Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A girl and a guy wake up in a strange bed together…naked. And strangely, neither of them have any memory of who the other is or how they got there.

Eventually they find out they are Marshall and Elyse, and they are living in the strangely perfect town of Summer Falls. As they try to piece together their lives, they find something is definitely not right about the town. People randomly faint and wake up with no memory of the last few minutes, and nothing bad seems to happen…ever. So while Elyse and Marshall must find out more about themselves, they also have to solve the mystery of why the town is so different–and what they are going to do about it.

Well, let me first start of by saying that the first couple of chapters definitely caught my interest. Naked in bed with a stranger sounds quite salacious, but, it wasn’t like that in the text. The book started to fall apart for me after about the first half though.

I usually like books where the story is told from alternating points of view, and this was no exception. But man, I hated when I was reading Elyse’s chapters. I really did not like her as a character. I don’t understand how she could just wake up with no memory, but all of a sudden she is holier-than-thou and so judgmental and just hateful–even towards herself! Even though she can’t remember her life, she somehow knows that nothing in her life is good enough for her…her clothes, room, boyfriend, etc. I didn’t get it at all, and she was like this for the whole book.

Luckily, Marshall was a better character. I really felt for him in what he was going through with his father–and I was glad that he somehow knew to treat him with respect even though he had no memories. Marshall was likable and just a better character, and PERSON, overall.

I liked that the story was very original. The combination of elements such as ghosts, magic, etc. was unique but to me it felt like it was on the verge of a mishmash. The author somehow made it work though.

Finally, the ending…I just kind of feel like I missed something, but I’m not sure what. Even though events got wrapped up nicely, I just finished the book a few minutes ago and I’m still not sure if I understand everything.

I’d recommend this book to those who want a change from the paranormal “creature” books. The story is an interesting one, for sure.

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Thanks to Southern Book Bloggers for allowing me to review this book during an ARC tour.