**Audio Book Review**
 | Title: Glow
Sexual Content: Kissing. References to rape. References to sex. Rating:
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Description
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.
Pulse-pounding and addictive, GLOW begins the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.
Review
GLOW is the first book in a new dystopian/sci-fi YA series from Amy Kathleen Ryan touted as ‘the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.’ A bold claim that actually isn’t as far off as I was expecting.
The storyline, although set in space, is very much a dystopian tale. Two ships set off from Earth seeking to escape our dying world and start a new civilization on a new planet. After a generation, fertility problems have placed a great burden on the young girls on The Empyrean: lots of children as early as possible. As the oldest girl, fifteen year old Waverly feels the pressure of that obligation keenly, even though she loves her boyfriend Sean. But Waverly decisions are stolen from her when The Empyrean rendezvous with The New Horizon and it’s desperate crew led by the zealot Pastor Anne Mathers.
What happens next kept my blood at a steady boil as I seethed at the unjust treatment of Waverly and Sean. I had a physical reaction when Mathers was in a scene, and raged at my own impotence to reach into the book and strangle her. What she does, and how she does it created a fury in me like I haven’t experienced since THE HUNGER GAMES. Some of the religious language used is twisted by this evil woman, but it did make me distinctly uncomfortable on multiple levels.
The audio book that I listened to was narrated by Ilyana Kadushin and Matthew Brown. I hadn’t heard Matthew Brown before, but he did a wonderful job of modulating his voice to portray both the men and boys aboard The Empyrean. Ilyana Kadushin also narrated The Twilight Saga, a performance that I found distractingly monotone, but in her reading of GLOW, I had a drastically different experience. She conveyed the impotent rage of Waverly just as perfectly as the simpering twofaced Mathers.
GLOW is not THE HUNGER GAMES, but it’s not trying to be. It’s a thrilling and harrowing adventure brought to life by a narration that transported me to these ships and future society, and tied my emotions so perfectly in sync with the two protagonists that I felt every burst of rage, disbelief, sorrow, and ultimately hope as if it were my own. The next book in the Sky Chasers series is called SPARKS and will be published in July 2012. It’s going to be an agonizingly long wait.
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This book sounds really interesting. I've read The Hunger Games trilogy and LOVED it. I'm glad that this book isn't The Hunger Games and isn't trying to be.
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