Glimpse

by Jonathan Maberry

How far would you be willing to go to save those you love?

Rain is a young woman trying to rebuild herself after years of drug addiction and abuse. Ten years ago, at age sixteen, she gave up her baby after the father, her first love, dies in Iraq. Now, three years clean and on the way to a job interview, Rain borrows a pair of reading glasses from an old lady on a Brooklyn train. The lenses are cracked and through the crack she catches a glimpse of a little boy running and screaming. The boy looks so much like Rain’s dead lover. Like their son must look now.

Rain realizes that the glasses give her quick glimpses of her lost son, Dylan, who needs her to find him. Dylan is important to our damaged, hopeless world. But he’s in terrible trouble because evil creatures - the Shadow People - are trying to corrupt and destroy him. If Dylan dies, then hope dies.

But how does a recovering junkie fight supernatural monsters? And how far will one woman go to save her lost son?

GLIMPSE is a supernatural thriller by NY Times best-selling author and 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner Jonathan Maberry. It will be published in hardcover by St. Martin’s Griffin in 2018.

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Audiobook

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2018

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Kaceey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*
Well, that was certainly different....!

What would you do if you woke up one morning to realize you missed out on an entire day!
That’s exactly what happened to Rain as she set off for a job interview, only to discover she’d missed her appointment by 24 hours!

On her way to the missed interview, Rain encounters an unusual elderly woman who gives her a cracked, but very exceptional pair of glasses. Somehow they allow Rain to see more clearly than she ever did before.
How wonderful! But now she’s seeing things that could not possibly be real. Rain’s life slowly begins imploding as well as those of her friends around her. Why does everyone seem to be sharing the same nightmares and visions?

This book is definitely out of my comfort zone. It has elements of horror combined with the supernatural. Normally those are genres that I wouldn’t touch. But every once in a while you need to step outside your bubble, right? 🙈

This is one of those dark, creepy reads you’d want to lose yourself in, but wary not to read after dark! A slow read that builds to a very satisfying ending. If you enjoy a book that leans a little more towards horror than thriller then this might be a great fit for you!

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Jonathan Maberry for granting my wish.

[Sunflowerbooklover · Rating 3 out of 5]

"They're his nightbirds. They always watch you. They want to steal your time"

Whatever you do don't say his name.....

Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry is a chilling story that bridges nightmares and reality to it's raw core.

Our main character Rain wakes up getting ready for a job interview. Rain is a recovering addict trying to get her life back on track. Rain has a very strange encounter.... while getting ready for her interview the shower curtain starts moving on it's own. But, no window is open in her bathroom... how can something move on it's own?

Rain quickly starts to spiral down into a world that is real or wait is it a nightmare with ghosts? Rain starts to have these strange dreams where I guess I would categorize them as your own demons and fears. I felt like I was hallucinating at some point reading some of these "events" that Rain experiences. I have to give the author Jonathan props.... this was definitely on the stranger side but also very creative on his part.

This was a little slow for my taste and I was waiting for something to pop out and grab me. But, it just didn't. I would say this is a slow-building horror story. I'm not sure I was categorize this as a mystery.

There is the typical theme of good vs evil in this novel. Whatever you do.... don't say his name ;).

One of the things that I did not like was characters called "Gay Bob" and "Straight Bob" in this novel. This really bothered me and I could not get past these names at all. I'm not sure where the author was going with this and why this was necessary?

Overall, 3 stars. It was just an ok read for me.... loved the short chapters too!! :)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for granting my wish in exchange for my honest review.
Published to GR: 3/24/18
Publication date: 3/27/18

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book blurb for Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry starts off calling it a chilling thriller but to me thriller are generally real people and real events with maybe the occasional touch of supernatural. Glimpse however already tells a reader that it is blending reality and nightmares so to me this one lands much more into the horror side of things.

The book starts off with the main character Rain having awakened to get ready for her job interview, a recovering addict she struggles day to day and that includes finding a good steady job. While in the bathroom getting ready though Rain has her first encounter that begins to show her things are not quite a normal day with the shower curtain moving on it’s own and then thinking she felt something behind it.

