A fast and unusual ya scifi. While not amazing, I liked Harper and found the story interesting enough to keep me going. End was eh but I was prepared for that since it said book 1.

I received this ebook for a review. I was very skeptical at first, as the story line seemed a bit disjointed and far-fetched. I was soon hooked and just had to know how it ended. Fantasy, mystery, drama, intrigue - good combo of these to draw you in. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series. Great novel!

I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

If you aren’t a fan of science fiction, Glow is not the book for you! Despite a slow start that reads something like a lost chapter of the ’Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’, Glow makes its way deep into alien culture revealing a secret history of aliens on earth and beyond. In the tradition of Bruce Coville’s brilliant ‘My Teacher is an Alien’ series, the aliens are deciding whether or not ending human life would be a boon for the rest of the universe. The beauty of Mr. Coville’s series was the tension of what they would decide and whether humankind deserves a continued existence and the process of that decision. Unfortunately, Glow doesn’t let the reader in much on what is happening. The nefarious forces are hinted at but not explained, the story often fueled by a hazy paranoia exacerbated by the confusion of memory loss. Harper, the narrator, has a very young voice. She rarely makes decisions of her own accord but is pushed along by outside forces and the central core of the book is an account of the drudgery that unfolds as a result. All in all, I had to work to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy this book but I did get there. 2.5 stars out of 5

***Actual review 2.25 stars***

I can see why people gravitated towards requesting this book. The cover is gorgeous and the synopsis suggests a high engaging and action packed sci fi. Unfortunately the execution was very much off... this book was WAY too long and the middle section was far too content heavy and lacked any major story progression. I almost feel as if this could of actually been 2 separate novels or even reduced by about 200 or so pages. The idea was there and the writing style wasn't bad... it was just TOO LONG!

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

ARC provided by Netgalley.
Interesting read, but felt too long. I was honestly looking for a romantic interest the entire book but it was just not there. Very different and it didn’t keep my interest. I won’t be reading the sequel if there is one.

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 <i>Contagion</i>. 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 <i>shown</i> 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 <i>Glow</i> 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 <i>telling</i>. I would like to see her actually stick her characters in that alien world and let her show it to us from their eyes. <i>Glow</i> 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!

A little slow at the beginning. The characters, the build up, the whole world building of the story is so unique!
I absolutely loved it. Cant wait to read more!

I’m sad to say this book was a DNF for me.

I’m a true believer that the first chapters should captivate you, and this is why I didn’t finish this book. I have to admit the first page was inticing. What was Harper so afraid of? But instead of continuing with that idea,the author went back to earlier that day! A bit of a pet peeve of mine.

I did try continuing the novel,but lost interest. I do hope others enjoy this book though,as the story line does seem very intriguing.

A pretty cool YA fiction about a conspiracy-theory worthy virus that suddenly is active within Harper's community - and her actions to avoid it.
This is typical of the genre, and a good example of it. The writing is tight and well plotted, and the more fantastical reaches within the plot are well within the usual YA genre tropes - although sometimes it was ludicrous (and a few too many things are happening at once), my suspension-of-disbelief was never truly tested so much that I wanted to stop reading.
I'd recommend this to any fan of the genre. It's not the next Hunger Games, but it is an enjoyable easy read that provides an afternoon of enjoyment.

I tried to like this book but unfortunately could only manage to read a quarter of it. I enjoyed the early part when she was a normal teenager however found the endless descriptions of everything around her once she was captured very tedious.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

DNF at 20%. I don’t know if I was expecting something different when I read the description but I felt that this book was delivering a completely different story then what was promised.
I couldn’t connect to the main character at all and the dialogue was clunky and off-putting.
I just couldn’t keep reading this one.

I loved the description of this book but found that it soon became something else entirely. I felt rather misled. The story it became was reasonable but rather over blown on the descriptions of the technology. I also found some of the dialogue a bit like reading a manual. The ideas in here are excellent but it’s the way they are put over that I found a little dry. I never really felt close to or deeply concerned with any character. I think I wanted the sleeping syndrome story but I got something else. Perhaps the book description needs changing.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of "Glow" through Netgalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This book has interesting ideas; but the execution is a bit spotty. Overall, I found is reasonably interesting and moderately enjoyable: I never felt like I absolutely had to continue the book, or that I could not continue the book. Hence a score of 3 stars out of 5: I've read better, but I've also read worse.

Pacing is tricky: this book is quite long, and some of the plot happens very slowly, while some of the things that do make the plot move seem out of place and a bit overly convenient, as if the author knew what they needed to achieve, but not quite how, and the solution used in the story is a bit unsatisfactory. The dialogue is not always stellar; some of the exposition also feels a bit heavy-handed, and the characters' responses son't always make as much sense, or perhaps are not communicated to the reader very well.

The ending also feels not like an ending really - more like a pause, but without even really a proper lead in to a sequel if that is the intention. Some things are simply left unresolved and in progress but without managing to build up any anticipation for finding out more. I fear some of the story that is probably intended as setup for things to be referred back to in future volumes, drags down this volume.

Overall, I am neither particularly happy nor unhappy to have read this book. I certainly wish the author the best with future projects, and hope they can learn positive things from this experience.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of "Glow" through Netgalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

DNF. The dialogue was awkward, so I wasn't able to connect with the characters or even follow the story at times.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was an interesting read. The author does an incredible job creating an imaginary world where Sentinals and Ancients fight for the preservation of their race. Harper is a strong willed young woman who finally finds out why she's always felt like an outcast and has to confront the bravery of living in a whole new world where the unimaginable is possible. Although I did enjoy the novel I did feel it dragged a bit, it took a long time for the reader to see the characters engage and relate the action. The author spends too much time building us up to what's to come and telling us the history of the two worlds.
It is beginning of what has the potential to be a great series.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

I got an ARC copy from Netgalley. Unfortunately I had to DNF this around 15%. I couldn't connect with the characters and the dialogue was iffy.

I really wanted to like this book due to the amazing synopsis, but sadly, it was just to science fictiony for me with the odd names and what not. A fan of true science fiction will probably devour this book, it just wasn't enjoyable for this reader.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, I liked the sound of it.However although it started out promisingly enough, setting the scene it soon just became too weird for me, I was expecting a dystopian, type book, maybe I didn't read the blurb properly but it just became too weird for me.I like both dystopian and sci fi books but just couldn't connect with this one,and I didn't enjoy it.Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an ARC,.