Title:  Glow [indie bound] [amazon]
Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre:  Science Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Series: Sky Chasers
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Publisher (via BEA)
Reviewer: Michelle
Parental Advisory: language, violence, criminal activity
Teachable Moments: freedom of choice, freedom of religion

“With a sinking feeling, she realized she’d ruined the plan.  She needed Mather.  Without a hostage, she had nothing to bargain with, no way to get the guards to open the locks on her mother’s cage.”

Summary (from the publisher):
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.

Opinion:
At the outset of this book I wasn’t quite sure I was going to make it through.  Not only was it a tad slow in the early chapters but it when it finally got going the abduction of the girls from the Empyrean had a bit of a creep factor (think leering older men vibe) that was a bit off-putting for me.  Generally, I’m not prudish in my reading but for some reason it really rubbed me the wrong way.   But, given the fact that so many of my trusted go-to reviewers loved it (and I was reading it for book club) I knew I needed to power through.

So glad I did!  Glow turned out to be one of the more compelling books I’ve read.  There is so much discussable content that it makes the perfect classroom or book club read.  It’s not polarizing but it is definitely a book that allows for strong opinions on either side of a debate. And much debate there is to be had — politics, faith, freedom of choice, etc.

I’ll start by discussing characters.  Waverly was very strong and powerful; a true leader in every sense of the word.  When taken from her home and forced to live in a more puritanical setting she didn’t retreat into her shell to hide.  She didn’t just blindly accept and give up hope.  No, she (being an extremely intelligent and resourceful young woman) went to work plotting how to get all of the girls abducted from the Empyrean home.  She had perseverance and courage, she was unafraid of making tough choices and was admirable in her ability to act upon them.  I found her inspirational and man did I want her to succeed.

Kieran, he wasn’t all that charismatic.  But, that was by design.  I believe he was intended to be reserved and more rigid.  His beliefs dictated much of what he did and said and that made him less accessible to me.  Though he was action oriented and had admirable leadership qualities I found him to be a character I wasn’t really able to root for.  Honestly, the only time I felt like I wanted to see him succeed was in his conflict with Seth.  In that I found him to have a particular strength and vigor that made me want to to see him get what he wanted.

Now Seth, I have a love/loathe relationship with.  I think this is because I can’t quite pin down where his intentions really lie.  His behavior is erratic which allowed me to feel he unreliability.  Does he want what is best for the Empyrean or does he want to make Kieran look bad so he can have Waverly?  It’s hard to tell.  This, of course, makes me really interested in him because the unpredictability in his personality and actions gives a kind of cliffhanger feeling.  The kind that makes me want to see what happens next while still being a little bit afraid of what that might be.

There are a variety of powerful secondary characters in Ann Mather (the super devout leader of New Horizon) who’s actions didn’t always match up with her words.  The family, crew members and children of the Empyrean as well as a number of the inhabitants of New Horizon were quite dynamic.  There was a bit of a push pull in them all where many were dedicated to either helping the girls or the cause of saving the New Horizon.  In some cases there were characters that were split between both.  In this case the characters furthered the right vs. wrong argument and the debate over whether saving their particular lifestyle through population control was more important than the girls freedom of choice.

When it comes to the romance department, Ryan did well with the love triangle.  Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of Keiran in the romantic sense I can see why Waverly loved him.  She grew up with him and was practically raised to love him.  They had a deep bond and affection.  But she also felt connected to Seth.  He brought mystery, spontaneity and a passion into her life that she’d not yet experienced.  That was a powerful attraction she couldn’t deny.  As a result her conflicted feelings are completely believable. It was also a such a small part of the story, a part that was infused to set up further conflict in the series I suspect, that it wasn’t overwhelming or burdensome.

This brings me to the plot.  Man, the whole taking the girls to be incubators story was interesting.  Creepy, at times, but interesting.  Mainly because it was used as the catalyst for the great religious debate and some of the ironies inherent in the idea that what is preached is directly contradicted by people’s actions.  The Empyrean was less devout than the New Horizon so there was a great deal of focus on the differences in their belief structures and how they lived their lives.  I don’t generally enjoy books that do a lot of preaching or analysis of religion but I have to say Glow did it right.  There wasn’t a time I felt like I was being hit over the head with a particular religious or spiritual viewpoint.  Only that such focus was used as a distinguishing factor between the two populations of potential New Earth inhabitants.  it was a different kind of space race, the kind where one population wanted to be larger and more dominant so when they converged there was power in numbers.  It was a very compelling story to read.

I can’t say much about the world building mainly because I don’t think Glow was really about it’s larger environment.  It’s a character based story so while the setting does matter it’s not the element that matters most.  The most significant role it plays is because New Earth (which we know little about) is where the two ships are trying to get to and because those ships have created the segregation between populations.  Outside of that knowing the look and feel of the characters surroundings doesn’t much matter.  At least to me it anyway.

An excellent sci-fi adventure with some real meat on it’s bones.  Filled with excellent characters and enthralling plot lines it’s one that will not disappoint.