Glow by Aubrey Hadley

GLOW
by Aubrey Hadley

Ruby & Topaz Publishing
February 13, 2019

From Goodreads:

The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome has returned after a six-month hiatus. This time, it’s popped up in New York, and it’s wiped out an entire homeless shelter.

The same night of the outbreak, Harper, a seventeen-year-old girl, stumbles across a glowing figure in the desert outskirts of her neighborhood. As her suburb goes on lockdown, Harper finds herself isolated from her friends and family, and soon begins to suspect that the events — though thousands of miles apart — may have something in common.

Harper must find her bravery and embark on a plot-twisting adventure that will have her looking for answers in unexpected places… and worlds.

The good people at NetGalley and Ruby & Topaz Publishing provided me with a digital ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

First things first. I still not 100% sure what this book is called. It’s either called Glow in a series of books called Potency, or it’s called Potency within the series Glow. Either way…

This is one of those examples of a really interesting idea and premise, where the execution just didn’t reach the levels I needed it to.

The characters, though some were interesting, felt really forced into their roles. Just when I’d get to know one of them, they would do something totally out of character with no good reason other than to move the plot forward. And many of them acted a certain way with no hint that there was a reason other than to make the main character’s life hell.

Just like some of the characters, big chunks of the plot seemed unnatural and a means to the ending. An ending, by the way, that felt like it should have been somewhere in the middle of the story. Cut a bunch of the middle stuff, make the “end” the middle, and write a new ending, then we’d have the start of something interesting.

Like I said, there could be a really interesting story in there somewhere, but I feel like this needs a big re-write to get there. If a second book comes out, I think I’d be willing to look into it, but there would have to be something very enticing to get me to go all in.

Fun fact about this post: Happy Monday!