After the eventful time just getting out of the house already dropping readers into the what in the world is going on category Rain has more happen on the way to her interview. A woman offers her reading glasses when Rain finds she forgot her, Rain sees things in these glasses that are not really there, then upon arriving Rain finds she’s missed an entire day in her own life when she finds out she’s a day late for the interview.

These events are just the beginning for Rain as she finds herself tumbling into her own nightmares. I think at times reading the whole book almost made me feel like I’d become an addict myself and had slipped into hallucinations. Learning of Rain’s nightmares and how she became who she was and the events happening to her were definitely what I’d call on the strange side.

For me this one read a little on the slow side too thus my lowered rating, of course I will readily admit that I often have no patience and want all the answers now now now and tend to think things are building slowly. The story eventually became a good vs evil type of thing and the answers began to fall into place. Oh and a slightly small pet peeve with this one was a couple of characters named Gay Bob and Straight Bob…. everyone had somewhat weird names but I kept waiting for Sponge Bob to jump in with these two so yeah, just an annoyance that also kept me from falling in love. In the end though I actually did quite like how it all wrapped up so I’d say this one turned out to be an OK read for me by the end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't believe I've ever read a novel quite like GLIMPSE before; I'm not even sure how to categorize it.
After Rain has spent about 3 years trying to get clean, she is now battling a new demon who is trying to destroy her son. Such a truly creepy story filled with, not just dreams, but nightmares. This book definitely held my attention! I will be looking for more by this author.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glimpse

First a big thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book to review.

I love the Joe Ledger series. My best friend Morgannah Lefebvre teases me that hes my book boyfriend. So I wasn’t going into this novel unfamiliar with Maberry's work. Yet in some ways I may as well have been. In this story of an addict named Rain, who gave up her baby immediately after delivery at the tender age of 16 and refers cryptically to a Dr. Nine is very different as a MC than Joe Ledger. Yet they do have some aspects in common. They are both broken people that have an inner strength. They both represent in different manner the good in humanity forced through destiny, or fate or subconscious hoices to confront evil.
Maberry's style is colliquial without being lingoistic it is just a straight ahead balls to the wall I have a story to tell style which IMO makes him very readable and keeps the reader turning the pages.
Years ago Uncle Stevie and Robert Mccammon announced their retirements within a very short time of each other. Luckily the retirement from writinf didn’t seem to stick with either of then, yet wheb announced it felt like their retirement would leave a genre void. With this story Maberry really steps up his writing announcing he is truly ready to fill any void.

[Sadie Hartmann]

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. I didn't (couldn't) finish this book because of these issues:

1. The protagonist, Rain, is unreliable and not likable. I spent too much time trying to grab at wispy strands of the story and getting frustrated with the character and her constant questioning.

2. I hear the book improves with the introduction of some more entertaining characters later on, but I didn't feel like being patient with 100 pages to get to that point.

3. I think that relying on past drug abuse is the lazy way of building paranormal or supernatural experiences and I have trouble wading through hazy, psychotropic, unreliable "dreamy" realities.

Anyways, I DNF'd this book very early on because I have a large TBR and I generally don't like suffering through a book I'm not enjoying-my other books are waiting. I'm genuinely not turned off on Maberry as an author though and would like to try again with something else.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forced to give up her child at the age of sixteen, recovering drug addict Rain now lives a life in the shadows of regret and plagued by nightmares. When she finds herself running extraordinarily late for a job interview, she's discovers she's even later than imagined - Rain has, inexplicably, lost an entire day and has no memory of the twenty-four hours between Thursday and Saturday. Dejected, Rain encounters a mysterious woman on her train ride home who gives her a pair of cracked glasses and then vanishes. When looking through the fractured lens, Rain catches glimpse of people otherwise unseen...including a strange young boy in the company of an even stranger, older man - a man she knows as Doctor Nine, a man who has been haunting her nightmares.

