Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Review: Glimmer

GLIMMER
Phoebe Kitanidis
Paranormal Young Adult
352 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available April 17th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (From Goodreads)
When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

MY THOUGHTS
Reading Glimmer is a bit like staring at a beautiful landscape through a dirty window–there’s a filmy layer in between us and what we’re trying to see that prevents us from doing anything more than simply gazing at indistinct shapes no matter how much we try to discern the minute details that make the landscape worth looking at in the first place. While our confusion and inability to fully grasp what's happening to Elyse and Marshall is clearly intentional and made more bearable due to our shared disorientation, the fact that we’re stumbling through a strange town with nothing but our bewilderment for companionship detaches us from the events a bit, and we never quite find our bearings enough to really settle in and surround ourselves with the story itself.

Both Elyse and Marshall are solid protagonists, individuals we immediately feel protective of as they wake up in the most vulnerable way possible: completely naked with their memories wiped clean. We can’t help but share in their sense of purpose, wanting to understand what could have robbed them of their memories and how that single event links into the townspeoples’ strange predilection for taking “heatnaps” . Elyse is perhaps the more fascinating of the two–her past as we uncover it far darker and grittier than Marshall’s, every new painful memory revealed one we want to absorb into ourselves to keep it from tainting Elyse’s clean slate. We realize as she does, however, that the darkness of those images is an intrinsic part of who she is, and we certainly don’t want to be responsible for robbing Elyse of any information regarding her life when so much has already been taken from her.

While Elyse and Marshall are intriguing characters and it’s genuinely enjoyable to spend time split between their two perspectives as they attempt to make sense of the bizarreness that is Summer Falls, the story itself is a jumble of fascinating elements moving so quickly we can’t quite get a bead on any of them. Each piece of the puzzle is given a bit of page time, but we never get a chance to peel back the story’s veneer to see what interesting details and information the less polished underbelly could provide us. We touch on amnesia, ghosts, occultists, wilderness spirits, missing persons, insane asylums, and something called the “Institute” that’s mentioned only in passing, and though Ms. Kitanidis does connect all the dots by the end, we are still left with a lot of questions regarding the actual journey to our final destination. We understand logically how we made it to the concluding pages, but like the residents of Summer Falls, our minds seem to have operated more like sieves than steel traps while reading, and somewhere during the course of this tale vital information has seeped through holes we didn’t know where there to leave us feeling incomplete rather than fully satisfied.

Rating: 3/5

28 comments:

  1. Hmmm. I don't like feeling confused and so I'm not sure how I'll feel about this book. But I have a copy on its way so I'll see when I give it a try.

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  2. I haven't read the first book from Phoebe Kitandis but I heard such great things about her. However, I am not completely sold on this one, not yet. Also, you mention that in the end you still feel a little confused since some topics haven't been completely solved... Hm!!!
    But, I do like a good mystery and this one sounds like one! Can't decide:) Anyways, Thanks!!

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  3. Those were some of my thoughts too while reading the book.
    It was busy with so many un answered questions. Great ananology with wiping the dirt away and trying to find the story.

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  4. Somehow I've had this book on my TBR pile for the longest time but I didn't read the synopsis until now, so I had no idea that this book was about memory loss and "happy zombies" x) But this actually sounds kind of intriguing, even though it was confusing at times -- confusion is good for suspense, but sometimes you just want to KNOW something LOL right?

    Beautiful honest review, Jenny! <3 I probably wasn't going to get to this one before, but now I'm actually kind of intrigued and maybe I'll see when I get to it -- yay for a touch of ghosts in the story! :)

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  5. From what you say, I think I may skip this book. It seems there is too much going on and too many questions unanswered. I do like the aspect of ghosts and other mysterious aspects of the book, but I am not sure it's worth it. Nevertheless, thanks for a great review!

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  6. This one sounds like an intriguing read. For some reason I had thought it was a zombie book so it was off my list, but now I'm kind of interested in checking it out, although it's not top of my list.

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  7. This sounds like a book I would be far too frustrated to read. I must have all the answers!

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  8. Candace - I thought the confusion aspect with regard to their memory loss worked well, I liked the disorientation and trying to sort through it, but when all the other elements came into play it got a bit much for me.

    Danny - I would say the first half worked better for me than the second half - I liked both protagonists and helping them try to figure things out was fun, but the end was a bit jumbled.

    Julie - It was definitely busy - too much crammed into a fairly short book. I did like her characterization and her writing though:)

    Mimi - I liked being confused initially because I know I was supposed to be - but by the end I feel like I should have figured things out and I didn't really.

