This was a beautifully written and incredibly crafted book, but one that I do not recommend for the faint of heart. It is tense and depressing and incredibly close to real life in its descriptions and situations. It almost felt like watching a car crash in slow motion--you're wincing as you do it but you also can't pull your eyes away. The final sentence of the novel has stuck with me long after reading.

First published in Great Britain in 2020; published by Bloomsbury Circus on December 1, 2020

In exquisite and powerful prose, a nurse tells her story over the course of a few night shifts in a London hospital’s neonatal ward. The title notwithstanding, Laura gets no rest as she moves from baby to baby, changing lines and diapers, comforting parents, trying to relieve “the crushing weight of their worry.” She encourages fathers to hold their children rather than their cellphones. She dreads the death of her patients. Perhaps she should be thankful that her relationship with the partner who seems to despise her is ending, but he’s keeping the flat, forcing her to move into a single room in hospital residence housing.

There is value in reading about lives that a reader would never want to live. Holding a sleeping baby, Laura explains why she performs such a thankless job: “This is why I’m here. A sick baby on his way to being well. On his way to being well because of surgery, medication, holding, sleeping, something. I wish I knew which one it was because then we could do more. Save more babies. Sometimes none of it works. I think about this all the time.” Hers is a world of hope and despair in a constant struggle for supremacy.

Laura fears the struggle may be driving her mad. Perhaps it is. She is certain that she saw someone step onto the tracks of the subway she’s riding but the death she envisioned never happened. A coworker asks her what’s happening in her life “because you are always late and your hair is a bit of a mess and you don’t smell but it’s a slippery slope.” Death is never far from her mind. She starts the day on her last legs. In her sleep-deprived moments, Laura thinks she sees an apparition in black, perhaps the Grim Reaper, waiting in a hospital chair. The same figure haunts her dreams.

Laura’s life might be better without her partner, about whom we learn little. “I will miss the lick you give your lips before you speak,” Laura thinks to herself, “but I will not miss the words that follow and fall out of that wry wet mouth.” Yet it’s never quite clear whether it is her job or her partner or a traumatic event in her life that has shaped her sorrowed response to the days we glimpse.

A long road in Scotland is named Rest and Be Thankful, apparently because after a long uphill journey, travelers rest and are thankful they reached the top. Whether Laura will reach the top of her uphill climb, a place where she can rest, is unclear.

The novel is relatively short. It ends abruptly and ambiguously, resolving nothing. Readers who demand a plot won’t find one here. The story is simply Laura’s life told in a snapshot. The story left me wanting more but that’s better than a longer story that leaves me wondering why I read so many wasted words. The novel works because of Emma Glass’ ability to place the reader in Laura’s shoes, to make us feel her empathy, her frustration, her desperate unraveling.

RECOMMENDED

4.5, rounded down.

I read and was impressed by Glass's debut novel, the rape drama [book:Peach|34957071], but this is, if anything, even more harrowing and accomplished. After reading it, it didn't surprise me to learn from the Acknowledgements page that Glass herself is a pediatric nurse, since she renders the almost nightmarish world of an urban hospital with the kind of insider knowledge and acuity that cannot be gleaned any other way.

Not so sure this is the 'right' time for such a story, since everyone is rather burned out on stories of ill-equipped hospitals in the midst of the pandemic, but one can't blame the author for such poor timing. Her prose style is quite unique, mixing the banal with the fantastical, and somehow it all works beautifully. I wasn't so sure I would sample more from this author after her debut, but this is so compelling and well-done, I now look forward to her next offering.

Sincere thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This is a super short, but intense, glimpse into what nursing is like. Before COVID, I am sure many of us overlooked all the hard work that nurses did, and even now, their work is best understood through work with COVID patients. However, I think it's so important to read a book such as this, that shows the everyday struggles and exhaustions that come with nursing. It is hard work!

The experience of burn out, and the lack of care or support, that the main character experienced was really powerful and resonated strongly with me. I think Glass's writing perfectly described this sense of unending work (both physical and emotional) that is a constant in nursing, and pushed it to a point that gave the book an unrelenting feeling of tension and stress. The chaos of daily life and a hard job crescendo here in a final act that is breathtaking, shocking, and impactful.

Was happy to highlight this atmospheric title in Zoomer magazine’s Novel Encounters for December, my monthly look-ahead column of the forthcoming notable fiction books readers should watch for and why. Full column review at link below.

