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Glow #1
The Glow
For fans of Red Rising, Divergent and of Brandon Sanderson's Skyward.
✨A futuristic alien world, supernatural abilities, an ancient conspiracy, and the power of love and friendship; a teenage girl's life changes when she is abducted from home and becomes the human race's last hope to survive a deadly illness.✨
Harper just wants to be a normal seventeen-year-old girl, playing soccer with her friends and going to school, not understanding why her mom keeps her inside, locked away from the outside world. But once Harper stumbles upon a mysterious glowing figure in the Nevada desert, a chain-of-events is triggered that will change her life forever.
As the world experiences a deadly pandemic, Harper is taken far from home and held captive in the Base of Ki: a massive dome with a sheening white city and fantastic technology controlled by beings from another solar system. Was this why her mom was so keen to protect her?
Now she must form alliances -- and fast -- if she has any hope of returning to Earth. Harper's about to learn who she can rely on and who her real friends are, embarking on a journey that will expose her to dangers she doesn't yet understand . . .
*First published as Glow: Book I, Potency, now extensively rewritten, thanks to helpful reader feedback *💕
✨A futuristic alien world, supernatural abilities, an ancient conspiracy, and the power of love and friendship; a teenage girl's life changes when she is abducted from home and becomes the human race's last hope to survive a deadly illness.✨
Harper just wants to be a normal seventeen-year-old girl, playing soccer with her friends and going to school, not understanding why her mom keeps her inside, locked away from the outside world. But once Harper stumbles upon a mysterious glowing figure in the Nevada desert, a chain-of-events is triggered that will change her life forever.
As the world experiences a deadly pandemic, Harper is taken far from home and held captive in the Base of Ki: a massive dome with a sheening white city and fantastic technology controlled by beings from another solar system. Was this why her mom was so keen to protect her?
Now she must form alliances -- and fast -- if she has any hope of returning to Earth. Harper's about to learn who she can rely on and who her real friends are, embarking on a journey that will expose her to dangers she doesn't yet understand . . .
*First published as Glow: Book I, Potency, now extensively rewritten, thanks to helpful reader feedback *💕
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 24, 2020
8 people are currently reading
654 people want to read
About the author
Aubrey Hadley
2 books22 followers👉👉👉Hello! I am looking for betareaders for my Sci Fi Glow. Check it out here! http://author.aubrey-hadley.com/beta-...
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March 31, 2020So, I just got approved for this book on NetGalley. Honestly, I requested it such a long time ago that I even forgot about it.
I cannot find anywhere when I requested it but seeing that I added it in February 2019 here on GR it might be a good guess as any.
I cannot find anywhere when I requested it but seeing that I added it in February 2019 here on GR it might be a good guess as any.
April 19, 2019
I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
“Glow: Book I, Potency” by Aubrey Hadley isn’t a book for me. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Science Fiction and Young Adult books so this seemed like a great mixture of genres. The cover is undeniably stunning with a simple background with the person and sky being the main focus. Honestly, I expected to love this story, but I write this review disappointed as I'm unsure how to feel or rate this book. I go back and forth between 2 or 3 star rating, and I'll explain my feelings about why in this review.
The plot focuses on a 17 year old girl named Harper who is a part of a family that doesn’t seem to fully understand her in Reno, Nevada. Her mother and her fight constantly, her brother is distant and seems to be mother’s spy, and her little sister is her only ally in the family. After some time, a mysterious illness called the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome is spreading in select areas around the globe. The source of the illness is eventually revealed, and Harper is thrown into a new world outside of her comprehension with new rules to abide by. There are truths revealed and lies being told by many different species and individuals. The plot as a whole sounded exciting and was a reason I wanted to read. The beginning on Earth was super interesting and the part of the book I think was the best as I was drawn into the story and characters the most but the execution of the plot got bumpy the further I read.
One of the biggest hurdles is how much information there was in this story. This story could have been much shorter than the whopping 699 pages that it is. I understand that Ms. Hadley trying to emphasize that Harper is new to this world of aliens called “Ancients” and the hybrids that she now lives with. Therefore, she writes about a lot of information that a new individual may need to know in order to function in this society successfully, but it’s done in a way where there is information overload. There are so many details about what makes things function, how things are named, what everyone can do, where everyone comes from, and so much more that I was forgetting all of it. Earlier, in the book we learn about how Harper’s appearance has changed once she joins the Hybrid society and is getting questioned about her human features. By the halfway mark, I completely forgot what she looked like as there was so much information about her schedule that she was to follow while in the Hybrid world. Another example of information overload was that all hybrids and Ancients have processors in their fingers and there was a lot of information on how to use them and how they worked. In the end, I basically remembered that you blink and flick your fingers to get them to show images for you. All the extra details would be good if we were making a play or movie, so the actors know how to move or react in certain scenarios and showed off their personalities very well, but all the information just made the story drag on and made me lose interest.
Harper is also a typical character who doesn’t know she’s special but finds out she is, which is fine as I don’t mind that character stereotype in a YA book. I wish she had been just a little smarter. She seems to grab a hold of information easily than others, is super athletic, and makes friends with ease, but doesn’t stick with things that are important to her like talking to her family or refusing to be a part of rituals she hates. When you’re trying to fit into a new society you follow their rules, but she never seems to move forward as a character until later on in the book. If I’m honest the move forward didn’t fit with what I came to expect from her after reading the story for so long. Other readers have found her unlikeable, but I found her character to turn from likeable to uninteresting and gullible. That’s not the kind of character development I expected from a book that is supposed to be a series. Maybe later on she goes through another transformation?
The commentary throughout the book about humans and their behaviors as a whole was interesting to read. Honestly, I see where the Hybrids and Ancients saw that Humans did so much negative actions on Earth and each other. There are labor camps, slaves, forced prostitution, beatings, racism, and many more terrible things humans do to each other. It saddens me that it’s a part of our world, and I was glad that this YA wasn’t afraid to take the story there. I just wish there would have been a tad more focus on the hypocrisy on the Ancients behavior versus Humans versus Hybrids because there was a lot there. We got to read about it but it would have been nice to have more of a discussion and open comparison. Maybe this book will be a book club favorite and there will be some good discussion questions.
Please understand that I’m not saying this book is unenjoyable. I can see people who like a slow-paced book with a lot of world building and explanations about how things work could really enjoy this book. My personal view was that it was too many factors that made me unable to appreciate the story as much as I expected to. If it sounds interesting to you then give it a shot.
“Glow: Book I, Potency” by Aubrey Hadley isn’t a book for me. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Science Fiction and Young Adult books so this seemed like a great mixture of genres. The cover is undeniably stunning with a simple background with the person and sky being the main focus. Honestly, I expected to love this story, but I write this review disappointed as I'm unsure how to feel or rate this book. I go back and forth between 2 or 3 star rating, and I'll explain my feelings about why in this review.
The plot focuses on a 17 year old girl named Harper who is a part of a family that doesn’t seem to fully understand her in Reno, Nevada. Her mother and her fight constantly, her brother is distant and seems to be mother’s spy, and her little sister is her only ally in the family. After some time, a mysterious illness called the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome is spreading in select areas around the globe. The source of the illness is eventually revealed, and Harper is thrown into a new world outside of her comprehension with new rules to abide by. There are truths revealed and lies being told by many different species and individuals. The plot as a whole sounded exciting and was a reason I wanted to read. The beginning on Earth was super interesting and the part of the book I think was the best as I was drawn into the story and characters the most but the execution of the plot got bumpy the further I read.
One of the biggest hurdles is how much information there was in this story. This story could have been much shorter than the whopping 699 pages that it is. I understand that Ms. Hadley trying to emphasize that Harper is new to this world of aliens called “Ancients” and the hybrids that she now lives with. Therefore, she writes about a lot of information that a new individual may need to know in order to function in this society successfully, but it’s done in a way where there is information overload. There are so many details about what makes things function, how things are named, what everyone can do, where everyone comes from, and so much more that I was forgetting all of it. Earlier, in the book we learn about how Harper’s appearance has changed once she joins the Hybrid society and is getting questioned about her human features. By the halfway mark, I completely forgot what she looked like as there was so much information about her schedule that she was to follow while in the Hybrid world. Another example of information overload was that all hybrids and Ancients have processors in their fingers and there was a lot of information on how to use them and how they worked. In the end, I basically remembered that you blink and flick your fingers to get them to show images for you. All the extra details would be good if we were making a play or movie, so the actors know how to move or react in certain scenarios and showed off their personalities very well, but all the information just made the story drag on and made me lose interest.
Harper is also a typical character who doesn’t know she’s special but finds out she is, which is fine as I don’t mind that character stereotype in a YA book. I wish she had been just a little smarter. She seems to grab a hold of information easily than others, is super athletic, and makes friends with ease, but doesn’t stick with things that are important to her like talking to her family or refusing to be a part of rituals she hates. When you’re trying to fit into a new society you follow their rules, but she never seems to move forward as a character until later on in the book. If I’m honest the move forward didn’t fit with what I came to expect from her after reading the story for so long. Other readers have found her unlikeable, but I found her character to turn from likeable to uninteresting and gullible. That’s not the kind of character development I expected from a book that is supposed to be a series. Maybe later on she goes through another transformation?
