A review by writings_of_a_reader
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

3.0

I received this book from a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Let me start by saying Glow is dark and thought provoking and colored throughout with shades of grey. I would say the book was part Lord of the Flies and part religious cult set in space.

There are characters that I thought I liked and then wasn't sure. Namely the two love interests. One does something that is going to be very difficult to redeem himself from. In the end I decided that I didn't like either one of them. Out of all of the characters in the book the girls are the only ones I liked throughout the whole story.

I'm intrigued to find out what the author is saying about religion here. This book deals with religion taken to the extreme. There are self-appointed religious figures and cult leaders today and throughout history that I can think of who use their words to manipulate others into following them. Some of them do it for money and some of them do it for power. As a religious person myself I am often repelled by people like this. So we have a character like this in this book, but later when another one of the characters starts hearing what seems to be the voice of god I began to wonder...is she going to explore that there is a difference in people who appoint themselves as voices of god and those who really are called of god? And how would anyone be able to tell the difference? So was the author saying all religion is corrupt, or just the zealots? Really it’s too soon to tell after reading this first book in the series.

Overall it was an intriguing book and I think I will read the next one because I want to know how or if the author is going to answer all those questions.