The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano (Review)
Hello Again!
Christmas is fast approaching and I don't know about anyone else but I feel like this December has gone particularly fast. Anyways, I wanted my first review of the month to be The Glass Spare. I received this book in my first OwlCrate which I unboxed last month. I was hesitant to read it since I hadn't picked this book out myself and I can be a bit of a picky reader. I won't spoil my reaction here, read on below! Enjoy!
Synopsis
"Wilhelmina Heidle, the fourth child and only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.
One night Wil is attacked, and discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, though, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.
But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with Wil’s power.
With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?"
Review
As I said in the intro, I was hesitant to read this book because I can be a picky reader and like to pick my books out myself. However, I'm trying to be more open-minded with my reading and try new things so I took a leap of faith and dove into The Glass Spare and I was not disappointed. One of the first things I noticed is that this book while definitely utilizing the "courts, kingdoms, royalty" trope that is so prevalent in YA Fiction right now, it also had a distinct steampunk twist that complemented it very well.
One of the things which I found kind of odd was that the author seemed to switch between first and third person point of view during the passages and it would kind of throw me off. It wasn't a huge turn-off but it seemed a bit sloppy. I did, however, enjoy that the author allowed us to see from different character's points of view. I always enjoy seeing what other characters are thinking and feeling other than the main character.
Another thing this book had an issue with was pacing. The pacing in the first half of the book was a bit slow and she starts her adventure much later than you would think. About halfway through the book it picks up and is a whirlwind from there. The book is interesting throughout but the pacing was definitely not even.
As the synopsis tells, she crosses paths with a cursed prince whom she spends the second part of the book with and one of the things that was driving me insane (and the author probably did this on purpose) was that she kept her identity withheld from him the entire time. Every time the author gave hints in a scene that you thought the main character might tell him, she didn't which really kept the suspense high and I applaud her for that.
As you may or may not have picked up in the synopsis, this story has a mythological feel to it, utilizing the "King Midas" story. The book even references King Midas at points I believe. I love mythology and have always found it very interesting so I really enjoyed reading about this in the book and can't wait to see where she takes that part of the story in the next book. Another thing I enjoyed was that the way some of the action scenes were framed made them seem like they were taking place in an old western movie. I thought this was pretty unique but this may have just been something I picked up on.
Conclusion
Overall, I liked this book more than I thought I would. Although it started out kind of slow, it really hit its stride around halfway through the book. I think the story is unique enough to make it stand out from other series and create a following.
Length: At 416 pages, I thought this was a good length for this novel.
Story Development: The pacing in the first half of the book was a bit slow but it really picked up in the second half.
Romance: It felt like there were seeds of romance beginning to take root at times but then they seemed like mixed signals the next moment. Hopefully this will be clarified in the next novel.
Protagonist Strength: Above Average
Re-readable? Definitely!
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars
