Split Image by Mel Glenn is a beautiful, profound, heartbreaking story. It is an intense surprise, with carefully chosen words that run the reader across a spectrum of emotions. Split Image offers a powerful look at perceptions and stereotypes and what lies behind them.
  Split Image is a story told in poems, with each poem being from a different point of view. The poems are catered to the narrators, the different attitudes and personalities perfectly captured. Split Image revolves around Laura Li, Tower High School’s smart, popular, “drop-dead-gorgeous China doll.”
  The speakers in the book hate and love Laura.  To some, she's the one characters go to when they need a shoulder to cry on and the person they dream about asking to prom. For others, she's superficial, vain, and deceiving. Most of Tower High envies Laura, wishing they could be her. But what students and teachers do not see is the conflict within Laura and the dysfunctional family she returns to every night. Laura suffers from an absent father, an ill brother, and a mother who beats her - all behind the scenes.
  Laura is a fascinating, intriguing protagonist.  She’s a character that your heart goes out to, that you can’t help but hope she’ll be okay.  Laura is denied her freedom and forced to live a life she doesn’t want.  She has to put on a smile every day and can’t let anyone get too close. Yet despite everything, Laura is kind and loving. Her words, which give glimpses into her life, are incredibly poignant and moving.
    More than anything, Split Image is just so relatable. Readers will find echoes of the many of the voices and attitudes and struggles presented in their own lives. There are so many interwoven themes, from abuse to pressure to drugs. Split Image makes readers think and question the reality of what one sees. Though a quick read, Split Image is the kind of book that stays with you for a long, long time.