces the fragility of life.

Glass brilliantly captures her protagonist’s all-consuming exhaustion. The narrative is haunted by a creeping sense of dread and unreality; it’s brilliantly claustrophobic.

But although I loved the concept, I found the execution I bit hit and miss. At times the imagery is stunning in its cruel beauty; at others, it’s clunky, overwrought with adjectives. There may be occasional glimmers of hope in the narrative, but there is no room to breathe in the dense prose. Some poignant moments were lost in an attempt at poetics.

Rest and Be Thankful is a feverish read, compelling and packed with atmosphere.

Sorry but Glass' trademark style just isn't for me. What others might find poetic and lyrical, I just find annoyingly overwritten: spilled tomato soup is 'red rain', tears are 'little spitting pitter patters of rain landing on leaves in a forest', a few hairs dragged out by stroking fingers result in the overwrought 'the sharp pain cuts through me like chalk screeching, sketching on a blackboard. My teeth grit... I touch my head and feel the sore spot spreading like milk under my fingertips'.

Ok, I get that these are the perceptions of a woman on the edge but the overload of adjectives, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, sometimes cliched to the point of banality, just grates and takes away from the intended sense impressions. Great cover but less would have been so much more for me.

A very short book. Written from the point of view of an overworked nurse caring for sick babies, it’s uncomfortable and quite distressing at times. I enjoyed the style of writing, and the storyline was good. I didn’t like the length; I think there could have been much more and the ending was very abrupt but I guess that’s the sign of a good story, to leave you wanting more!

This was really short and very beautifully written, with prose that’s light as air. But this meant that for me, the novel lacked something that I can’t quite pin down. Which makes sense, since the protagonist was also searching for something she wasn’t sure of. I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t love it either.

Laura is on the brink of burn-out. She’s a paediatric nurse working long and unsociable hours, and her domestic life has turned sour. Then she starts to experience sinister hallucinations.

Feverish, with little respite, this novella hits hard.

Glass’s writing is lyrical and visceral. She effectively puts the reader into the head of the protagonist. Her personal experience as a nurse is evident in this vivid portrait of life (and death) on a children's unit.

Tragic and deeply moving.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher, Bloomsbury Books, for the ARC.