Review of "Glow"

"Glow"

by Amy Kathleen Ryan

My Rating:

Pub. Date: September 13th, 2011

Pages: 320

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Source: Won ARC

Edition: ARC

Synopsis: If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

I am having trouble with this review because I LOVED some parts of the book and HATED others.  My expectations were too high for "Glow", but I think the book had some problems.  Overall, I did enjoy the book.  The plot was interesting and Waverly's story grabbed me from the get-go.  There were parts in the book that were horrifying and a bit difficult to read, but being a dystopian fiction it was fitting.  To be honest, I was actually happy that there were parts of "Glow" that unnerved me because I feel like great dystopian books should do this.  I really liked the female characters in this book.  They were all strong and had individual personalities.  Even if I didn't agree with their actions, I understood them as characters.

Where this book went extremely wrong for me was the portrayal of men.  I don't think there was a single male character in this book that I liked.  Kieran had his moments, but by the time the book finished I wasn't really sure what to think.  It almost came across that 98% of men did not respect women and saw them as carriers for their children.  If a man did show some respect toward women then he still had violence or power issues.  This made it EXTREMELY difficult for me to care about the male characters in the book.  I got really bored while reading much of Kieran's accounts and wanted to get back to Waverly.  I just felt that the conflict between the boys in this book just didn't make sense.  Pretty much every male seemed to be exaggerated caricatures.  

Overall "Glow" was good.  It had some very strong points, but I just wish there had been more time focused on what was happening through Waverly's perspective.  Maybe I am bias because I am a girl, but I can't see guys being happy with how they were portrayed in this book.  I guess I am left with liking the book.  I am happy to know how "Glow" ended, but I am not going to be finishing the series.