The commentary throughout the book about humans and their behaviors as a whole was interesting to read. Honestly, I see where the Hybrids and Ancients saw that Humans did so much negative actions on Earth and each other. There are labor camps, slaves, forced prostitution, beatings, racism, and many more terrible things humans do to each other. It saddens me that it’s a part of our world, and I was glad that this YA wasn’t afraid to take the story there. I just wish there would have been a tad more focus on the hypocrisy on the Ancients behavior versus Humans versus Hybrids because there was a lot there. We got to read about it but it would have been nice to have more of a discussion and open comparison. Maybe this book will be a book club favorite and there will be some good discussion questions.
Please understand that I’m not saying this book is unenjoyable. I can see people who like a slow-paced book with a lot of world building and explanations about how things work could really enjoy this book. My personal view was that it was too many factors that made me unable to appreciate the story as much as I expected to. If it sounds interesting to you then give it a shot.
January 7, 2019
Oh boy. I don't even know where to start with this one. How could a book about aliens and alien-human hybrids be so boring?
Seventeen-year-old Harper is pretty much an average teen living in Reno, Nevada with her mom, older brother, and younger sister. Harper is homeschooled, and her mom is really strict, so Harper doesn't have much freedom, which is why she sneaks out to play soccer with her friends. It's summer vacation, but life isn't entirely carefree - a deadly virus has wiped out huge populations in Kenya and New York. The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome is as mysterious as it is lethal - no one knows what it is, how it spreads, or how to treat it. Harper's life changes forever when the Sleeping Syndrome hits Reno. The CDC has Harper's neighborhood on lockdown, and Harper is alone in her house. Her mother and siblings were outside the area when the CDC shut the area down, so Harper is trapped, by herself, in her house.
At this point in the story, I was LOVING this book. It was like a YA version of Contagion. I love reading about diseases and was absolutely riveted by the story. Especially with the sci-fi twist:
Harper decides to make a run for it. Her neighbors are dying all around her, and she's terrified. But her escape plan goes wrong, and she ends up in the clutches of the ALIENS who are responsible for the Sleeping Syndrome. Not only was abducted by aliens, but it turns out that Harper is actually an alien-human hybrid. The aliens are collecting the hybrids as the other humans die from the disease, because the hybrids are immune due to their alien blood. The plan, of course, is to exterminate mankind. The rest of the book follows Harper as she learns about the aliens and their civilization, and as she ultimately fights to save humanity.
Like I said, I loved this book at first, but that changed right after Harper was picked up by the aliens. After that, I was bored to tears. Hadley has some great ideas for a sci-fi novel, but it's like she missed that day of school when you learn that writers should SHOW instead of TELL. This book is a whole bunch of telling, and it's exhausting. The alien world is never actually showed to us, but revealed in conversations. All the the dialogue about the great alien race, their civilization, and their plans is almost unreadable. I don't want to read dry passages about the aliens, I want to see their world and be shown what exactly is going on. Instead, the reader is forced to process pages and pages of Harper being told all about the aliens. The plot gets lost, and I found myself skimming a lot of the middle section of the book.
Harper herself turns out to be an extremely flat character. I mean, the girl was ABDUCTED BY ALIENS and sure, she's a little startled, but she got used to the situation pretty fast. All of the hybrids she's with are slowly losing their human memories, but Harper's attitude is more than just a result of the memory loss. She's so accepting of her fate and new identity - almost passive. Her fight to save humanity could have been so much better - there is a lot of scheming and plotting - but Harper's boring personality makes everything fall flat. And it's not just Harper's personality, but the plot itself - there is no suspense, no urgency. It's like Hadley is so focused on her worldbuilding that she neglected everything else. The characters are all completely forgettable and the plot was just underwhelming.
I really had to force myself to finish this book, but I'm giving it two stars instead of one because I did really enjoy the first hundred pages or so. It looks like Glow is going to have at least one sequel, but I won't be reading it. Even so, I really hope Hadley dedicates more time to her characters and the story itself in her subsequent books. She does seem to have some great ideas for a sci-fi novel, but she hasn't quite mastered how worldbuilding works yet. This book is 600 pages, and most of that was telling. I would like to see her actually stick her characters in that alien world and let her show it to us from their eyes. Glow didn't need to be 600 pages, but I think it ended up being that long because all of the action takes place in Nevada and in the spaceship (or whatever the Base of Ki was), and we never actually got to the alien world, so Hadley had to painstakingly describe it.
Unfortunately, I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone. There are so many other good YA sci-fi books out there. But all of the problems I had with the book are 100% fixable, and I sincerely wish Hadley the best of luck with the rest of this series!
ARC provided by Ruby & Topaz Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Come to my blog!
Seventeen-year-old Harper is pretty much an average teen living in Reno, Nevada with her mom, older brother, and younger sister. Harper is homeschooled, and her mom is really strict, so Harper doesn't have much freedom, which is why she sneaks out to play soccer with her friends. It's summer vacation, but life isn't entirely carefree - a deadly virus has wiped out huge populations in Kenya and New York. The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome is as mysterious as it is lethal - no one knows what it is, how it spreads, or how to treat it. Harper's life changes forever when the Sleeping Syndrome hits Reno. The CDC has Harper's neighborhood on lockdown, and Harper is alone in her house. Her mother and siblings were outside the area when the CDC shut the area down, so Harper is trapped, by herself, in her house.
At this point in the story, I was LOVING this book. It was like a YA version of Contagion. I love reading about diseases and was absolutely riveted by the story. Especially with the sci-fi twist:
Harper decides to make a run for it. Her neighbors are dying all around her, and she's terrified. But her escape plan goes wrong, and she ends up in the clutches of the ALIENS who are responsible for the Sleeping Syndrome. Not only was abducted by aliens, but it turns out that Harper is actually an alien-human hybrid. The aliens are collecting the hybrids as the other humans die from the disease, because the hybrids are immune due to their alien blood. The plan, of course, is to exterminate mankind. The rest of the book follows Harper as she learns about the aliens and their civilization, and as she ultimately fights to save humanity.
Like I said, I loved this book at first, but that changed right after Harper was picked up by the aliens. After that, I was bored to tears. Hadley has some great ideas for a sci-fi novel, but it's like she missed that day of school when you learn that writers should SHOW instead of TELL. This book is a whole bunch of telling, and it's exhausting. The alien world is never actually showed to us, but revealed in conversations. All the the dialogue about the great alien race, their civilization, and their plans is almost unreadable. I don't want to read dry passages about the aliens, I want to see their world and be shown what exactly is going on. Instead, the reader is forced to process pages and pages of Harper being told all about the aliens. The plot gets lost, and I found myself skimming a lot of the middle section of the book.
Harper herself turns out to be an extremely flat character. I mean, the girl was ABDUCTED BY ALIENS and sure, she's a little startled, but she got used to the situation pretty fast. All of the hybrids she's with are slowly losing their human memories, but Harper's attitude is more than just a result of the memory loss. She's so accepting of her fate and new identity - almost passive. Her fight to save humanity could have been so much better - there is a lot of scheming and plotting - but Harper's boring personality makes everything fall flat. And it's not just Harper's personality, but the plot itself - there is no suspense, no urgency. It's like Hadley is so focused on her worldbuilding that she neglected everything else. The characters are all completely forgettable and the plot was just underwhelming.
I really had to force myself to finish this book, but I'm giving it two stars instead of one because I did really enjoy the first hundred pages or so. It looks like Glow is going to have at least one sequel, but I won't be reading it. Even so, I really hope Hadley dedicates more time to her characters and the story itself in her subsequent books. She does seem to have some great ideas for a sci-fi novel, but she hasn't quite mastered how worldbuilding works yet. This book is 600 pages, and most of that was telling. I would like to see her actually stick her characters in that alien world and let her show it to us from their eyes. Glow didn't need to be 600 pages, but I think it ended up being that long because all of the action takes place in Nevada and in the spaceship (or whatever the Base of Ki was), and we never actually got to the alien world, so Hadley had to painstakingly describe it.
Unfortunately, I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone. There are so many other good YA sci-fi books out there. But all of the problems I had with the book are 100% fixable, and I sincerely wish Hadley the best of luck with the rest of this series!
ARC provided by Ruby & Topaz Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Come to my blog!
May 1, 2019
Well I never made it onboard with these characters. I generally enjoy YA science fiction but this reads more on a middle school level.
*Thanks to NetGalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.*
*Thanks to NetGalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.*
May 8, 2019
Glow : Book I, Potency by Aubrey Hadley is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. I enjoyed this book that has some creepy moments in which the reader is guessing as to what is going on for a great deal of the first half. It takes a wild turn and becomes something altogether different after that! Wow! Then it just keeps pulling the rug out from under the reader! Great suspense and twists. Great characters too! Would have given it a five star is but right at the end some key players suddenly have a total character change that didn't seem normal even for this book. It just didn't for although it was nice, it just didn't fit. Loved the book!
