Glow by Amy Ryan follows Waverly and Kieran whose lives are turned into disarray when their spaceship is hijacked. Waverly is taken aboard another ship by a group of settlers who need girls because their fertility was compromised. She must find a way to escape and save the rest of the girls. Kieran on the other hand is thrust into a leadership role and then is faced with mutiny after a series of decisions he made put the ship in danger.
While I greatly enjoyed this book it was seriously flawed. The book followed two characters who spent the majority of time on seperate ships. So we would have eight chapters (or so) following one character and then it would switch to the other. It almost like reading two seperate books in a series with the two characters only interacting together for a short time at the beginning and end.
I did however find the two stories very interesting. There were enough big questions to make all the situations fall into shades of grey as opposed to being plain black and white to make the reader think. I thought the author gave us a large cast of characters that were interesting and distinct. The girls being stolen for their ovaries angle worried me at first but it was handled in a way that was completely appropriate for the audience, there is no rape in this book. I finished the book very quickly and was engrossed in the story.
Appropriateness: This is a fantastic science fiction novel that will be enjoyed by middle and high school audiences. It has a bit of romance and a strong female character to appeal to girls but also has a crazy element and a male narrator for much of the book to appeal to male readers. There is one sex scene that is not detailed and the romance is at a distance for most of the book. There is a bit of talk about alcohol, a bit of mild torture and violence. The main characters are sixteen. I would recommend this book to fans of science fiction and dystopian books aged 12+.
Review copy provided by Amazon Vine
