Book #79: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

This is a book someone recommended to me back at the beginning of the year when I asked for recommendations on Facebook. I've had it on my "to-read" list on Goodreads ever since then and just got around to it. I got the impression that it was a Hunger Games/Divergent type book, the first of a trilogy, in a post-apocalyptic universe, and I thought it sounded semi-interesting. Let's do a quick summary before I delve into my reactions to the book: the book is set on the Empyrean, a massive self-sustaining spaceship which is traveling to "New Earth," some eighty years away from the old, destroyed earth. The kids on the ship have lived there their entire lives. Waverly and Kieran are two of the oldest kids (16 years old) on the ship, and they have been dating for almost a year and get engaged to each other (because fertility and having babies is super important to everyone on the ship, so you're supposed to start that stuff early). But all of a sudden, their ship gets attacked by their sister ship, and all of the kids get separated and all the adults are either killed or taken hostage. The rest of the book goes between Waverly and Kieran's perspectives from their locations and their attempts to get back together and save all the kids.

I think this is a pretty interesting premise, really. It's definitely intriguing to imagine what it would be like to be born on a ship like that, to never have been anywhere else, and to live with a mission like "repopulate the entire population of the earth" and how that would affect you and your life. So I like that idea. And when it's compared to Hunger Games I feel like I can predict exactly what it's going to be like, but it'll probably be pretty enjoyable and easy to read, right? But turns out, I was so annoyed by basically everything that happened in this book.

First off, Ryan does an absolutely terrible job at building her characters and making them into people we might actually care about and be interested in seeing them survive and love each other. The book and the action start at the exact same time; the attack happens and I could honestly care less that Waverly and Kieran are separated because who are these people anyway? Also, Ryan has no subtlety in the few things she does try to tell us about the characters. Waverly is introduced to us and about two pages later she's complaining about how she can't get engaged to Kieran and just be his "passive little wifey." (Actual words from the book.) Oh, okay, I get it--Waverly is MORE than just a little princess wanting to get married first thing. What a brand new original thought, Ryan! Thanks for telling that to me so explicitly because I would never have suspected that from a contemporary dystopian novel with a female main character. She also creates the weakest love triangle I have ever seen, throwing in some random boy named Seth who apparently also likes Waverly, but she gives you about 1.5 pages where Waverly and Seth have a conversation, where it's clear that they haven't talked at all for the last 13 or so years and there's no reason we should be interested in them at all. So who does Waverly really like? I just don't know who she's going to choose and I'm so torn up about it!! (And note: I think the comparison to Hunger Games is weak here. Waverly is soooo much more annoying than Katniss.)

Lastly, and more important thematically, I was really bugged by Ryan's commentary on organized religion throughout this book. The evil sister ship, which kidnaps all the girls at the beginning of the novel, is run by Anne Mather, who is apparently just completely evil and is in charge of the church services run on that ship (which is significantly more religion-centered than the Empyrean, where Waverly grew up). On that ship, the common people are depicted as these clueless, ignorant sheep who just follow Mather because she's their religious leader, while she's secretly doing these terrible things and not telling them. And then when they get back to their original ship, Waverly freaks out and basically breaks up with Kieran because he's started religious services on their ship to help the boys' morale. Waverly equates religion with evil after her experiences with Mather, and I would have appreciated a much more nuanced portrayal of religion and God. I honestly feel like that was a kind of random element to add to the story, which just made me annoyed and just gave Waverly (and Ryan) some group to heap all their hatred on.

So, all in all, I was not a big fan of this book. Like I said, it's the first of a trilogy, but I do not intend to read the other two, because I couldn't wait to get through this one and be done with it. I think this is the first book I've given a one-star rating to on Goodreads, so there you have it. Did not like it. (But my other friends on Goodreads who have read it all gave it four or five stars, so maybe you will like it.)