February 23, 2019
A deadly disease has taken out countless humans. In Reno, Nevada, seventeen-year-old Harper is left stranded in her home, quarantined and alone. All that after seeing a mysterious glowing figure in the desert, where she wasn’t supposed to be, anyway. Was she hallucinating? Was it an alien lifeform? Was it the cause of the death throughout the world? Harper is about to enter a world she never dreamed of, a world of visitors from another world, a world she may just be part of. Can she trust the military to keep her safe or will she find they are trying to keep her contained. Why are her neighbors dying, and yet she is still alive? Is there anyone she can trust?
POTENCY by Aubrey Hadley is a leap into another reality, filled with intense details, moments of quiet, surprise and danger as one teen must face a new reality and come to terms with who and what she really is.
Rich in detail, this is not a read to rush through, there is a solid foundation laid for more action, hopefully enough that book two will take off and we will be transported into Harper’s new world. I enjoyed the detail, the need to pay close attention to details and felt Harper’s isolation and turmoil a she was forced to rely those who could be her enemies for survival.
I see what could be a fabulous series, if the pace is a little faster now that we have tons of information setting the stage!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Ruby & Topaz Publishing!
Series: Glow - Book 1
Pub Date 16 July 2019
Publisher: Ruby & Topaz Publishing
Genre: YA Sci-fi
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
POTENCY by Aubrey Hadley is a leap into another reality, filled with intense details, moments of quiet, surprise and danger as one teen must face a new reality and come to terms with who and what she really is.
Rich in detail, this is not a read to rush through, there is a solid foundation laid for more action, hopefully enough that book two will take off and we will be transported into Harper’s new world. I enjoyed the detail, the need to pay close attention to details and felt Harper’s isolation and turmoil a she was forced to rely those who could be her enemies for survival.
I see what could be a fabulous series, if the pace is a little faster now that we have tons of information setting the stage!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Ruby & Topaz Publishing!
Series: Glow - Book 1
Pub Date 16 July 2019
Publisher: Ruby & Topaz Publishing
Genre: YA Sci-fi
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
July 10, 2020
**** Update ****
I rarely reread books. Don't have a lot of time to read, so I enjoy reading new adventures with new characters. Annnnd I NEVER reread a book that I found okay the first time. But when the publisher contacted me to know what I didn't like in the book, and later to ask me to review it again because they worked hard to improve it, I wanted to reread it. Because the premise was good and interesting, and the book was promising. It was just all over the place.
Well... This second version is much better. The efforts showed.
____________________________________________________________
Well... That was an interesting ride. I still don't know exactly how I feel about this book... it's an adventure-packed story, but with soooo many unbelievable parts that I couldn't jump 100% into it. It's sad, really. It has so much potential, but it looks like it needs more work.
Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
I rarely reread books. Don't have a lot of time to read, so I enjoy reading new adventures with new characters. Annnnd I NEVER reread a book that I found okay the first time. But when the publisher contacted me to know what I didn't like in the book, and later to ask me to review it again because they worked hard to improve it, I wanted to reread it. Because the premise was good and interesting, and the book was promising. It was just all over the place.
Well... This second version is much better. The efforts showed.
____________________________________________________________
Well... That was an interesting ride. I still don't know exactly how I feel about this book... it's an adventure-packed story, but with soooo many unbelievable parts that I couldn't jump 100% into it. It's sad, really. It has so much potential, but it looks like it needs more work.
Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
June 16, 2019
The Syndrome -- a strange sleeping sickness -- has been killing people. A lot of people. It kills....then disappears....only to pop up somewhere else. The signs are always the same...strange behavior followed by a compulsion to sleep. Those afflicted are dead within 24 hours. This time, The Syndrome has hit New York. An entire homeless shelter filled with people....gone. Dead. At the same time far away in Nevada, a young girl named Harper sees a strange glowing being. She begins to think the glowing human-like creature has something to do with The Syndrome....but she isn't sure how. Or Why. Harper is determined to find the answers....no matter what the cost.
I normally enjoy YA science fiction....but I never really connected with this story or the characters. The plot is a bit disjointed and never really gelled for me. At one point, things totally change for Harper (I'm trying to be careful and not spoil the plot so I'm not going to go into detail about what this change entails) and it's a shocking change/revelation....but instead of being exciting, suspenseful and compelling at that point, the writing and plot just fell flat. The character was too accepting of the new circumstances. Other side characters and events were never fully developed. I think this book is a wonderful premise.....it just needs some more tweaking and strengthening prior to publication. With some editing, I think this could be a much stronger story. I will add that the cover art is phenomenal!
This review is written based on the advanced readers copy I received from the publisher. I'm going to limit this review to my blog and Goodreads for that reason. If further edits are made, I will gladly re-read, amend this review, and share the review more widely. The premise and bones of the story have great potential. It just needs a bit more work. And, as always, this is just my opinion. Other readers may feel differently. Not every story is for every reader.
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Ruby & Topaz Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
I normally enjoy YA science fiction....but I never really connected with this story or the characters. The plot is a bit disjointed and never really gelled for me. At one point, things totally change for Harper (I'm trying to be careful and not spoil the plot so I'm not going to go into detail about what this change entails) and it's a shocking change/revelation....but instead of being exciting, suspenseful and compelling at that point, the writing and plot just fell flat. The character was too accepting of the new circumstances. Other side characters and events were never fully developed. I think this book is a wonderful premise.....it just needs some more tweaking and strengthening prior to publication. With some editing, I think this could be a much stronger story. I will add that the cover art is phenomenal!
This review is written based on the advanced readers copy I received from the publisher. I'm going to limit this review to my blog and Goodreads for that reason. If further edits are made, I will gladly re-read, amend this review, and share the review more widely. The premise and bones of the story have great potential. It just needs a bit more work. And, as always, this is just my opinion. Other readers may feel differently. Not every story is for every reader.
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Ruby & Topaz Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
April 15, 2019
i’ll be honest. once she got to space or whatever, i stopped caring.
Edit: I feel like this is important to include because whenever I think about this book, this is the only thing that comes to mind. It was written like a 2014 wattpad fanfic. I don’t mean the good fanfics either. The novel consisted of bland telling. There was no showing.
Harper was extremely annoying and I could not get past the whole iM nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs aspect of her. Again, it seemed like she was a character taken from one of those I Was Adopted by One Direction fanfics.
I feel like this book deserves about two stars. However, I didn’t finish it around 20% of the way because I was bored out of my mind. By default, it receives one star.
Edit: I feel like this is important to include because whenever I think about this book, this is the only thing that comes to mind. It was written like a 2014 wattpad fanfic. I don’t mean the good fanfics either. The novel consisted of bland telling. There was no showing.
Harper was extremely annoying and I could not get past the whole iM nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs aspect of her. Again, it seemed like she was a character taken from one of those I Was Adopted by One Direction fanfics.
I feel like this book deserves about two stars. However, I didn’t finish it around 20% of the way because I was bored out of my mind. By default, it receives one star.
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January 17, 2019Glow is the first book in a series. Our first person narrator is Harper Loomis, a seventeen-year-old homeschooled girl who sneaks out to play soccer, and who hopes to go to Stanford to study science. She’s got a paranoid mom, no mention of a dad until way later, and an older brother with whom she argues all the time.
Her besties are more interesting than her family—Katie a bit of a wild child, Maria, a good-hearted, smart girl whose family thinks it a waste of time for her to try for college, and Jane, whose family is heavily into conspiracy theories.
Harper’s life takes an abrupt turn when she’s first locked into her house as her neighborhood is quarantined because of a possible deadly outbreak of a mysterious disease. When she discovers her neighbors are all dead, she tries to run . . .
And ends up in the hands of aliens, who proceed to alter her into a hybrid. The bulk of this very long novel is her life as a hybrid, and her decision what to do about it.
There’s a lot going for the novel, and a lot that holds it back from being great. The alien hybrid section is by far the longest, and it doesn't help that the book is told in the now-hip first person present tense. The wodges of detail about alien biology are especially awkward in present tense; it's clear that the author delights in scientific extrapolation, as the alien biology is extremely detailed.
We learn far more about alien biology than we do about the alien world—or than we learned about Harper’s family members; she tries to hold onto her family . Caring about those she rejected is an admirable trait, but as we never really saw anything except Harper’s adversarial relationship with them, it feels somewhat tacked on.
I liked the relationships Harper develops in the alien world, and the gradual decision to do something about her situation. The climactic section is a real nail-biter, especially after some excruciatingly detailed descriptions of human venality and cruelty in the middle, intensified by the knowledge that the aliens are systematically wiping out all human life.
I really liked Harper. I liked her curiosity, her self-doubts, and I’m always a sucker for developing mysterious powers. Harper’s power comes suddenly, but when it happens, it’s awesome.
In short, a rocky start (that desperately needs proofreading), but a lot going for it; I will definitely be on the lookout for Book Two.
Copy provded by NetGalley
Her besties are more interesting than her family—Katie a bit of a wild child, Maria, a good-hearted, smart girl whose family thinks it a waste of time for her to try for college, and Jane, whose family is heavily into conspiracy theories.
Harper’s life takes an abrupt turn when she’s first locked into her house as her neighborhood is quarantined because of a possible deadly outbreak of a mysterious disease. When she discovers her neighbors are all dead, she tries to run . . .