Emma Glass writes like a song. It flows along, with a crescendo and diminuendo, floating in and out of time.

This is a moving novella, one that involves death and hardship. It's especially interesting to read during such turbulent times as of now, when so many people are dying.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a strange little book that initially seemed to be a tribute to hard-working nurses, that being a prevalent and deserved opinion right now. Then it started to get weirder, with visions, dreams and hallucinations. Not really sure what the point of it was by the end. A sad life cut too short.

Laura is a nurse on the edge- she's burned out, her boyfriend is a creep, and she's got a trauma in her background that won't be revealed until the end of this novella. Glass has received a great deal of praise for her language and indeed, it's interesting. It's also, occasionally, annoying, previous, twee, purple, and so on. This wasn't for me but I'm sure others will like it. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

New book by Emma Glass (author of the visceral body horror novel Peach), coming out Dec 1, 2020 from Bloomsbury. I think her style works better here--slightly more lyrical, slightly less clipped. Rest and Be Thankful is a timely, strange short novel about an overworked nurse who takes care of sick children in a pediatric care unit. Excellent themes of embodiment, the connection between physical and mental health, guilt/shame over being a fallible human, nature vs nurture, and the eerie importance of dreaming in waking life. Trying to place a traditional review for this one--will update.

I am tired. So, I can only imagine how tired Laura must be. A pediatric nurse, struggling with the physical and emotional demands of her job. Dealing with the trauma of loss and grief that is never properly tended to, just part of her day. These unsettled emotions and lack of sleep drive her to see a figure in the darkness, a haunting? A delirious hallucination? A manifestation of her grief and emotion? It’s hard to tell.

This was incredibly short, but it read poetically. The words painted a picture, they didn’t just tell a story. Prose that might be a little too flowery for some people, but I thought it was very moving in this context. The story is a little ominous, though. I don’t entirely know if there was a driving point, or if this was more to build something atmospheric.

I think I have a deeper respect for the story, and for the character, in this current climate. I am not a nurse, but the detail and pressure put upon Laura here makes me incredibly grateful for our healthcare workers.

An author who writes lyrically even if it is a very dark story.A nurse facing burnout hands constantly chapped from washing disinfecting.A story at times hard to read but still kept me turning the pages.#netgLley#bloomsbury.

A hauntingly original tale – I am deeply impressed by the talent of this author, Emma Glass. The story is told from the first person point of view, yet the style is so different from the usual book as Glass is masterful at describing things as you would experience them, as your brain tries to process what’s happening, rather than simply telling you the conclusion of what actually occurs.

*Thank you to Emma Glass, Bloomsbury USA, and NetGalley for providing a free Advance Reader Copy of the novel in exchange for this honest review.*

This novel is as close as you will ever come to experiencing what it’s like to be a night-shift nurse in a ward for critically ill children, unless you actually are one. The late nights, the exhaustion, the hands so cracked from repeated washings that they practically bleed. Laura is exhausted, with barely the energy to get home each day to sleep, try to remember to eat, and to get up the next night to do it all over again. You find yourself wondering how she keeps going, but her dedication to her job and the babies she’s helping to save keep her going, even as she is on the verge of collapse and certain hallucinations.

A moving novel, and one I’m so glad I got to experience. I’m rating it at four starts for “I really liked it” to recognize that I was supremely struck by the styling of this story, while at the same time I found the narrative a bit hard to follow in some moments, and the ending left me quite shocked – 1) That the book was over; and 2) in the choice to end the story the way it did.

I highly recommend the novel, however, especially if someone you know and/or love is in the medical field. It’s so easy to overlook their historically overlong shifts and lack of ability for self-care in the face of helping their patients.

#RestAndBeThankful
#EmmaGlass
#BloomsburyUSA
#BloomsburyCircus
#NetGalley

I personally didn’t care for it, but if you like weird romance fantasy and nurses whining about their job, this is yours! I’ve had my fill recently of nurses bitching about their jobs, because they make six figures or close with an associates degree, lol. And the babies in the book ... OMG, natural selection.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect...cover is gorgeous and an intriguing premise. I don’t want to spoil a thing, so I’ll only say that the ending jolted me. The writing is at times beautiful and I found myself lulled by the depressive state of the main character. While certainly not a “feel-good” story, I really enjoyed this.

Not quite what I expected and a little hard to follow in my opinion. Felt a bit like a collection of unrelated stories rather than a clear narrative.