Review: Glow by Aubrey Hadley

Glow: Book I, Potency by Aubrey Hadley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NetGalley provided me with a free e-copy of this book to review.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 since GR doesn't do half stars.

The concept was interesting. Finding out you're a human-alien hybrid has to be disorienting. Trying to figure out who in your life is telling you the truth sounds even more difficult, when both sides are telling wildly different (and completely unbelievable) stories. Poor Harper has to do both of these things, and her confusion definitely reigns in this book.

The thing is, I really just didn't love it. I can't say I've read it before, because I haven't, and can't think of anything else I've heard of that's similar. But for some reason it just didn't elicit any real emotions from me. I was disconnected from just about all of the characters. I worried more about the people left on earth than I did the hybrids in the Base of Ki. From the moment Harper's human body was dissolved and she became more Ancient than anything else, I had a general sense of unease about the Ancients that never went away. Everything was creepy, all of the Ancients' interactions with the hybrids were strange and condescending, and I just could not get past it all. Of course this was intentional, we were supposed to question the Ancients, but I just felt weird about it.

One thing I noticed (and mentioned in my reading notes) was that one of the hybrids who told his tragic story mentioned that his pregnant wife was executed right in front of him. But a big deal was made previously about the fact that hybrids were sterile. Was this an oversight, an error that was meant to be written out? Or were the Ancients lying about that, too?

The ending wasn't a satisfying ending, not even a cliffhanger. It was like the book just stopped, like there was supposed to be more but it got left out. After the however many pages (seriously it felt like 1000 pages), I think there could have been a couple more devoted to Harper thinking about what was going to happen next. Or at least something to make me clamor for book 2.

I have no idea where this is going to end, but I'm not sure I'll pick up the next book to find out. 2.5 stars because it wasn't a bad book and it was an OK read, I rounded up to 3 because I didn't feel like 2 was enough. But again, no spark for me. I guess it just wasn't the right book for me.

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