And ends up in the hands of aliens, who proceed to alter her into a hybrid. The bulk of this very long novel is her life as a hybrid, and her decision what to do about it.
There’s a lot going for the novel, and a lot that holds it back from being great. The alien hybrid section is by far the longest, and it doesn't help that the book is told in the now-hip first person present tense. The wodges of detail about alien biology are especially awkward in present tense; it's clear that the author delights in scientific extrapolation, as the alien biology is extremely detailed.
We learn far more about alien biology than we do about the alien world—or than we learned about Harper’s family members; she tries to hold onto her family . Caring about those she rejected is an admirable trait, but as we never really saw anything except Harper’s adversarial relationship with them, it feels somewhat tacked on.
I liked the relationships Harper develops in the alien world, and the gradual decision to do something about her situation. The climactic section is a real nail-biter, especially after some excruciatingly detailed descriptions of human venality and cruelty in the middle, intensified by the knowledge that the aliens are systematically wiping out all human life.
I really liked Harper. I liked her curiosity, her self-doubts, and I’m always a sucker for developing mysterious powers. Harper’s power comes suddenly, but when it happens, it’s awesome.
In short, a rocky start (that desperately needs proofreading), but a lot going for it; I will definitely be on the lookout for Book Two.
Copy provded by NetGalley
February 25, 2021
Even though science fiction is not my first go-to genre, my favorite book of all time (Gemina from the Illuminae files) is what made me start loving and branching out to scifi books more! As an engineer, I felt a special connection to Harper, we both love science and we are both fascinated by the discovery of the new.
The story reads in a very fast paced manner, we discover that Earth is being plagued by a highly contagious disease which is spreading. Reading this book during this pandemic times we are all going through makes it feel all the more tangible and real. Glow had me completely hooked! I had this frantic feeling while reading like if was being thrown curved ball after curved ball and had no idea what to do.
Harper has a difficult relationship with her strict mother who is prone to violent behavior. I found this an important relatable element that the author included that shows not only complicated family dynamics but also domestic abuse. I also felt that there was something unique about Harper, which would explain her mother's control-freak behavior. Once Harper is abducted by aliens, I could not put the book down! We meet lots of intriguing characters and I really enjoyed their friendships with Harper. The ending had me reeling! I am very excited for the next book!
Thank you to the author for gifting me a copy for review!
The story reads in a very fast paced manner, we discover that Earth is being plagued by a highly contagious disease which is spreading. Reading this book during this pandemic times we are all going through makes it feel all the more tangible and real. Glow had me completely hooked! I had this frantic feeling while reading like if was being thrown curved ball after curved ball and had no idea what to do.
Harper has a difficult relationship with her strict mother who is prone to violent behavior. I found this an important relatable element that the author included that shows not only complicated family dynamics but also domestic abuse. I also felt that there was something unique about Harper, which would explain her mother's control-freak behavior. Once Harper is abducted by aliens, I could not put the book down! We meet lots of intriguing characters and I really enjoyed their friendships with Harper. The ending had me reeling! I am very excited for the next book!
Thank you to the author for gifting me a copy for review!
February 28, 2021
This fast paced story will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat and make you binge the pages!
I am not one to gravitate to towards scifi, this one reeled me in! I am a sucker for past pace stories and this was exactly that. Harper reminded me a lot of my niece, she loves science and is in absolutely awe with science. I loved the determination of the main character and the support of the side character. The effort that was placed by the characters to find out how they could save the world from this unknown sleep syndrome was pretty intense! It's crucial to me to connect with the characters in order to be completely pulled into the story, I was pretty satisfied with what I had at hand during the unraveling of the story. I would love to learn more of a back story on some of the characters!
The fact that the book is based on a syndrome affecting the world, this totally gave me vibes of the pandemic we are dealing with. The author did an amazing job with the character development of the characters, the world building definitely helped me put together this new world. Scifi is always a little tricky for me to follow but this was done in a way that I didnt get lost.
I look forward to reading more from Aubrey Hadley. This story was definitely a pleasant surprise and it definitely gave me that push to dive more into scifi! Thank you so much to the author for gifting me a copy of the book! Great story!
I am not one to gravitate to towards scifi, this one reeled me in! I am a sucker for past pace stories and this was exactly that. Harper reminded me a lot of my niece, she loves science and is in absolutely awe with science. I loved the determination of the main character and the support of the side character. The effort that was placed by the characters to find out how they could save the world from this unknown sleep syndrome was pretty intense! It's crucial to me to connect with the characters in order to be completely pulled into the story, I was pretty satisfied with what I had at hand during the unraveling of the story. I would love to learn more of a back story on some of the characters!
The fact that the book is based on a syndrome affecting the world, this totally gave me vibes of the pandemic we are dealing with. The author did an amazing job with the character development of the characters, the world building definitely helped me put together this new world. Scifi is always a little tricky for me to follow but this was done in a way that I didnt get lost.
I look forward to reading more from Aubrey Hadley. This story was definitely a pleasant surprise and it definitely gave me that push to dive more into scifi! Thank you so much to the author for gifting me a copy of the book! Great story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2019
First, I read this in February, and when I went to post it on NetGalley, they changed the publishing date from February 14th to July 16th. I posted this review there anyway, and thought I'd hang on to this, as I try to post my reviews a week or two before the publishing date. However, since I don't plan on re-reading it, have no plans to change my review, and basically am just sick of looking at it, I'm not holding it back any longer. So let's begin...
Potency by Aubrey Hadley is Book 1 in the Glow series. It is a science fiction novel.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Ruby & Topaz Publishing, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
My Synopsis: (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Harper is just an ordinary teen, being home-schooled by her over-protective mother. Her younger sister and older brother don’t seem to have as many issues with their mom as she does. Harper and her mom are always fighting, resulting in non-stop groundings, and non-stop sneaking out to play soccer with her friends.
When the Mara Sleeping Syndrome returned to the country, Harper ended up in quarantine, while the rest of her family remained free. When her brother attempted to break her out, things got weird. Harper ended up in a different world. A totally different world. A world of Ancients, and Sentinels, Aliens and Hybrids. She will end up doubting everything she ever knew about her life.
My Opinions:
The book is rather fresh, and started out strong, but after a while it dragged. Although the author did an awesome job of showing us her imaginary world, the detailed descriptions just added more length to the book, without adding substance. There wasn’t a lot of action, so it moved slow. The characters were interesting, but not fleshed out as well as they could be.
All that being said, the premise is good, and the story itself was captivating enough that it held your interest.
I do see potential in this series. As well, the cover of this book is simply amazing, and was created by the author. She is a talented designer.
I'd like to see where the author takes it from here.
August 6, 2019
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I was sent an eARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not change my view in any shape or form. You may also find this review here at Booked J.
This book captured my attention from the moment it was up on NetGalley. The synopsis sounded like pure gold and really appeared to be up my alley, while still being quite different from what I usually go for. (Plus, how could anyone say no to such a GORGEOUS cover? I was like, grabby hands, yes, please, take me away, Aubrey Hadley!)
Sadly, Potency wasn't for me. I'm not going to sit here and bash the book, naturally, and want to remind you guys that taste is subjective and what doesn't work for me... might work for you. In all truthfulness, this wasn't a bad book. Potency has a lot of markings to it that would signal the fact that it's going to be a great read for many others and, frankly, it may just have been my mood as I read it. Or it may just not be my time for it.
That being said, I found myself drawn to the way that Hadley built up the story. Or laid things out. The potential was all there, and the way it was executed was lackluster for me. There were a lot of elements to Potency that I genuinely liked, but for the most part the story dragged on a bit much for my personal preference. It didn't keep my attention like I expected it to and, to put it as bluntly as possible, that is something that says less about the writer and her story and more about me as a reader.
In short, Potency wasn't my cup of tea, but it isn't a bad read per se. It merely wasn't for me and that's okay. As always, you should not take my (or any reader's) review as the gospel.
I was sent an eARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not change my view in any shape or form. You may also find this review here at Booked J.
This book captured my attention from the moment it was up on NetGalley. The synopsis sounded like pure gold and really appeared to be up my alley, while still being quite different from what I usually go for. (Plus, how could anyone say no to such a GORGEOUS cover? I was like, grabby hands, yes, please, take me away, Aubrey Hadley!)
Sadly, Potency wasn't for me. I'm not going to sit here and bash the book, naturally, and want to remind you guys that taste is subjective and what doesn't work for me... might work for you. In all truthfulness, this wasn't a bad book. Potency has a lot of markings to it that would signal the fact that it's going to be a great read for many others and, frankly, it may just have been my mood as I read it. Or it may just not be my time for it.
That being said, I found myself drawn to the way that Hadley built up the story. Or laid things out. The potential was all there, and the way it was executed was lackluster for me. There were a lot of elements to Potency that I genuinely liked, but for the most part the story dragged on a bit much for my personal preference. It didn't keep my attention like I expected it to and, to put it as bluntly as possible, that is something that says less about the writer and her story and more about me as a reader.
