Book Review: Glimmerglass - Jenna Black

Dana Hathaway doesn't know it yet, but she's in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she's had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl - she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.
Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she'll never have a chance with... until she does. Caught between two worlds, Dana isn't sure where she'll ever fit in or who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again. - From the back of the book.

Glimmerglass is the first book in the new Faeriewalker series by Jenna Black. Dana Hathaway is fed up of her alcoholic mother, and fed up of knowing nothing about her mysterious father. So off to Avalon she runs, off to find her father, and restart her life in a new place, with new people. She doesn't know she's a Faeriewalker, not yet, and doesn't know what kind of dangers being one of these rare people could mean. And it's not exactly good.

Glimmerglass is written excellently. It was engaging, and realistic. The world of Faerie, even for those unfamiliar with Faerie books, was easy to understand, and the rules were easy to grasp. It's full of action, due to the events that occur in the book, and the characters are always doing something, but everything is explained very well, so even with the large catalogue of happenings, it's not confusing or over-complex.

The characters felt real. Dana appears to be an average sixteen year old. But, she is half Fae. She's strong and intelligent, having to cope with one crisis followed by another, followed by another. Although, being only sixteen, she makes mistakes that any sixteen year old would. She doesn't know what to do a lot of the time, which makes her seem more real and believable, something that some authors don't seem to get with their characters. For example, some characters are thrown into a world of vampires, werewolves, Faeries, etc, without knowing they even existed, yet they seem to know exactly what to do and when. How would they know this if they didn't even know that said supernatural world even existed? Anyway, back to Dana. She's not like this, and I'm glad. Without some of the mistakes that Dana made, the story wouldn't nearly be as good. She's very self conscious about how she appears to others, and she knows when she's being annoying or whiny, and fixes it quickly. She can get a little overwhelmed by her hormones, but that's a given, her being a sixteen year old girl.

And it's not just Dana that was written well. Ethan and Kimber were written brilliantly too. Ethan is of course, a gorgeous male, even by Fae standards, and there is obviously an instant attraction between him and Dana. He's charming and funny, and Dana can't help but feel a pull towards him. His sister, Kimber, is quite the opposite though. She's shy and guarded when she first meets Dana, but slowly, as she gets to know Dana better, she opens up and becomes a good friend to Dana. She takes Dana under her wing, and makes sure she feels safe. But why would she need Dana to feel safe, I hear you ask? Why are Ethan and Kimber after Dana?

This book is full of everything needed to make a good book. There are so many twists and turns in the plot, that you are constantly kept on your toes, and flicking through the pages as fast as you possibly can. One minute, Dana is here, and the next she is gone, and she's being told she can trust this person, but suddenly, that person's a bad guy, and they can't be trusted. Glimmerglass makes for good reading, and it gives you plenty to think about for the next book. By the end, you are still not sure who's on whose side, and who can be trusted, and I'm sure the next book will be eagerly awaited by many.

I give it 5 Feet!