Jonathan Maberry is a hugely prolific author, and one that I wish I could say I've read more of over the years. Although he's perhaps best known for his Joe Ledger series, I've only previously read his zombie stuff, the YA Rot & Ruin series and Dead of Night. I enjoyed those five titles quite a lot, but they did little to prepare me for what to expect here.

Glimpse is a far cry from those zombie thrillers, and Maberry crafts here a complicated, twisty, layered work of horror. I spent a good long while puzzling over how the various pieces and characters fit together while Maberry constructed and slowly built this tapestry of damaged characters and haunting encounters within New York and the strange, ethereal land of The Fire Zone. This is an assuredly more complex story than those earlier, straight-forward zombie pulps. It also has a surprising amount of depth to it, and the amount of information and story within belies the page count. When I say Glimpse feels like a much longer work, I mean this in the best possible sense. This one's a dense little sucker, hefty in its ideas and methodical execution.

Glimpse also feels a heck of a lot like the offspring of Joe Hill's NOS4A2, and I couldn't help but wonder how inspired Maberry was by that earlier work, or if this book would have existed without Hill's influence. There's a lot of commonalities between the two books, circling a number of similar themes and occurrences, and while they share a lot of the same genetic material (a strange villain capable of maneuvering between this world and another by way of a uniquely identifiable classic car, and The Fire Zone is almost a direct inverse of Christmasland), Glimpse stands well enough on its own, and Maberry is certainly comfortable enough in his own authorial skin, for this work to feel similar without being a derivative retread of the other.

At it's core, Maberry is writing about hope and redemption, of fighting for a better life in times of hopelessness. I would have liked to have seen more of the nicely creepy Doctor Nine, but the apocalyptic intonations and mythological folklore baked into the character are absolutely wonderful. Glimpse slowly builds toward a catastrophic, potentially apocalyptic, climax whose scale so terrifyingly casts a huge shadow over the characters that you can't help but feel a foreboding sense of hopelessness. The question then, of course, is how, or even if, Rain and her small support group of recovering addicts, can possibly overcome the all-encompassing terror surrounding them.

It's heady stuff, and Maberry does a remarkable job strumming all the various strings he's pulled together here. Glimpse is loaded with great characters, and I'd be remiss not to mention the tattooed psychic PI, Monk, who deserves a book of his own one day, and some very well depicted moments of fright and terror. All of this is wrapped up in a mind- and time-bending, perfectly executed, package.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story conjures some wicked imagery; think The Wraith by Joe Hill (for Dr. Nine and Dylan) and the scary Silent Hill nurses (for Dr. Nine's nurse assistant) for a glimpse into the nightmarish characters Glimpses so terrifies readers with.  Add a little of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden for good measure and this story becomes a veritable melting pot of horror. 

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2018/04/22/...

Glimpse is my second book by Jonathan Maberry, and I felt like I was taking a little bit of a chance because several years ago my attempt to read his book Patient Zero did not go so well. However, the premise simply sounded too good, and in the end I’m glad I overcame my hesitation to give this one a try because I really enjoyed it. In addition to being a blend of horror and the paranormal, this chilling story also has an element of otherworldly suspense that I think will make it appeal to fans of Joe Hill or Dean Koontz.

Glimpse follows recovering junkie Rain Thomas, a twenty-something young woman who has struggled to overcome tragedy and loss to build a life for herself in New York City. At age sixteen, she became pregnant and was forced to give her child up for adoption after Noah, her first love, was deployed to Iraq and killed in an IED attack before he even found out about the baby. An embarrassment to her upper crust family, Rain was essentially left to fend for herself after she succumbed to her grief and fell into of life of drug addiction.

