Review: Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on May 16, 2012 | 2 Comments

Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis
Published by Balzer + Bray (4.17.2012)
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Source: Library
Buy on Amazon

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

Terrified by their amnesia, Marshall and Elyse make a pact to work together to find the answers that could restore their missing memories. As they piece together clues about their lives, they discover that they're in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls. Everyone seems happy there, 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 violence in Elyse's family, not even the day-to-day anguish of being a high schooler.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marshall and Elyse fall into an intense relationship founded on their mutual quest for truth. But the secrets they're trying to uncover could be the death of this budding love affair--and of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

My thoughts

Knowing someone means you know who they were in the past. Anything else is just a glimmer of possibility, a distant hope, and probably wishful thinking.

Glimmer was a freaky book with a refreshingly original plot that kept me on my toes! It grabbed me right away with two strangers waking up in bed together with no recollection of how they got there or who they are. The memory loss of the narrators makes it so that you as a reader have no clue what the hell is going on. There were so many WTF moments where I felt like I was wandering around, lost in the dark, with a blindfold on. Summer Falls portrays paradise in creepy perfection. The townspeople said strange things, forgot what they were saying mid-conversation, and randomly fell to the ground unconscious. The events were so bizarre, I found myself staring in confusion at the pages like, Um…what? What?? W…T…F….? *scratches head*

But as Marshall and Elyse slowly start getting their memory back, everything starts to make sense. The random ‘heatnaps’ don’t seem so strange, and the forgetfulness has a purpose. The background of the town was fascinating and brilliant.

I’m not really sure how I felt about Marshall and Elyse. After they wake up, they start to realize they weren’t that respectable in the past. They were both rather selfish, but they do have development as the story goes on. They were flawed and that should have made them more realistic, yet I didn’t really connect with hem the way I connected with the story.