In short, Potency wasn't my cup of tea, but it isn't a bad read per se. It merely wasn't for me and that's okay. As always, you should not take my (or any reader's) review as the gospel.
December 1, 2019
I had the pleasure of beta reading the revised version of Glow the (436 page version). Instantly I was drawn in by the Mara Sleeping Syndrome and how it affected the human body. I was also intrigued by the impact the disease made on Harper's family and neighbors and how it gradually became more pronounced. The spread of disease in fiction always fascinates me (possibly because of my interest in the psychology of the Black Plague), and it was well constructed in this book. I especially like how the personnel in the quarantine zone appear nice on the surface but also secretive; this made me feel Harper's tension with being stuck among them!
I was enthralled with this budding epidemic and expected a YA dystopian story; however, the book morphed into a Sci-Fi adventure when Harper is taken by the Ancients! After I was acclimated to the story's new turn, I became invested in the world of the Ancients with their beliefs, their technology, and their awe-inspiring architecture.
This is one of the best YA books I have read recently. There are no cliche love interests that dominate the story. Instead, we have a seventeen year old girl who is coming to terms with her family's unspoken lies and her true identity. We also see Harper's connection with her sister: one of her main motivators. As an older sister, her perspective to save her sister no matter what the consequences or the obstacles truly resonated with me.
Glow resonates with a plethora of deep life questions. I found myself contemplating the role of humanity and both its positives and negatives. This definitely provides a fascinating new lense to see our world and our place as humans in it.
Furthermore, this book is a page-turner! Once I started reading, it just flowed! There is a smoothness to the pacing that has finesse.
I highly recommend Glow. Already, I am waiting for the second book! Such a mesmerizing, thought-provoking story.
I was enthralled with this budding epidemic and expected a YA dystopian story; however, the book morphed into a Sci-Fi adventure when Harper is taken by the Ancients! After I was acclimated to the story's new turn, I became invested in the world of the Ancients with their beliefs, their technology, and their awe-inspiring architecture.
This is one of the best YA books I have read recently. There are no cliche love interests that dominate the story. Instead, we have a seventeen year old girl who is coming to terms with her family's unspoken lies and her true identity. We also see Harper's connection with her sister: one of her main motivators. As an older sister, her perspective to save her sister no matter what the consequences or the obstacles truly resonated with me.
Glow resonates with a plethora of deep life questions. I found myself contemplating the role of humanity and both its positives and negatives. This definitely provides a fascinating new lense to see our world and our place as humans in it.
Furthermore, this book is a page-turner! Once I started reading, it just flowed! There is a smoothness to the pacing that has finesse.
I highly recommend Glow. Already, I am waiting for the second book! Such a mesmerizing, thought-provoking story.
March 1, 2021
Dystiopian novels often have the ability to make my heart race while I’m reading them, My mind simply can’t stop thinking “what if this will happen in our future?” Add to that an alien invasion and a pandemic, and you have me sweating nervously in bed! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of THE GLOW.
This is the first book in a dystopian sci-fi series following Harper. In her world, humans are facing the Sleeping Syndrome, a highly contagious syndrome that kills people in their sleep. As if this weren’t enough to upset the balance of Harper’s life, she’s also not what you’d call an ordinary teen. She sees glowing figures and, soon enough, she’s kidnapped by them and taken to the Base of Ki. As I said, aliens and pandemics. What comes next? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!
I was immediately able to resonate with Harper as a character. Her familiar situation is strained, but in her bond with her sister, Olivia, I found an echo of the bond I share with my own sister, and this created an instant connection between the protagonist and me. The union of complex characters, mystery and surprising plot twists made this a story that was hard to put down. It did have some slow parts, but in the long run it helped to introduce the secondary characters on the Base of Ki and develop bonds between characters. I loved the friendship between Harper, Jacqueline and Adam and the lack of a romantic sub-plot (though I love them) was refreshing and kept Harper focused on her mission to escape the Base and save Earth.
Overall, this was a read I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it to all fans of dystopians and sci-fi.
This is the first book in a dystopian sci-fi series following Harper. In her world, humans are facing the Sleeping Syndrome, a highly contagious syndrome that kills people in their sleep. As if this weren’t enough to upset the balance of Harper’s life, she’s also not what you’d call an ordinary teen. She sees glowing figures and, soon enough, she’s kidnapped by them and taken to the Base of Ki. As I said, aliens and pandemics. What comes next? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!
I was immediately able to resonate with Harper as a character. Her familiar situation is strained, but in her bond with her sister, Olivia, I found an echo of the bond I share with my own sister, and this created an instant connection between the protagonist and me. The union of complex characters, mystery and surprising plot twists made this a story that was hard to put down. It did have some slow parts, but in the long run it helped to introduce the secondary characters on the Base of Ki and develop bonds between characters. I loved the friendship between Harper, Jacqueline and Adam and the lack of a romantic sub-plot (though I love them) was refreshing and kept Harper focused on her mission to escape the Base and save Earth.
Overall, this was a read I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it to all fans of dystopians and sci-fi.
February 22, 2021
Thank you so much to the author for collaborating with me and sending me a free copy of her book!
The Glow is a sci-fi, futuristic world where aliens study and walk amongst the humans. A seemingly normal girl named Harper, deals with things all normal teens deal with, but specifically the strained relationship she has with her mother. However, her life changes quickly after a deadly pandemic (I know, too real) runs rampant in the world. With everyone distracted, Harper is taken away from her home and held as a captive in the Base of Ki. Harper knows there is only one way to get back to her family, specifically her little sister Olivia, and that is to make alliances.
I am not a sci-fi reader. It is just not a genre I gravitate towards, but Hadley's writing is phonemical. It is easy to follow, the descriptions are easy to understand, and I did not feel as if I were lost in the countless amount of information that some sci-fi writers put into their books.
What really helped me get into the story was Harper. She is the main protagonist in The Glow and the story is written in her POV. She was relatable, despite the fact she was part alien, and I loved seeing her development from the start of the book until the end. I appreciated her strained relationship with her mother because I feel like a lot of teenagers can relate to that. Not being understood. Everything made more sense to me when Harper's mother came clean about her birth.
The author sent me the audiobook and the reader is just amazing! Readers can either make or break a story, but I found myself unable to stop listening. Loved all the different voices and emotions the reader was able to express. Overall, this book was such a fun read and I'm excited to see where this series goes.
The Glow is a sci-fi, futuristic world where aliens study and walk amongst the humans. A seemingly normal girl named Harper, deals with things all normal teens deal with, but specifically the strained relationship she has with her mother. However, her life changes quickly after a deadly pandemic (I know, too real) runs rampant in the world. With everyone distracted, Harper is taken away from her home and held as a captive in the Base of Ki. Harper knows there is only one way to get back to her family, specifically her little sister Olivia, and that is to make alliances.
I am not a sci-fi reader. It is just not a genre I gravitate towards, but Hadley's writing is phonemical. It is easy to follow, the descriptions are easy to understand, and I did not feel as if I were lost in the countless amount of information that some sci-fi writers put into their books.
What really helped me get into the story was Harper. She is the main protagonist in The Glow and the story is written in her POV. She was relatable, despite the fact she was part alien, and I loved seeing her development from the start of the book until the end. I appreciated her strained relationship with her mother because I feel like a lot of teenagers can relate to that. Not being understood. Everything made more sense to me when Harper's mother came clean about her birth.
The author sent me the audiobook and the reader is just amazing! Readers can either make or break a story, but I found myself unable to stop listening. Loved all the different voices and emotions the reader was able to express. Overall, this book was such a fun read and I'm excited to see where this series goes.
February 25, 2021
Some books come into your life at the perfect time to make you feel like you’re living in some sort of dystopian sci-fi version of the world. This is one of them.
The Glow is the first book in a sci-fi series. It follows Harper, an extraordinary girl living not quite the normal life she would like. In Harper’s version of the world, humans are facing the Sleeping Syndrome, a highly contagious sickness that kills people in their sleep. Soon, a pandemic erupts. Sounds familiar? In the times we’re living, these were the perfect premises to have my heart skip several beats. If that weren’t enough, Harper sees mysterious glowing figures, and she’s then taken by them to the Base of Ki. A pandemic leading to a possible post-apocalyptic world and aliens? This is the kind of story I love. (In books or movies. Let’s pray aliens don’t suddenly decide to come and play.)
The book was intriguing from the beginning. I was very interested in Harper’s life, because it’s evident that something is amiss by her mother’s attitude. Initially, I mistook the mother’s fear of the Sleeping Syndrome for the concern I see on my parents’ faces because of the current pandemic, but then it’s clear there’s something more to it. Me loves a good mystery.
While I thought the plot was going to go in one direction, it surprised me and did something different. I loved the twist that brings us to the alien base and everything we discover there. The characters we meet at the Base of Ki are all very interesting. Some have faced unspeakable traumas on Earth and they use that hatred to further the alien cause against the human race. But not everyone is like this. I especially loved Adam and Jacqueline, and I love Harper’s interactions with both of them.
The book ends in a way that makes me very excited to know more, especially about Brett. I feel like he’s a character that carries a lot of mystery.
This book is perfect for fans of sci-fi and dystopian. Thank you to the author for sending me a copy!