Now three years clean, Rain is trying her best to stay that way, attending her support group meetings and trying to find steady employment. However, on the day of a big job interview, strange and disturbing things start happening around her. First, it was the malevolent presence she felt in the bathroom as she was getting ready that morning, then on the train heading into Brooklyn, an old woman gives Rain a pair of broken reading glasses before vanishing like she was never there. But what shakes Rain to her core is the sight of a little boy she catches through the cracked lens of the borrowed glasses, a boy who looks so much like her dead boyfriend Noah that she can’t help but think she is seeing a vision of the child she gave up almost ten years ago. With terror, Rain also believes she can sometimes recognize another figure in these creepy glimpses through the lens. Known only to her as “Doctor Nine”, he is a cruel and evil man who has been haunting her dreams, and now Rain fears that this creature out of nightmare may have her son.

Hands down, my favorite thing about this book was Rain, who was in every way my kind of protagonist—a tragic heroine, to be sure, but also a fighter and a survivor who has managed to pick herself up and out of the darkest time of her life. Maberry did a great job exploring and developing her personality because I found her to be very convincing; she’s just so genuine, so flawed, and so undeniably and deeply human that my heart really went out to her. There’s also a charm about her that I found strangely endearing, an almost protective feeling I developed for her character even though Rain has proven time and time again that she is strong enough to hold her own in the face of the most difficult or terrifying situations.

Rain’s past is also complex and well developed, revealed mostly through her intimate confessions at group therapy. These moments were woven seamlessly into the narrative, helping readers grow closer to the protagonist without resorting to awkward and sterile flashbacks to her childhood or teenage years. In fact, these interludes quickly became some of my favorite sections of the novel because of the way they made the story feel much more immediate, even if many of them were heartbreaking to read. I was affected in a way I rarely feel with a lot of horror fiction, and certainly, I felt much more here than I did with the author’s first Joe Ledger book, which mostly just left me feeling disconnected and bored.

Glimpse, on the other hand, is a much more elaborate and elegant novel. It’s incredibly atmospheric, for a start, dialing up the creep factor to 11. We also have a fantastic villain in Doctor Nine, who reminds me very much of a Charles Manx-like creature from Joe Hill’s N0S4R2, a predator who is able to slip in and out of a secret world that exists alongside ours in order to stalk his young victims. As well, Glimpse is made up many different components, including the POVs of a handful of other characters besides Rain, plus plenty of snippets from the past that are integrated into the present. There’s also an abstract element involving the bending and twisting of time and reality, which might not come across too clearly at first, but in the end, I was quite happy with how it all came together.

On the surface, Glimpse may be billed as a novel of paranormal horror and suspense. But dig a little deeper, and you will also find a tale of redemption and recovery, a story about confronting the demons of the past—both the figurative and literal ones. Simply put, it was a great read, with the plot holding my attention captive from beginning to end. I would love to read more like this from Jonathan Maberry.

[exorcismemily · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I lived in a haunted house, except it was me who was haunting it."

I don't even know where to start with Glimpse. This book was recommended to the Night Worms by Michael Patrick Hicks, and he was spot-on. Glimpse is so odd, and I loved it. This book has a slow, creeping horror, and it really sneaks up on you. I loved questioning where it was going throughout the novel because I had no idea what was going to happen. Sometimes horror and/or thriller novels can start to blend together, but this was a standout for me. I don't think it's going to be for everyone, and that's okay.

A huge portion of this book is about loss and struggling. Some parts were sadder than I expected, but I think hope and brokenness were woven together well in this book.

My only complaint is some of the character nicknames - I don't really understand why they were necessary (there were 3 that I thought were odd choices - you'll know if you read it).

I enjoyed reading this book, and I can't wait to read more from Jonathan Maberry (this was my first book by him). Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending us copies!

[Mindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

"Time is a scalpel," said Doctor Nine, "and hope is the whetstone that keeps it sharp."

This is the first May read for the horror read and review group NightWorms, and for the first time the Worm reviews are all over the place. Our reviews kind of mirror the novel itself. I liked parts of it but some parts didn't make a lot of sense. This is a book that is sort of all over the place, and it's too bad, because I think there is a good story buried under everything that is happening.

