Glow

Glow is set on a futuristic spaceship, on course for New Earth. Of course, our earth has been trashed, and a group of people have been sent to colonize a new planet. Nothing unusual for YA fiction. The main characters, Waverly and Kieran (16 years old and sort of dating/will marry), are on the Empyrean, and the other ship is the New Horizon. One day, the New Horizon (which left first from Earth) is sighted by the Empyrean, but they don't make any contact. Confusion abounds amongst the crew, which is all cleared up when the New Horizon attacks the Empyrean, kidnapping all the girls on board the ship and thus separating Waverly and Kieran.
Glow was an okay book. Although the book was a quick read, the writing often felt a bit stilted and the characters flat. Although Ryan tells us that Kieran loves Waverly, his love isn't apparent on an emotional level to the reader. Then, some of what happened in the book seemed illogical to me. The attack happens, and almost the entire crew of the Empyrean (minus maybe 8 adults) flies off in a shuttle to rescue the girls, leaving behind Kieran in charge. How does that make sense?? Why didn't they have a plan in place for emergency situations?? It seems to me that if a couple of spaceships were being sent out into space, there would be a protocol for different situations so that the entire mission doesn't end up ruined because of a panic. And then Kieran and another boy, Seth, fight over power while the adults are away. It wasn't really clear to me how either one got sway over what must have been over a hundred boys, particularly because neither one had many friends. So that was odd. did settle into itself more at the end, and one of its ideas was particularly interesting. The Empyrean was labeled early on as a secular ship, and the New Horizon as a religious one (people were sorted onto them accordingly). It's really more religion-gone-bad on the New Horizon though, and this plays into an interesting twist near the end. I don't want to give anything away, but it was the emotional state of the characters at the end of the book that made me want to read more of their story, if only to find out how the handle it. 2.9/5 stars for Glow. Here's Amy Kathleen Ryan's website: http://www.amykathleenryan.com/index.php