The Glow is the first book in a sci-fi series. It follows Harper, an extraordinary girl living not quite the normal life she would like. In Harper’s version of the world, humans are facing the Sleeping Syndrome, a highly contagious sickness that kills people in their sleep. Soon, a pandemic erupts. Sounds familiar? In the times we’re living, these were the perfect premises to have my heart skip several beats. If that weren’t enough, Harper sees mysterious glowing figures, and she’s then taken by them to the Base of Ki. A pandemic leading to a possible post-apocalyptic world and aliens? This is the kind of story I love. (In books or movies. Let’s pray aliens don’t suddenly decide to come and play.)
The book was intriguing from the beginning. I was very interested in Harper’s life, because it’s evident that something is amiss by her mother’s attitude. Initially, I mistook the mother’s fear of the Sleeping Syndrome for the concern I see on my parents’ faces because of the current pandemic, but then it’s clear there’s something more to it. Me loves a good mystery.
While I thought the plot was going to go in one direction, it surprised me and did something different. I loved the twist that brings us to the alien base and everything we discover there. The characters we meet at the Base of Ki are all very interesting. Some have faced unspeakable traumas on Earth and they use that hatred to further the alien cause against the human race. But not everyone is like this. I especially loved Adam and Jacqueline, and I love Harper’s interactions with both of them.
The book ends in a way that makes me very excited to know more, especially about Brett. I feel like he’s a character that carries a lot of mystery.
This book is perfect for fans of sci-fi and dystopian. Thank you to the author for sending me a copy!
February 24, 2021
“I have to hope that wherever Olivia is, that she’s safe. I can’t bear to think about what happened to my friends; I’m just praying that I’ll be able to figure something out before the Syndrome gets them all.”
I finished The Glow audiobook last night and y’all...it was so good! This book was action packed and full of fun twist and turns. Though I will say that the pandemic and quarantine zones on earth in The Glow was a little...close to home 😅😂 I enjoyed that plot point though and found I could easily relate to Harper, our 17 year old MC. And you know what I really loved? Our MC isn’t searching for a love interest during the book. Instead, she’s focused on saving earth, saving her friends, and rescuing her family. You don’t even miss the romance because there are so many things happening and are quality friend relationships. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a fast paced binge read...and I say give the audiobook a try! The reader was phenomenal.
Thanks so much to the author for sending me the audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
February 14, 2019
This was a hard one to rate. On the one hand, it had a lot going for it: aliens and alien-human hybrids, quarantine zones, a mysterious illness sweeping the planet, and an utterly mesmerising cover I couldn't stop looking at. On the other hand, this book was long. I mean, really long. So long and meandering that I just lost interest and found myself skimming through most of the second half.
I read a lot of chunksters, but the second half of this book was so uninteresting that the length wasn't justified. It started off so well, too. I have to say I'm thoroughly disappointed.
At first, I liked Harper and sympathised with her harrowing situation. But once she was essentially abducted by aliens and discovered the truth about Earth (something that should have been thrilling) she became pretty flat and less believable in her actions and motivations. This despite how much she described every single thing she did.
Don't get me wrong, this wasn't necessarily a bad read. It has a lot of potential and several great elements I loved, but it just didn't quite do it for me. Maybe if our main character had made a bit more sense, or if the author trimmed down the excess, it would be everything I had hoped it would be. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my review.
I read a lot of chunksters, but the second half of this book was so uninteresting that the length wasn't justified. It started off so well, too. I have to say I'm thoroughly disappointed.
At first, I liked Harper and sympathised with her harrowing situation. But once she was essentially abducted by aliens and discovered the truth about Earth (something that should have been thrilling) she became pretty flat and less believable in her actions and motivations. This despite how much she described every single thing she did.
Don't get me wrong, this wasn't necessarily a bad read. It has a lot of potential and several great elements I loved, but it just didn't quite do it for me. Maybe if our main character had made a bit more sense, or if the author trimmed down the excess, it would be everything I had hoped it would be. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my review.
July 15, 2019
This book has an interesting premise for an apocalyptic story and for once a YA book that doesn’t involve a romance between the female protagonist and one or two boys. I am not sure what age range it is actually intended for, middle school or high school and up. The writing feels like it should be middle school. Older readers that like YA might be put off by the writing and the younger readers my not like the length and the long descriptions and plethora of details (some of which are difficult to visualize). Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy.
January 9, 2019
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was offered this by NetGalley, and thought it sounded in the line of the Death Cure or Hunger Games type books, so wanted to give it a try. This is not like those books though, and was very nearly a DNF. I had to force myself to finish it because I felt I should since I got it as an ARC, and that took me nearly a week, when usually I finish a book in a few hours. I’m not sure what the author was going for, but the result is a hot mess.
Harper is 17, home-schooled, with a strict mother (who stops her from doing absolutely nothing she wants to do) who is living in a world where a sleeping plague is staring to take hold. Her neighbourhood is taken over by the plague and she’s stuck there by herself until she’s rescued (sort of) and then abducted by the beings causing the plague, which reveals details about her and requires her to fight back. I’d give more details but that would give away the plot (such as it is) and seriously, there’s no need to read this at all, but especially if you already know most of the major ‘plot points’.
This plot could have been interesting but not the way it’s written here. All this book contains is pages upon pages of exposition. Lots of ‘tell’ very little ‘show’ (and it’s also way longer than it needed to be). I know it’s billed as book 1, so you have to lay the ground work, but there’s ways of doing that without boring the reader to tears. This may have been offset with a compelling lead character (or any compelling characters) but that was also sadly lacking.
I was offered this by NetGalley, and thought it sounded in the line of the Death Cure or Hunger Games type books, so wanted to give it a try. This is not like those books though, and was very nearly a DNF. I had to force myself to finish it because I felt I should since I got it as an ARC, and that took me nearly a week, when usually I finish a book in a few hours. I’m not sure what the author was going for, but the result is a hot mess.
Harper is 17, home-schooled, with a strict mother (who stops her from doing absolutely nothing she wants to do) who is living in a world where a sleeping plague is staring to take hold. Her neighbourhood is taken over by the plague and she’s stuck there by herself until she’s rescued (sort of) and then abducted by the beings causing the plague, which reveals details about her and requires her to fight back. I’d give more details but that would give away the plot (such as it is) and seriously, there’s no need to read this at all, but especially if you already know most of the major ‘plot points’.
This plot could have been interesting but not the way it’s written here. All this book contains is pages upon pages of exposition. Lots of ‘tell’ very little ‘show’ (and it’s also way longer than it needed to be). I know it’s billed as book 1, so you have to lay the ground work, but there’s ways of doing that without boring the reader to tears. This may have been offset with a compelling lead character (or any compelling characters) but that was also sadly lacking.
January 8, 2020
4 out of 5 stars.
What first drew me to this book, what caught my interest, was the original concept of a story, and the fact it is/was a YA dystopian style book without the usual saccharine, teen angst romance you seem to find in a lot of YA books lately. Kudos to the author on this interesting and different slant on the aftermath of "what if the Earth...". Without giving away too much, I will say it was a delight to have a female main character who wasn't all wishy-washy however still wasn't grown up enough to know all the answers. She is living in Reno, NV when the event happens, and it's not long before things change, and quick. She soon discovers many things about herself and her family, which turns her completely on her head. Everything she thought she knew is gone. The author does a wonderful job on creating and describing this "alternate world", and it is quite believable.
For those who enjoy the YA dystopian genre that has little-to-no romance, with a character-driven plot, then you might enjoy this!
In closing, I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this delightfully creative book in exchange for an honest review.
What first drew me to this book, what caught my interest, was the original concept of a story, and the fact it is/was a YA dystopian style book without the usual saccharine, teen angst romance you seem to find in a lot of YA books lately. Kudos to the author on this interesting and different slant on the aftermath of "what if the Earth...". Without giving away too much, I will say it was a delight to have a female main character who wasn't all wishy-washy however still wasn't grown up enough to know all the answers. She is living in Reno, NV when the event happens, and it's not long before things change, and quick. She soon discovers many things about herself and her family, which turns her completely on her head. Everything she thought she knew is gone. The author does a wonderful job on creating and describing this "alternate world", and it is quite believable.
For those who enjoy the YA dystopian genre that has little-to-no romance, with a character-driven plot, then you might enjoy this!
In closing, I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this delightfully creative book in exchange for an honest review.
January 6, 2019
This book was not for me. I was hopeful as it sounded an interesting premise and I persevered with this , but sadly I just didn't enjoy it. It started off well but then it slows down and loses focus. I couldn't really connect with the protagonist, she felt a bit lack lustre.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
February 24, 2021
Despite my lifelong infatuation with aliens and galaxies and rocket ships (oh my!), I typically struggle to connect well with most sci-fi novels. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I connected with The Glow! This book is EXACTLY the kind of YA science fiction novel that speaks to my Ancient Aliens-obsessed, space exploration-loving soul.
Tension between the Ancients/Alien race and the Humans/Human Hybrid serves as the focal point for the novel, but the initial premise is catalyzed by conflict due to the Sleeping Syndrome, a global pandemic that’s plaguing the entire human race. This of course interested me immediately due to its extreme relevance to our life today!