Rain is a recovering drug addict who lives alone in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. At 15 Rain fell in love with a boy who got her pregnant before going off to Iraq and dying there. With no support from her parents, and the child's father gone, Rain feels forced to give her baby up for adoption, thus setting her on the path that is her current life. She attends NA meetings regularly with friends, but bad dreams plague her nightly, and suddenly one day she wakes up to discover that a whole day is missing from her life.

That missing day, and what follows sets the stage for the novel. At times I felt like I was reading straight fiction. At other's it's very clearly a horror novel. But Glimpse also feels like it's trying to be a thriller and maybe even a mystery too. Even the cover looks like a thriller, and a few reviews here indicate that people were not expecting the horror elements when they picked this one up. Honestly, I feel like this book is trying to be a lot of different things, with a lot of ideas and situations swirling around in a story that if you look at it too hard doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

There are things that happen in this novel that purely exist to forward the narrative, and are then never explained. Rain is on the subway going to a job interview when she realizes that she left her reading glasses at home. A woman sitting next to her somehow reads her mind and offers her an old pair of glasses with a crack in one corner. Rain thanks the woman and uses the glasses, but in the next moment the woman is gone. Those glasses become a very important part of the story, and yet we are never given anymore information about the mysterious woman, other than that she is missing. It's one of many loose threads in a novel that is bursting with odd occurrences and strange dream worlds. Rain seems to meet all of the right people at the right time, and it just feels forced.

Like I said, I didn't hate this novel, but I didn't really love it either. I did like some of the characters. Monk is someone that could easily have an entire novel all his own. And the characters of Doctor Nine and his nasty crew are interesting. I just feel as if this book could have been pared down a bit in order to make it more cohesive. The story bounces back and forth between the real world and Rain's dream world, and it can get to be a bit too much at times.

Overall I liked this novel enough to want to read more from Maberry. I've heard good things about his other books, and I definitely look forward to giving him another chance.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

#netgalley #Glimpse
Jonathan Maberry has a creepy, twisty novel that will keep you on your toes. Rain is a woman, who is cracking mentally. She has become haunted and obsessed about an infant she gave up for adoption years before. While her mental health struggles, she finds a pair of cracked glasses, in them she has a vision of a child being chased by a man. The child looks eerily like her dead ex-boyfriend, who was the father of her child she gave up for adoption. Rain begins to find herself chasing after this boy or is she chasing hallucinations or ghosts? Maberry does an excellent job of twisting your mind to where you aren't even sure if Rain is hallucinating or if she might actually be leading herself down a rabbit hole of no return. You won't be sorry reading this book. It is a definite mind binder.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Enjoyable, and I felt compassion for main character Rain. The story started well, however I felt 3/4s in the story began dragging, and the denouement felt drawn out. I liked the characters, though I feel a wee bit uncomfortable that the white, main character had to be saved by her mixed race, queer, and heavy friends, a black man and an Asian monk. Though these supporting characters were individually interesting, they were there ultimately to serve Rain’s needs.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Maberry is mostly known for his action/intrigue Joe Ledger stories and his zombie stories; most of his series have intertwined and overlapped to one degree or another, but Glimpse seems to be a stand-alone. I thought the beginning was really excellent, but as the story progressed it kept expanding in different directions and different viewpoints and I thought it got a bit confusing and diffuse before it came to an end. There wasn't any one particularly strong character with which the reader finds a sympathetic connection, and the setting kept shifting around in a hard-to-follow manner. I enjoyed the book and thought it was very ambitiously structured, but it ended up not being quite as good I had hoped. (I listened to the audio version from my local library, and thought it was very well performed.)

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

NetGalley provided ARC.

This may be the creepiest story I have read in a long time. Jonathan Maberry has created a world of shadows and pain. But he has also created a world of hope. One simple word to drive away the chaos. Just, whatever you do, don't say his name.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Jonanthan Maberry for a good number of years and was delighted to hear of this new supernatural stand-alone novel not connected to the numerous series, collections, comics or YA projects this prolific author is often involved with. I enjoyed it so much I comfortably rank it alongside his finest adult work, “Patient Zero”, “Ghost Road Blues”, or “Dead of Night”. This mind-bender of a novel cleverly combines unsettling horror with supernatural thriller and fully deserves to pick up a wider audience beyond his traditional horror audience.

