Review of Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Title: Glow

Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Released: 2011

Summary: A heart-stopping, action packed drama occurring in the vastness of outer space. Waverly and Kiernan are inhabitants on the Empryean. The only life they've ever known is aboard a spaceship and their ultimate mission is to reach and populate New Earth. The Empryean is one of two ships traveling to New Earth and is in year 43 of the journey. Suddenly, The New Horizon, the other ship slows down and requests a rendezvous with the Empryean. Their leader, Anne Mather, has something to discuss with Captain Jones. In one terrifying moment, Kiernan and Waverly are separated. Waverly and the other girls are kidnapped by the New Horizon's crew while Kiernan and the other boys are left to run the ship without the adults. Kiernan and Waverly must each fight to be reunited once again.

My Thoughts: Wow! What a book. A heart-stopping, action packed ride through space. I won this book through the Goodreads First Reads program and I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. The action never slowed and it left me itching to know what happens next. Just a great, well told story that I would recommend to everyone to read.

I only had two issues with this book. First, the Waverly at the beginning didn't really do anything to avoid capture. I just kept thinking, Come on. Do something! But, she just let herself get herded away and didn't do anything to fight back. Luckily, Waverly's character turned into a real fighter as the story progressed.

The second issue I had, was I felt this book was a little negative about religion. I felt in some ways it tried to cast a bad light on religion and the people who practice it. The main villian, (Anne Mather, who reminded me a lot of Umbridge from Harry Potter) was a bad person who twisted religion to suit her needs. It felt like to me that religion and belief in God was portrayed in a negative fashion. I felt it would have been more authentic for Waverly to realize that there are evil people in the world who twist religion for their own purposes, but that the majority of religious people are not evil. That aspect of the book bothered me a little. 

I really, really, really liked this book and plan on continuing with this space odyssey. I'm very curious as to what happens next.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4.5/5

New Earth, here I come!