The MC Harper (an endearingly relatable teen who just wants to play soccer and hang with friends) suddenly finds herself navigating a nightmarish world of family secrets, betrayal, and more. Throughout the story, Harper easily won me over with her rebellious, determined spirit, and an especially fierce sense of loyalty, especially to her sister Olivia.
With burgeoning supernatural powers and intergalactic clashes abound, I couldn’t help but get completely lost in this high-stakes sci-fi mystery and that ending left me totally ready for the next installment! I can also highly recommend the audiobook version--the voice actor brought these characters to life so wonderfully and helped to reinforce how beautifully written this book truly is!
Tension between the Ancients/Alien race and the Humans/Human Hybrid serves as the focal point for the novel, but the initial premise is catalyzed by conflict due to the Sleeping Syndrome, a global pandemic that’s plaguing the entire human race. This of course interested me immediately due to its extreme relevance to our life today!
The MC Harper (an endearingly relatable teen who just wants to play soccer and hang with friends) suddenly finds herself navigating a nightmarish world of family secrets, betrayal, and more. Throughout the story, Harper easily won me over with her rebellious, determined spirit, and an especially fierce sense of loyalty, especially to her sister Olivia.
With burgeoning supernatural powers and intergalactic clashes abound, I couldn’t help but get completely lost in this high-stakes sci-fi mystery and that ending left me totally ready for the next installment! I can also highly recommend the audiobook version--the voice actor brought these characters to life so wonderfully and helped to reinforce how beautifully written this book truly is!
February 11, 2019
*thank you to Netgalley, Aubrey Hadley and Ruby & Topaz Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
2.5 stars.
Ok firstly, this is the most GORGEOUS cover I've seen in a while! I mean, just look at it! 5 full stars just for that.
Ok, so the story. It started out interesting enough, but right away I wasnt a fan of Katie and Harper's other friends weren't that great anyway but Katie just annoyed me. But then we have Harper herself and usually I like the main character, but Harper is not somebody I would be friends with and I really didn't care for her either which didn't help how I felt about this story. The idea of this book sounded amazing! So full of potential. I wouldn't say this is a bad book, I can see why some would enjoy it as the story wasn't too bad but I can also see why others haven't liked it. Not enough happens to really grab my attention and run with it. There is no heart pounding excitement or fear or any real emotion. Still, if you are wanting just a light story without all the heavy stuff, then you are probably one of those who will enjoy this.
Thank You again to Aubrey Hadley for allowing me a copy of this book.
2.5 stars.
Ok firstly, this is the most GORGEOUS cover I've seen in a while! I mean, just look at it! 5 full stars just for that.
Ok, so the story. It started out interesting enough, but right away I wasnt a fan of Katie and Harper's other friends weren't that great anyway but Katie just annoyed me. But then we have Harper herself and usually I like the main character, but Harper is not somebody I would be friends with and I really didn't care for her either which didn't help how I felt about this story. The idea of this book sounded amazing! So full of potential. I wouldn't say this is a bad book, I can see why some would enjoy it as the story wasn't too bad but I can also see why others haven't liked it. Not enough happens to really grab my attention and run with it. There is no heart pounding excitement or fear or any real emotion. Still, if you are wanting just a light story without all the heavy stuff, then you are probably one of those who will enjoy this.
Thank You again to Aubrey Hadley for allowing me a copy of this book.
January 18, 2019
I really, really wanted to like the book.
The premise sounded very enticing and intriguing, but it stayed there - in the idea of what the story could have been.
The writing threw me off from the start - it is written like a fan-fic and not a really good one at that. When you overuse words such as "ugh" and "sigh", it doesn't add anything to the plot, but rather takes from what could have been a 'tighter' pacing.
The characters are thrown at the reader haphazardly, not really fleshing out their motives at the first place.
Almost everyone in the book is very self centered and negative person, which doesn't leave a lot of room to create connections to them or to really care about any of their actions.
The dialogue is choppy - sometimes I had to re-read pieces of dialogue, because I got lost of who said what to whom.
The book cover is beautiful and I still think this could be a good story, but it does need a lot of work.
Thank you kindly to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the free ARC.
The premise sounded very enticing and intriguing, but it stayed there - in the idea of what the story could have been.
The writing threw me off from the start - it is written like a fan-fic and not a really good one at that. When you overuse words such as "ugh" and "sigh", it doesn't add anything to the plot, but rather takes from what could have been a 'tighter' pacing.
The characters are thrown at the reader haphazardly, not really fleshing out their motives at the first place.
Almost everyone in the book is very self centered and negative person, which doesn't leave a lot of room to create connections to them or to really care about any of their actions.
The dialogue is choppy - sometimes I had to re-read pieces of dialogue, because I got lost of who said what to whom.
The book cover is beautiful and I still think this could be a good story, but it does need a lot of work.
Thank you kindly to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the free ARC.
February 1, 2019
The idea of a sleeping sickness killing droves of people is intriguing. That's the reason I chose this book. While I did like the story, I found the writing seemed lacking substance. Point of view was a little odd at times. The time period for the story is not distinctly identified. These things made the whole thing confusing. It's a good premise poorly executed. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
March 22, 2019
Another interesting concept whose result lacked cohesion and a proper execution. From the sheer number of excess pages and superfluous information, to the characters needing more substance, this one was a disappointing and tedious read.
From the summary, the impact and urgency of the conflict seems to revolve around this mysterious illness, the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome. There's an outbreak in New York which wiped out an entire homeless shelter and now it seems to have appeared in Harper Loomis's town of Reno, Nevada.
The introduction to the character of Harper, her family, her friends, and the fear of the disease itself was nicely done. From the onset, I was fairly intrigued and curious about the potential avenues Hadley would explore with so much that happens in the beginning few chapters alone. The pace seemed to be set nicely for a speedy and action-packed book. No such luck.
Given how much seems to ride on this disease being the main culprit in the book based on the summary, you'd think you wouldn't completely ignore it for the majority of the plot. Harper is picked up by aliens fairly early on and wakes up from having lost consciousness. She is now in a jail of goo apparently on an alien ship. From this point forward, Harper's adventures could barely be described as such.
Harper joins a large group of other captured humans aboard the alien craft/vessel/location (the exactness of Harper's new facilities is left intentionally vague by Hadley and it's annoyingly frustrating throughout and barely has a modicum of payoff when the truth is eventually revealed). Together the group is learning to become part of a community to work and learn alongside the aliens, known as the Ancients. However, it's clear something is amiss. Or it should be, but the feeling never fully develops. I kept wanting it to start something, go somewhere...anything!
We follow Harper and some members of the group as they learn tasks, exercise, eat alien gewd (goo+food), and continue to lose their memories and emotional attachment to related Earth stuffs through rather tame brainwashing. Harper and the others are forgetting who they were on Earth and what they loved about it....their life before. So any struggle to get off this vessel, vanishes in inexplicable ways and at an inexplicable pace for Harper. This is the majority of the book. And it is tedious.
Too many details, too much information. From entire news articles, entire tv news reports, entire orally relayed character back stories, I see how this ended up too long of a book. Better editing would’ve helped this one tremendously. The entirety of the novel fails to really follow a good formula for keeping the reader engaged and setting a good pace for the characters. In addition to that, the characters lack a true-to-life depth and none of them really grow or change...Harper in particular is a really static character. She is the same person at the end of the novel that she was at the beginning—just with a lot more information.
I wanted to like this one, and I think I could've if it had been properly pared down, properly paced, and better character development. There's something there, and I enjoyed the basic concept, but I really struggled to finish this behemoth.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book, nor the content of my review.
From the summary, the impact and urgency of the conflict seems to revolve around this mysterious illness, the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome. There's an outbreak in New York which wiped out an entire homeless shelter and now it seems to have appeared in Harper Loomis's town of Reno, Nevada.
The introduction to the character of Harper, her family, her friends, and the fear of the disease itself was nicely done. From the onset, I was fairly intrigued and curious about the potential avenues Hadley would explore with so much that happens in the beginning few chapters alone. The pace seemed to be set nicely for a speedy and action-packed book. No such luck.
Given how much seems to ride on this disease being the main culprit in the book based on the summary, you'd think you wouldn't completely ignore it for the majority of the plot. Harper is picked up by aliens fairly early on and wakes up from having lost consciousness. She is now in a jail of goo apparently on an alien ship. From this point forward, Harper's adventures could barely be described as such.
Harper joins a large group of other captured humans aboard the alien craft/vessel/location (the exactness of Harper's new facilities is left intentionally vague by Hadley and it's annoyingly frustrating throughout and barely has a modicum of payoff when the truth is eventually revealed). Together the group is learning to become part of a community to work and learn alongside the aliens, known as the Ancients. However, it's clear something is amiss. Or it should be, but the feeling never fully develops. I kept wanting it to start something, go somewhere...anything!