The main character is Rain Thomas who is a recovering drug addict, living in Brooklyn, with three years of hard earned sobriety under her belt. Her main group of friends are other addicts who support each other (‘the Cracked World Society’) and hang out in diners between NA meetings. Rain also has an on/off relationship with an aspiring artist who lives locally but they both struggle with commitment. She comes from a rich family, but has a frosty and very distant relationship with her mother involving unresolved issues from her past crucial to the story. All in all, Rain is a bit of a mess, but she, and her little dog Bug who is her most trusted friend, is doing her best.

The novel opens with Rain preparing for a job interview and whilst on the train is given an old pair of cracked glasses which, viewed through the crack, show a weird reality which is not our own. She sees a vision of a child being chased by a man which she instinctively connects to the deepest of her dark secrets, the fact that she gave up her new-born baby boy for adoption when she was sixteen. Combine her fragile mental health, addiction and guilt and you have a woman struggling with reality. Maberry does a superb job of twisting these conflicting factors into the damaged personality of Rain, and the pacing is truly superb as the author takes his time revealing slowly where the plot is heading. It really is a twister of a page-turning thriller which drives head-on into a dreamland of nightmares and the monsters which lurk there. But Rain is one tough girl, and you’ll be shouting for her from page one.

This novel had so many unsettling scenes and set pieces I hardly know where to begin, coupled with a full range of spunky support characters I really struggled to put this terrific book down. Reality and nightmares converge beautifully in “Glimpse” which also has one of the finest villains I have come across in ages, this dude ‘Doctor Nine’ is so nasty most characters are too scared to even say his name. He’s so unpleasant he would have most bog-standard bogeymen running for the hills with their tails between their legs and when the nightmares from dreams start seeping into the real-world things go from bad to worse.

The way in which the plot manipulates time is just so freakily realistic. Near the opening of the novel Rain turns up for her much needed interview, flustered but just about on time, the bemused receptionist tells her she’s a whole 24 hours late. Where did the day go? And of course, all her friends think she has slipped from the NA wagon. Keep an eye on this time element of the novel, it’s a particularly clever aspect of the plot, right until the cracking ending.

As things go on you are perhaps reminded of other novels ranging from Stephen King’s “Doctor Sleep”, Joe Hill’s “NOS4R2”, or films and TV shows “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but that’s not a criticism, nobody knows the horror genre better than Jonathan Maberry. In his own very cool way he mixes it all up and create a unique product which is 100% Maberry and 150% addictive.

There are many different themes thrown into the plot, guilt, memory loss, grief, pain and ultimately recovery. The drug side of the story is particularly convincing, and it makes Rain an engaging lead character as she is so damaged. She is no invincible killing machine like Maberry’s ‘Joe Ledger’ and all the better for it, few of us have demons in our closet as big as this lady. But along the way she gets help from super cool "Monk" Addison ... a tough guy investigator who is also a psychic investigator, now this dude could have walked straight out of a ‘Joe Ledger’ novel!

I really loved “Glimpse” and am very happy to give it the five-star treatment. If you’ve never tried Maberry before this is an excellent jumping in point, a perfect blend of supernatural horror and thriller packaged into a genuine page-turner which is hard to beat entertainment from start to finish.

5/5

[BibliofiendLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and scary and heartbreaking and creepy!

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to pull the plug on this one less than seventy pages from the end. I tried to finish, I really did; but Glimpse is a nonsensical, jumbled mess. Or maybe it just went over my head.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for supplying us Night Worms with free hardcovers in exchange for reviews, by the way. We appreciate it!

So this novel is about a recovering meth addict named Rain: she is mourning the loss of her baby daddy and had to give her son up for adoption . . . though she has begun seeing him in the strangest of places, at different ages, both dead and alive. And she’s seeing him through a pair of cracked glasses given to her by a strange woman who is supposedly missing.

