My enormous thanks to publicist Ruth Killick for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for The Glass Woman by Alice McIlroy. I’m delighted to share my review today.

The Glass Woman was published by Datura on 2nd January 2024 and is available for purchase here.

The Glass Woman

When you wake up without your memories, who can you really trust?

Iris Henderson wakes up in a hospital bed alone, with no memory of why or how she got there. Moments later, she is introduced to her husband Marcus, a man she does not even recognise. And things only get stranger from there.

Iris is told that she volunteered to be the first test-subject for a ground-breaking AI therapy, and that she is the pioneering scientist behind the experimental treatment.

Whilst everyone warns her to leave it alone, a confused Iris continually scratches beneath the surface of her seemingly happy marriage and successful career, setting a catastrophic chain of events in motion.

Secrets will be revealed that have the capacity to destroy her whole life, but Iris can’t stop digging…

My Review of The Glass Woman

Iris is in hospital with no memories.

Before my proper review of The Glass Woman, I feel compelled to comment on how the book is written as much as on what is written. Alice McIroy employs a fantastic style. Her writing is intelligent and nuanced, balanced with perfect poise between beautiful description that is visual and appealing, and stark, concise, taut prose that heightens tension. This sensation is enhanced by realistic speech, wonderful variety of sentence structure and length, and a meticulous vocabulary that is utterly convincing. All these elements combine so that The Glass Woman is edgy, sophisticated in style and heart-thumping to read. There’s also a physical and psychological claustrophobia as Iris finds herself in hospital, and then back home with Marcus, enhanced by the reduced number of characters in Iris’s life.

I found Iris a character who held my attention from the very beginning. She’s a wonderful example of imperfect humanity and the importance of retaining that imperfection. As Alice McIroy examines the concept of memory and its place in identity alongside the potential impact of AI and medicinal advance, the more terrifying the story becomes through Iris’s experiences. Iris truly is a glass woman who might just shatter emotionally or physically at any moment. I thought the changing pronoun from I to you as Iris is shown long lost memories was a stroke of genius because it illustrated the unreliability of memory and distanced the present Iris from her pre Ariel past self.

The plot of The Glass Woman simply races along. Short chapters that drip feed information to the reader in much the same way Iris is given details add pace and drama so that this becomes a narrative that is impossible to put down. I felt completely ensnared by Alice McIlroy’s story. It’s impossible to say too much about what happens as this will spoil the story for others, but if I say I had been unable to concentrate on reading for a while and found myself riveted by The Glass Woman, you’ll have an idea!

Part science-fiction, part horror, part drama and part psychological thriller The Glass Woman is a story that defies categorisation. Its themes resonate with dilemma, with thought-provoking consideration of the morality of medical advance in the world, and with compelling consideration of the self and how we define ourselves not just to others, but to ourselves too. 

All these aspects make The Glass Woman unsettling, darkly realistic, chilling and disturbingly plausible. The Glass Woman is a book that I read with an all pervading sensation of barely suppressed terror and rage as I learned about what had happened in Iris’s life. The story lingers long after it’s been read, challenging the reader’s own perceptions of morality and of what they’ve just read. In short, I thought The Glass Woman was an absolute triumph and possibly one of the best books you’ll read this year!

About Alice McIroy

Alice McIlroy was born in London. She graduated in English and has a post-graduate in Law. She completed Faber Academy’s novel-writing programme and has taught English in state schools in London and Milan. She has taught English in state schools in London and Milan. Her writing has been longlisted for the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction and Grindstone International Novel Prize. The Glass Woman is her debut novel.

For further information, follow Alice on Twitter/X @alice_mcilroy, find her on Instagram and Facebook or visit her website.

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