Mini Review: Glow

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

I think I've been in love with the cover of this book since before it was released....I mean, since before the book itself was released, obviously I couldn't have been in love with the cover since...well, you guys know what I mean. Anyway. As soon as I saw it I put it on my wishlist and there it sat until I serendipitously came across it in my used bookstore; needless to say I had it down at the cash register in no time at all. 

It took me awhile to get to it [school, so on and so forth] but when I finally did pick it up I was immediatly sucked into the world that Amy Kathleen Ryan had created. I couldn't put it down! The chapters were short, read incredibly fast, and there was tons of action. It was like a literary vortex. I got sucked in and there was no escape. [Also, the book was divided into these little sections that had some amazing literary quotes on the title pages which I thought was a great addition.] 

I really liked the characters but not for the usual reasons. You see, they weren't all likeable. Actually, in that regard it kind of put me in mind of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series where I find myself addicted to reading on but not genuinely loving all of the characters that I encountered. There were a LOT of grey areas and no character was all good or all bad, as they should be.

Honestly from the beginning I was going to rate this book as four stars because overall I did thoroughly enjoy it, the only reason I dropped it down a star was because for me personally it hit on a couple of triggers that made the middle portion of the book less enjoyable to read. What I'm saying is that for me personally there were some things that were really tough to read and lessened my enjoyment of the text as a whole BUT I still think it was a really good read over all and well worth picking up. The writing was engaging, the characters good, and the plot kept you thinking.

3/5