Sounds like a cool setup, right?

The problem with this novel is, I think, it overreaches. It tries to be fantastical and it tries to be literary and it tries to be horror and it tries to be a combination of all those things while really not feeling like any of those things. It drifts in and out of feelings and moods so rapidly I almost could not keep up. Don’t misunderstand; I don’t mind authors mixing genres, but Jonathan Maberry does not pull it off here. Because he’s writing about the experiences of a suffering ex-junkie and her junkie pals, and their sensibilities, there’s a lot of gray area as far as what’s real and what’s not. At first I thought this was intriguing, but I found myself skimming pages and chapters, bored out of my head.

This is my first Jonathan Maberry, and I hope his other books are better. Unfortunately this was a total misfire.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I am a long time fan of Jonathan Mayberry. This was a different sort of book from what I am used to from him. It was a mind bender and the mystery in this story kept me guessing until the very end. I very much enjoyed this! Had a little bit of urban fantasy in the mix. It was an on the edge of your seat, flipping the pages type of book.
4.5

#stmattinspress

[Lou Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enter a world where magic is real. And the difficulties of dealing with Guilt and Grief are all pervasive .... This is nothing like the Joe Ledger books .. but rather , a unique, supernatural chiller tour de force. The "Cracked World Society": a group of 4 addicts fight for sobriety. All with memories of loss and pain and failure and descent into addiction. "Rain" (Lorraine) Thomas is are main protagonist and is a "hot mess" She circles the drain of life for seven years with multiple types of addiction ... racked with the guilt of giving away her baby at birth at age sixteen. The father leaves for Iraq, unknowing of the pregnancy and quickly dies in an inferno of flames in a Humvee accident.
Disowned by her family she struggles the last three years to maintain sobriety with the support of other three friends from narcotics anonymous.
She goes to sleep one night in anticipation of a much needed job interview on Friday. However, when she arrives for the interview, she discovers that she has missed it and "lost all of Friday" Her subsequent days spin out of control ... she continues to loose chunks of time .... and begins to confront the supernatural beings of her "dreams" leaking into her conscious life. While embarking on a journey to find answers realizes her friends are experiencing similar dreams and distortions of reality. She is aided by the appearance of "Monk" Addison ... a tough guy investigator .... a psychic bounty hunter who helps her unravel the mysteries and incongruencies
Maberry has weaved a complex, riveting tale that is relentless and probing... with a band of unforgettable characters. As an aside ... I would love to read more about "Monk" Addison.
I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this tantalizing novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Mike Saurers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not good at writing reviews so I just do it when I feel as if I owe the author more than the purchase of the book after having read it. Jonathan Maberry has, very sneakily, become my favorite author. This is a result of his constant production and quality of work. He just write kickass stories and knows what his readers want and he gives it to us.
With Glimpse, he ratcheted up the bizarre and the emotions. It’s a great story with a great cast of characters. Monk Addison rivals Joe Ledger in coolness. The other cast of characters in here are ones that make you care about and root for. And root against because there are some real A-holes in this story. This story took some hard turns and kept me guessing the whole way. I enjoyed it immensely.
Sorry this isn’t much of a better review. I would definitely recommend this book to my closest friends as I already have. Give it a read and if you haven’t, read his other stuff too. He’s a great story teller that is very loyal to his readers. He just constantly churns out great work.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Maberry’s Joe Ledger series so I was super excited that Netgalley gave me a chance to read this. Overall it was good. Pretty trippy, but these types of books are good when all I’m reading lately is crime novels. Reminded me a lot of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. I would have preferred more character development but the plot was good enough to keep me going.

[WendyB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing. Seemed like a short story that was stretched out to the point that most pages seemed like a repeat of the page before.
Had a hard time finishing this and that makes me sad since I've enjoyed Jonathan Maberry's books since the very first Joe Ledger story I read.

