Review--Glimmerglass

NORMAL: IT'S ALL SHE EVER WANTED TO BE, BUT IT COULDN'T BE FURTHER FROM HER GRASP.

Dana Hathaway doesn't know it yet, but she's in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she's had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't an ordinary teenage girl--she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.

Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she'll never have a chance with...until she does. Caught between two worlds, Dana isn't sure where she'll ever fit in or who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again.

Finished this yesterday but I've been sick and couldn't even bring myself to write a review. Still a little under the weather today as well. Anyway moving on. Glimmerglass is Jenna Black's YA debut and it was fabulous.

I thought my family was a little crazy, but they don't compare at all to Dana's. You really got sympathize for her. Really can't go into the details as of why for obvious reasons, but still you'll know once you get reading. It was a relatively quick read as well. I started it Sunday (before I got sick) and finished it yesterday. But it was still wonderful.

I love how Dana already knew about Faerie. While it is nice to read about characters discovering the Otherworlds, it's refreshing to read when they already know about it, you can skip the denials and acceptance and just move on. Dana knows about Avalon and Faerie and Fae and the like and you learn this early on so it's not spoiler worthy really.

The story moves quickly as Dana is off to meet her father, but upon arriving learns he's in prison. Her aunt agrees to take care of her while they await his release which then leads to her moving from place to place and then getting kidnapped/rescued by the mysterious Ethan and his sister Kimber. Dana is really confused and doesn't know who she can trust in this place. Everyone lies and everyone seems to have their own agenda, including her father.

I loved the complexity of the characters and how Dana has these realistic complications with them. It's hard for her to know who to trust a lot of the time and you can't blame her for how her trip started out. Her relationship with her mom was even sad since her mom is an alcoholic. But there was actually a reason behind her mother's actions that is revealed later on in the story.

What the BOC doesn't mention is that there was another guy Dana was attracted to and I can't decide if that will lead to something later on or not. It was rather interesting and I think I actually liked him a lot better than Ethan, despite Dana still really liking Ethan. As I said there are complex relationships happening in the story but the novel was truly wonderful and easy to read. The relationships are really deep and not always positive, hence the complexity, don't think that it's because it's hard to read or understand. Perhaps it's Dana knowledge that Faerie exists and magic is real is part of the reason why things are easy to read and accept.

The ending was a real doozie. It makes you wonder what's in store for Dana next. She makes some startling revelations that will likely be apart of the next book. There was a nice cliffhanger to part of the ending as well, so this is definitely a series I will be following. I'm hooked!

I've read Jenna's Morgan Kinglsey series and that was dark, edgy and gritty, and her YA series while fabulous is not the same as that. Both series are good, but considering the reading levels are different, the style and content are different but there is still a nice edge to Glimmerglass. It was very enthralling. And there were still some intense and slightly startling moments and even some fighting for good measure, just not in the serious degrees that we saw in her adult series.

Overall an amazing read and one I highly recommend. It's different than the trend today with vampires and werewolves, etc--which I still love--it's refreshing to read something that steps away from the norm or trend and Glimmerglass does that. It's even different than Melissa Marr's series regarding fairies. Fairies are a rarely touched upon subject in reading but have been making a slow headway in books today. This is my opinion, I've read a few fairy books and have heard of some more, but not as many as I've heard in my supernatural creatures category. Regardless, I loved this book and the series is already a fast favorite!

Look for the second book in the series, Shadowspell, in early 2011!