We follow Harper and some members of the group as they learn tasks, exercise, eat alien gewd (goo+food), and continue to lose their memories and emotional attachment to related Earth stuffs through rather tame brainwashing. Harper and the others are forgetting who they were on Earth and what they loved about it....their life before. So any struggle to get off this vessel, vanishes in inexplicable ways and at an inexplicable pace for Harper. This is the majority of the book. And it is tedious.
Too many details, too much information. From entire news articles, entire tv news reports, entire orally relayed character back stories, I see how this ended up too long of a book. Better editing would’ve helped this one tremendously. The entirety of the novel fails to really follow a good formula for keeping the reader engaged and setting a good pace for the characters. In addition to that, the characters lack a true-to-life depth and none of them really grow or change...Harper in particular is a really static character. She is the same person at the end of the novel that she was at the beginning—just with a lot more information.
I wanted to like this one, and I think I could've if it had been properly pared down, properly paced, and better character development. There's something there, and I enjoyed the basic concept, but I really struggled to finish this behemoth.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book, nor the content of my review.
January 18, 2019
I never wanted to pick up Glow: Book I, Potency to read it and it was a sheer battle of will to just get through the novel. Glow : Book I, Potency suffers from severe pacing problems, flat characters, and cringy dialogue. Though the idea of the novel itself was interesting and obviously well-researched, its execution simply couldn’t save the novel.
The story follows 16-year-old Harper as a sickness, known as the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome spreads throughout the world. This sickness renders the stricken in a heightened state of euphoria before they fall asleep until they die. This syndrome is what initially attracted me to the novel, but very little time is actually spent on it, despite being extremely well-researched. Instead, readers learn that the cause of the mysterious disease is aliens, and that they're trying to wipe out the human race entirely.
Harper is soon captured by these said aliens and learns that she isn’t entirely human. She’s actually an alien-human hybrid. Most of the novel then deals with Harper trying to get used to her life as a hybrid, among other hybrids. And this is where things should get interesting, but instead they’re horrendously boring. Harper goes along with whatever comes her way--she doesn’t fight the alien’s brainwashing that all humans are evil, she doesn’t struggle to remember her life as a human as they make her forget, and she makes friends with two other hybrids and gets swept up in their plans for escape because she doesn’t have an original thought of her own.
To top it off, despite being an insanely flat character incapable of making her own decisions, Harper is the typical “special” main character. She has the titular ability to “glow” and can turn invisible and teleport, something that other hybrids cannot do. I never once found this exciting, despite how the ability is supposed to be amazing. I simply couldn’t get attached to Harper or any of the other characters at all. They just didn’t feel real.
Throughout the whole book, I never understood why Harper and her friends were even bothering trying to escape. The aliens feed them, give them jobs, and are actively destroying Earth. To put it simply, there is not a home to which they can even return. Plus, Harper and her friends don’t even look human anymore. What kind of welcoming would they even receive? The only explanations given for their drive to escape are vague and unconvincing. They say it's because they have an inkling that the aliens have a sinister purpose for them, but it never comes to any fruition. So literally the characters are trying to escape on what amounts to a hunch. To me, this seemed silly and anticlimactic.
This isn’t surprising as most of the novel, is in fact, anticlimactic. Glow: Potency suffers from extreme pacing issues. For the majority of the novel, literally nothing interesting is happening. The readers follow Harper and her friends through extremely long and tedious descriptions of their new homes and jobs with the aliens, or other things as mundane as exercising. On the rare occasion that I was not bored, I was faced with jarring moments of actions that completely threw me and made me think, “Wait, what just happened?” It seems there was either no action or too much, and nothing in between. In one instance, Harper’s escape from a quarantine zone is simply interrupted by a “Click.” Then a person is suddenly pulling a gun on her:
Similarly off-putting is the rest of the dialogue of the novel. The author is clearly trying to use colloquial phrases of teenagers, but it comes off super cringy--like a parent who tries to be “hip” by using the slang of their children. Phrases like, “I got this. I got you, bae. Chill,” as well as, “don’t get pissed at me bro,” and “this sucks balls” are ubiquitous. A lot of this dialogue is used right on top of each other and it’s like being bombarded with try-hard attempts to make the teenagers seem realistic. I also was similarly off put in the very beginning of the novel by one of Harper’s teenaged human friends having a smoking problem and carrying a flask to soccer practice. All of it is clearly how the author thinks teenagers act, but she seems severely out of touch with the majority of them. This makes her main characters seem more like the actual aliens themselves then realistic people.
Another thing that irked me was that the new hybrids to the alien habitat were forced to go through a process called “Leveling,” in which the supposed worst parts of their life--some of it is fabricated--with humans are shown to all of the other hybrids. Then the anti-human propaganda is laid on thick. But this all seems really pointless as the aliens then turn around and make the hybrids forget all of their meaningful relations with humans--good or bad. This renders what is obviously supposed to be an extremely emotional event a complete and total waste of time.
I really wouldn’t recommend Glow, Book I: Potency, not even to die-hard fans of science fiction or young adult novels. Most of the book is either filled with long stretches of incredibly dull information, only interspersed by strange moments of short-lived action, weird dialogue, and flat characters that are impossible to relate to.
The story follows 16-year-old Harper as a sickness, known as the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome spreads throughout the world. This sickness renders the stricken in a heightened state of euphoria before they fall asleep until they die. This syndrome is what initially attracted me to the novel, but very little time is actually spent on it, despite being extremely well-researched. Instead, readers learn that the cause of the mysterious disease is aliens, and that they're trying to wipe out the human race entirely.
Harper is soon captured by these said aliens and learns that she isn’t entirely human. She’s actually an alien-human hybrid. Most of the novel then deals with Harper trying to get used to her life as a hybrid, among other hybrids. And this is where things should get interesting, but instead they’re horrendously boring. Harper goes along with whatever comes her way--she doesn’t fight the alien’s brainwashing that all humans are evil, she doesn’t struggle to remember her life as a human as they make her forget, and she makes friends with two other hybrids and gets swept up in their plans for escape because she doesn’t have an original thought of her own.
To top it off, despite being an insanely flat character incapable of making her own decisions, Harper is the typical “special” main character. She has the titular ability to “glow” and can turn invisible and teleport, something that other hybrids cannot do. I never once found this exciting, despite how the ability is supposed to be amazing. I simply couldn’t get attached to Harper or any of the other characters at all. They just didn’t feel real.
Throughout the whole book, I never understood why Harper and her friends were even bothering trying to escape. The aliens feed them, give them jobs, and are actively destroying Earth. To put it simply, there is not a home to which they can even return. Plus, Harper and her friends don’t even look human anymore. What kind of welcoming would they even receive? The only explanations given for their drive to escape are vague and unconvincing. They say it's because they have an inkling that the aliens have a sinister purpose for them, but it never comes to any fruition. So literally the characters are trying to escape on what amounts to a hunch. To me, this seemed silly and anticlimactic.
This isn’t surprising as most of the novel, is in fact, anticlimactic. Glow: Potency suffers from extreme pacing issues. For the majority of the novel, literally nothing interesting is happening. The readers follow Harper and her friends through extremely long and tedious descriptions of their new homes and jobs with the aliens, or other things as mundane as exercising. On the rare occasion that I was not bored, I was faced with jarring moments of actions that completely threw me and made me think, “Wait, what just happened?” It seems there was either no action or too much, and nothing in between. In one instance, Harper’s escape from a quarantine zone is simply interrupted by a “Click.” Then a person is suddenly pulling a gun on her:
“Brett leads us over to the bicycle. ‘Harper you stand on the pegs. I’ll ride. We’re going to meet Mom with the car--’ His eyes stop on something. Click. I turn around. Behind us, Max stands rigid, his arm outstretched and his gun pointed at Brett. Even in the limited light, I can see the white of his eyes behind his face shield. ‘I changed my mind. I can’t let you do this, man,’ he says."
Similarly off-putting is the rest of the dialogue of the novel. The author is clearly trying to use colloquial phrases of teenagers, but it comes off super cringy--like a parent who tries to be “hip” by using the slang of their children. Phrases like, “I got this. I got you, bae. Chill,” as well as, “don’t get pissed at me bro,” and “this sucks balls” are ubiquitous. A lot of this dialogue is used right on top of each other and it’s like being bombarded with try-hard attempts to make the teenagers seem realistic. I also was similarly off put in the very beginning of the novel by one of Harper’s teenaged human friends having a smoking problem and carrying a flask to soccer practice. All of it is clearly how the author thinks teenagers act, but she seems severely out of touch with the majority of them. This makes her main characters seem more like the actual aliens themselves then realistic people.
Another thing that irked me was that the new hybrids to the alien habitat were forced to go through a process called “Leveling,” in which the supposed worst parts of their life--some of it is fabricated--with humans are shown to all of the other hybrids. Then the anti-human propaganda is laid on thick. But this all seems really pointless as the aliens then turn around and make the hybrids forget all of their meaningful relations with humans--good or bad. This renders what is obviously supposed to be an extremely emotional event a complete and total waste of time.
I really wouldn’t recommend Glow, Book I: Potency, not even to die-hard fans of science fiction or young adult novels. Most of the book is either filled with long stretches of incredibly dull information, only interspersed by strange moments of short-lived action, weird dialogue, and flat characters that are impossible to relate to.
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