Sunday 18 March 2018

The Glass Spare

The Glass Spare (The Glass Spare, #1)

The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano is the first book of the series of the same name.

A banished princess.
A deadly curse.
A kingdom at war.

Wil Heidle, the only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.

Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.

But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with her power.

With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?

The Breakdown:
1. I am fascinated by the world that DeStefano has created in this series.   It is a strange mix of technology and magic.  There are curses placed on people and then there are things like computer navigation systems on the boats.  One of Wil's brother is a practitioner of Alchemy, but it seems to be a more scientific approach to change materials into armor and weapons.   I definitely enjoyed the world building in this book.

2.  As much as I loved the world building, I was not in love with the characters in general.  There were things I liked about them, but overall I did not find them that memorable.  In fact, I had to go back to the book again to remember the cursed princes name, Loom and his friend Zay.   I felt like the characters were mostly very one dimensional.

3. I did find Wil's story very intriguing from the circumstances of her birth to the strange power she has to change living things into gems.  I want to know more about the reasons for this power and why it manifested when it did. I did feel like DeStefano did a lot of building for character but gave very few answers about her in general.

4. While I felt like much of the book was more about world building than character and plot building, the last third of the book really picks up in the plot.  The introduction of Loom's family and details of his curse along with the hints of the reason Wil has this strange and terrible power.  It is because of the last part of the book that I am interested to see where the next book goes.

To Read or Not to Read;
Read, because I think there is potential to this story.

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