Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

TL;DR fae politics, an alcoholic mother, and a "mature" 16 year old

(finished 7/7/15)

While I rated this 2 stars on Goodreads, it's not a bad book. It's actually fairly decent. It depends on your standards. Because this was published in 2010, I'm treating it differently than I would if it was published this year. (This goes back to the middle / high school publishing date divide that I need to explain in detail at some point.) 

I feel like Glimmerglass doesn't exactly have a sense of realism, but the story functions without it. Everyone seems a little cardboard cutout-ish but they at least have a little bit of depth to them. Except maybe the villain, who I'm gonna hopefully not reveal because I'm not sure if it's considered a spoiler or not. The characters definitely don't seem like real people but there was at least an attempt. They resemble people. They don't act like it, but they try. 

The plot's a little mediocre because it's basically Dana continually running into security issues, but nothing huge really happens. There's very little that's been established by the end of the book in terms of things happening. Mainly, big political leaders want her on their side, she keeps getting attacked, and her necklace obviously means something. Maybe it's because the book doesn't even pass 300 pages. There's less room to really establish anything good by the time you set up the world and the characters. (Shh. I'm trying to be more optimistic in this review.) Some of the events that happened were definitely just for a shock factor than for actual development, which kind of sucked. They weren't even all that shocking either. The setup for the scene I noticed this for was practically nonexistent and there was very little repercussion of it. Everything was essentially back to the way it had been within a few chapters. Not really how you're supposed to go pulling that off. If you're threatening big danger, carry it through at least once. The scene doesn't have too much impact when I know the character's going to survive somehow by some act of plot. I don't remember the term for that. 

So like I said, the characters had nothing too unique going for them, and I can't say that I connected with them much, but they're not bad. Just not exceptional. Dana seemed juvenile but I can see that being written off as a result of the time it was published in. The main characters in YA books published before 2011-ish feel like they're trying really hard to come off as "real" to the reader, and it kind of has the same effect as when adults try to sound hip and say things like "yolo" all the time. This could very well just be an effect of reading it five years after its publication or a reflection of what I personally do and don't like in books. I'm sure there are probably 16 year olds out there like her somewhere. 

The good news is, there's very little romance! There's some, but it's definitely nothing close to Echo. There's mutual attraction, but neither of them tried very hard to establish a relationship in light of what all was going on, and I gotta give Ethan tons of credit for backing off when Dana was not conducive to any advances. He learned. I am very glad for YA boys like him. They are apparently pretty rare to find. Dana herself is still pretty boy-crazy, which irritated me a little bit, but she also stood up for herself and chewed Ethan out for the things he did. Their relationship obviously isn't very strong or built on the best foundation but I definitely like them better than I did the couples of Echo or Altered, which is kind of sad considering you're actually supposed to root for those guys. Ethan's kind of set up as a bad guy from the beginning even though that's not his intention. 

In reading reviews on goodreads, I have been reminded of the incredibly poor foundation their relationship is based on. I actually glazed over some of it because I rarely read more than a few pages at a time and because Dana considerably downplays what happened. More than I think she should have. The sad thing is that I still like Ethan as a love interest more than I do Dace or Sam from the aforementioned books. >:| I think I may honestly only like Ethan in light of the other books I've read recently. Had I read this after a 4 or 5 star book, I'd probably immediately be like, "no." (Also in reading reviews: there is setup for a love triangle but it's not executed at all. I noticed the introduction of the love triangle but it's so terrible that I didn't even notice that the guy was an actual love interest and not just some hot guy Dana decided to get all flustered about.) 

I was also glad that Dana and Kimber had a good friendship! I was a little worried at first based on Dana's first impressions of Kimber, but they ended up with a very good mutual respect for each other. I wish Kimber had played a little bigger role in the second half of the book, but I'm not really sure what could've been done in the situation. She does kind of fall into the "token best friend" trope but I'm mainly just happy they didn't end up bitter rivals like I feared. 

The narration was pretty iffy, but yet again, this goes back to the whole "published in 2010" issue. It's very on par with what I remember reading back in elementary and middle school. Her narration isn't too eloquent and sounds pretty childish at times. No matter how mature she keeps saying she is, she's obviously not the brightest kid if she decides to run away to a different country to meet a parent she's only been talking to for maybe a few weeks. There's definitely more telling than showing in terms of how she's able to "function like an adult." I honestly can't point you to any proof that she could function as a legal adult and not get herself into trouble in a pretty stupid way. I also think she should've gotten CPS involved instead of letting her mom get away with her terrible drinking habits, too. She's also a little ridiculous for believing she can be trusted and treated as an adult after all that she's pulled, but hey, it's a YA book. She gets away with it. 

TL;DR it's a fairly light and easy read and I enjoyed it a little more than I did Echo and Altered, which were the previous two books I read. I'm actually fairly intrigued as to what's gonna happen in the second book with the way the epilogue was set up, so I am planning on continuing the series eventually.