    Christina - If one or two of the paranormal elements had gotten left out or expanded upon, things would have worked better in my opinion. It was a quick read though, and I did enjoy it for the most part.

    Leanna - You are safe from zombies in this one!

    Amanda - I'm that person that needs answers too, so the ending frustrated me a bit:)

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  9. Hrm..not sure if this one is for me. While I don't mind not having all the answers, I would like some direction. I think I'm gonna pass on this one.

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  10. I don't think this one is for me. I've been staying away from YA paranomal books lately.

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  11. Hmmm this kind of sounds like a toss salad full of paranormal everything....are there vamps and wolves too??? Ill be honest the only good paranormal Ive read so far this year is The Hunt......its starting to bug me. LOL

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  12. So many unknowns and no answers will probably annoy me at some point and wonder where the story is going too. I haven't read the first book so there really isn't too much desire for me to read this series anytime soon.

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  13. Rummanah - I don't mind not having all the answers either, but I needed a few more in this one for sure:)

    Jennifer - I'm all about the paranormal YA books, but I wanted a little more from this one even though I loved the premise.

    Tina - It definitely is that. No vamps or wolves though. Sadly. I'm really excited to read The Hunt, glad to know you loved it!

    Jenny - I needed a few more chapters here and there to tie things together a bit more for me. I was a tad lost at the end:( I believe this is the first book though, the one she released last year is unrelated I think!

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  14. So, clear as mud, huh?! hehehe I don't know about this one for me, but I'm kind of curious about those heat naps.. and the waking up naked thing with no memory. Reminds me of high school. LOL

    Joking! Maybe...

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  15. This book has a lot to offer:ghosts, amnesia, occult, insane asylums to name a few. Sounds enticing, but it sounds likt this wasn't a simple straight forward read either.
    thanks for shaing your thoughts on this one Jenny.

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  16. Mysteriously happy sounds so freaky, I would certainly freak out so I like the setting of that

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  17. Missie - Exactly. There was just too much coming together at once for me at the end. And also, you're hilarious.

    Heidi - It definitely does! I liked some of the confusion, just not all of it:) That's a nice confusing statement as well.

    Linda - It's a strange little town, that's for sure:)

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  18. I love the idea of the town being held by "magic" LOL! Plus I did like the adventure of figuring out stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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  19. That whole first paragraph is why I get frustrated with some YA. Trying to be mysterious, but ends up making us become distanced from the characters. Okay, not just YA, but I've found it more often in that genre.

    Just seems like it plays with too much and it doesn't quite work.

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  20. Hum. Staring at the landscape through a film, huh? I do that often enough in my dirty car (yes, I'm a terrible car owner). While the characters seem like they might be worth a go, I don't like mysterious just for the sake of adding mystery.

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  21. Your first line is absolute genius! This book sounds frustrating, confusing, and not really my type. It does sound very intriguing and mysterious, though! I wonder if this is the first book in a series... Haha, I'm sorry this book wasn't as quite as good as it could've been, but the memory-loss aspect seems to have certainly worked well! Fabulous review, Jenny. :)

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  22. Normally, a book can go on for so long without giving me any answers before it reduces me to frustration. Funnily enough, that didn't actually happen with this book! I liked Glimmer a lot and for once enjoyed being left to wonder about everything. Though maybe you are right about not really getting a better insight into some of the detail - I can't actually remember anything about the 'Institute'! I may have to have a re-read sometime soon... ;) Great review!

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  23. I like the sound of the premise but it seems like there might be a little too much going on in this one for me. I think I'll skip this one for now. Thanks for the review, Jenny!

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  24. I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick this one up but it does sound really confusing! I really liked her first book, Whisper. Hopefully this will be as good for me as her first one was!

    This Summer Falls place sounds really crazy...! I'm so intrigued by the mystery in this one. Great review, Jenny.

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  25. I'm sorry I've been bad about commenting lately. It's been a crazy week. I've read too many landscapes through dirty windows lately. I'm just getting out of a reading slump. It's horribly discouraging.

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  26. Zombies! i must read! BUT I Hope my expectations aren't too high lol

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  27. Eh... I had this on my to-read list for a while now, and yours is the first review I have read for it so far. I'm really not fond of books that leave me feeling incomplete in the end. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book. I may wait for this one to come in at the library. :)

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  28. So, I started this one last night at 10... and stayed up until 3 to read the whole thing straight through! Lol I didn't feel incomplete at the end though... I was thouroughly satisified- which TOTALLY surprised me because I'm generally not a fan of stories like this!

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