Glow | Amy Kathleen Ryan | Review
"Teenagers Waverly and Kieran believe their future is written in the stars. They are part of the first generation born in space. They are in love. They have never seen a stranger before...until the day they are wrenched apart and suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives."
This blurb from the back of the book, along with the description of Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan, on Good Reads intrigued me. Even though I love a good sci-fi movie, or tv show, I haven't ever really read may books that are set in space before. I thought it was about time.
Glow is the story of Waverly and Kieran, and the life threatening events that take place in their space ship home, the Empyrean. The ship is one of two that were sent from Earth decades ago, in the hopes that they would find a better planet to live on; New Earth. Waverly and Kieran are the eldest children on board and they have never known anything else. One day they are happy teenagers, in love with being in love, talking about getting married...the next they are torn apart. They are attacked, their ship half destroyed, their adults killed, stranded or left to die from radiation poisoning and lack of oxygen. The girls are taken away, or 'saved' as is the lie they are told, and are kept on the New Horizon, the other ship from earth. At first, Waverly thinks that Anne Mather and the people of the New Horizon have saved the girls from the attackers, and they are looking for the Empyrean with hope that the others are still alive...but soon she realises things are not right, and are not what they seem.
While Waverly is trying to figure out what is going on, and trying to keep all the younger girls from believing what Mather says, Kieran and all the boys are still on the Empyrean, trying to survive, trying to rescue some of the adults trapped on board. They face gravity issues, who-is-in-control issues, people are thrown in the brig, guns are used...
The story, though told in third person, alternates every chapter or so between Waverly and Kieran, which meant that we knew what was going on in both ships, around the same time. The writing style was simple, easy to read, and easy to follow, though the font was a bit annoying. Details, I guess. As characters go, I didn't really like any of the characters. I didn't 'bond' with any of them, or feel like if one of them died I, too, would die. I wouldn't care. They're dead. So be it. Although Waverly came across as stronger than the other girls, she still didn't make me feel for her, or want to her to do well. I didn't like Kieran in the beginning, then he got better, but at the end I disliked him more than at the start.
The story line was all right, but I didn't find it was very 'I need to know what happens next right now or I'll die', if you know what I mean. It took me a whole week to get through it, I don't think I'll bother with the next one. I've given a two star rating (which, going with my usual Good Reads rating system, means 'It was okay'), but meh. Could have been better.
Image from Goodreads
No comments
Post a Comment