Glimmer Review

Glimmer
by Phoebe Kintadis
From Goodreads:

What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

My Thoughts: Another YA amnesia book, but Glimmer managed to set itself apart and not be annoying with the soap opera drama of amnesia.  The entire book surprised me, and I found the plot wonderfully original.

There are so many elements to Glimmer, there's the Stepford like setting of Summer Falls, the ghosts, the magic, the heatnaps, the chemistry between Elyse and Marshall.  And I don't even like those names very much, so it's saying something that I ended up really liking the characters.  Plus, neither Elyse nor Marshall were perfect people, they were both flawed (especially Marshall), but their very realness is what makes you root for them to uncover their memories.

I really enjoyed reading about Elyse and her discovery of who she was, and how disappointed she was when she realized that she wasn't the person she expected to find out she was (the fact that she thought she was tall was actually pretty funny).  It also got me thinking, if my memory was wiped, what would I think of the person I am?  Would I be proud to have written this blog, to have read the books that line my many shelves or would I be disappointed that I'm obviously an inept housekeeper and that I've wasted most of my money on books?  It's actually a bit thought provoking...  

The town was super spooky and creepy.  It added to the atmosphere of the book, making me fear that both Elyse and Marshall wouldn't survive, let alone, succeed in their mission to figure out who they were, why they ended up naked in bed with each other, and why Summer Falls was so freakishly picture perfect.   And there was a small part of me that couldn't help thinking that it'd be nice not to have to remember the bad things that happen in life, the petty fights, the hurt feelings... the horrible accidents and dismemberment that happens occasionally in life.  That's the draw of dystopian worlds though,  they're often disguised as utopias.  Want to forget your troubles, literally and forever?  Come to Summer Falls!

There was a lot of elements in play in Glimmer, but they all worked for me.  Honestly, I was a bit turned off by the title of the book, because at first I just assumed that it was a YA story about faes or something along those lines.  I'm so glad I decided to give it a try after reading the summary though! 

Glimmer gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Rating Cover of:

I actually really dig this cover (even if the cover model looks a lot like a super blonde Kiera Knightley).  I don't know that it really reflects what the book is about, but I guess having two naked teens on the cover would have been a little too much...