Book Review: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

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Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For a man, picking up a book titled 'Glow' carries with it an intrinsic insecurity. I was interested in reading the story since the concept was intriguing but not sure I was comfortable with other men seeing me carry around anything with a title like this and a dust jacket that equally reflects femininity. To be honest, I limited to my reading of Glow to my own home simply because of these reasons.

On that note, let me just say that I am not sure I understand why an author would alienate a potential audience by making it look like it is for a specific sex and age group... but perhaps I am just being silly and trivial. The ironic thing is that the title and dust jacket are anything but what they would lead you to believe. In fact, I'm not even sure what the title refers to in the book. I actually found the writing to be quite brilliant and the story to be captivating.

Usually I struggle to get attached to books that are directed at young adult audiences because the authors seems to dumb down the story and dialogue for the younger generation. I didn't feel that Glow suffered from that problem. Now of course I have read many a book that is more challenging and complex but that doesn't take away from the fact that Amy Ryan did a wonderful job of sucking me into the story.

Glow is essentially about two colonies of earthlings that are on separate space ships destined to populate a new Earth after the old one has fallen apart. When one of the colonies is unable to reproduce, they invade the other ship and abduct all of the young girls. The story basically follows the action that occurs as a result. I thought the concept was exciting and thought provoking, especially for a YA novel.

My only real complaint (aside from the title and dust jacket) is that near the end the novel seems to morph into an attack on the concept of religion. While I am not opposed to novels that challenge the mind to question beliefs or the concept of religion, Glow moved past the subtlety that I felt would have served the book better, especially since the opinions of characters seems to be rash and spiteful regarding the matter rather than intellectual.

Overall, however, I loved Glow and look forward to the rest of the series. I sincerely hope that the second book in the series is as well thought out and interesting as this one was!

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