[Chasidy Kaye Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for review.
This book reminds me of Stephen King books from 20 years ago back when Stephen King was the best horror writer to ever pick up a pen. He is still the greatest ever but his writing style has changed. Jonathon Mayberry has picked up the torch and I for one am so glad to read this book.
This book had me from the very first page. I really could not put it down.
The backstory on the character named Monk could be a novel all by itself. I wish the author would write a book based on Monk and his abilities!!! I would definitely read it if he did.

[Frank Errington · Rating 5 out of 5]

No doubt, Jonathan Maberry has the ability to grab your attention with just a few words...

"It's like that sometimes.
It starts weird and in the wrong place.
This did
Rain Thomas went to bed on Thursday and woke up on Saturday.
She had no idea at all that someone had stolen a whole day from her until she arrived twenty-three hours and forty-eight minutes late for a job interview.
The interview did not go well."

I'm hooked. Instantly. No turning back.

One of the things I really liked about Maberry's latest novel is there are no squeaky-clean characters, they all have faults, much like what you find in real life but, at the same time Glimpse has little to do with real life. Having left her reading glasses at home, Rain is given a pair by an elderly Latino woman on the bus. A pair which gives her glimpses of things she wouldn't see otherwise.

When returning to the work of a favorite author there's a comfort level like no other.

Rain got pregnant as a teenager and gave up her child, Dylan, out of necessity. The decision haunts her, even in her dreams...

"I think it means those glasses are telling me the truth. I think it means that my son is out there, that I've been seeing him. And I think—God help me—I think he's in real trouble...I think monsters are trying to kill him."

A master storyteller weaving reality and dreams, but are they dreams, and what is real and what is imagination?

Mayberry has a knack of reaching out of the page, grabbing ahold of you and drawing you into the story. The man has some serious writing chops...

"Rain wanted to run. Not run home. Just run. Any way. Far away. She wanted to outrun her life."

At times Glimpse is scary as hell. My first great read of 2019. I loved this book although, from the other reviews I've seen, not everyone did. I understand their complaints, but for me, it comes down to how much you are willing to become invested in the story. This is not a novel for the casual reader

Ultimately this is a story of hope. Sure, there's violence, blood, and pain, not to mention weird, there's plenty of weird., but without hope, it's just so many words.

Recommended.

Published by St. Martin's Press and available in hardcover, e-book, and audio formats.

From the author's bio - Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Probably best known for his Joe Ledger novels and for his award-winning YA Rot & Ruin series. He currently resides in Del Mar, California and you can find him online at jonathanmaberry.com.

[Amie's Book Reviews]

As usual, Jonathan Maberry has written a book that is un-put-down-able.

Everything he writes is amazing. He is an expert at writing about regular everyday people who are flawed but still likeable and placing those people into situations so unique that readers can't stop until they have read the entire book.

GLIMPSE is a fantastic story. I rate it as 5+ out of 5 Stars and highly recommended it.

[myreadingescapism · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wait a minute, this wasn't action packed full of zombies or vampires and it was written by Jonathan Maberry. This was amazing and I loved it. Not his usual stuff, I have come to love. I'm just convinced he can do no wrong!

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give more stars, I would. The author's skills are tight and concise. Characters are so true to themselves and the story itself can scare the bejesus out you. I have loved him since I read "Ghost Road Blues".

[সাদমান হুসাইন · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like Maberry's Ledger series only, I find his other writing not suitable to my particular palate.

[Reading is my Escape · Rating 4 out of 5]

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
- Edgar Allan Poe

Rain's life is spinning out of control. Yes, she's an addict and her past is filled with mistakes, but now it seems her nightmares are coming to life.

Dr. Nine is the evil force in this book and he is creepy as hell. Rain and her friends are wonderfully flawed characters. And Monk is an amazing character all on his own, a cross between a private detective and paranormal vigilante.

I enjoyed this one. It is a bit of a slow burn, but totally worth it. I was surprised by the twists and by the ending. I love Maberry's writing, the Rot & Ruin series, the Pine Deep series, and the Dead of Night series. This one is different but still scary and fun.