Book Review: The Glimpse

Title: The Glimpse 
Author: Claire Merle 
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Series: The Glimpse #1
Release Date: 07/06/2013
Pages: 411
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository 
Author Twitter: @clairemerle

‘In a near future, society is segregated according to whether people are genetically disposed to mental illnesses. 17 year-old Ana has been living the privileged life of a Pure due to an error in her DNA test. When the authorities find out, she faces banishment from her safe Community, a fate only thwarted by the fact she has already been promised to Pure-boy Jasper Taurell. 

Jasper is from a rich and influential family, and despite Ana’s condition, wants to be with her. The authorities grant Ana a tentative reprieve. If she is joined to Jasper before her 18th birthday, she may stay in the Community until her illness manifests. But if Jasper changes his mind, she will be cast out among the Crazies. As Ana’s joining ceremony and her birthday looms closer, she dares to hope she will be saved from the horror of the City and live a “normal” life. But then Jasper disappears. 

Led to believe Jasper has been taken by a strange sect the authorities will not deal with, Ana sneaks out of her well-guarded community to find him herself. Her search takes her through the underbelly of society, and she delves deeper into the mystery of Jasper’s abduction she uncovers some devastating truths that will destroy everything she has grown up to believe.’ 

The Glimpse is the first out of two books in The Glimpse series by Claire Merle.

There were a lot of aspects to this book that I really enjoyed reading. I loved the fact that Merle had set this dystopian fiction not so far into the future. She linked things in her books with things that are going on around us at the moment and things that had happened in the past. It felt realistic in those terms when she was explaining what things had happened. This book was a huge wake up call for stigma around mental health and illnesses. I think it really showed where things could go if we let things carry on the way they are. Towards the beginning of the book I thought that Merle was only really focusing towards the extremes on mental illnesses but as the book went on you could see where she was trying to go with it and why she had put things into that life. 

What I did find with this book, is that it never really gave you time to sit to question and guess what was going to happen next. Personally, I like to be able to try and guess what’s going to happen next but I really didn’t get the chance to here. At points it felt so jam packed with information that it was hard to process everything and then other parts just seemed quite empty. 

I’m, personally, not really huge fan on Ana. I felt throughout the book she was still quite ignorant about what life in the City was like and the people in there. It felt as though it wasn’t until towards the end that you saw the character development in her within a few chapters, when you had been waiting throughout the book for it. 

There were some parts in the book where I felt the plot took a little while to move on but it’s still worth a read and there were quite a few parts that I found enjoyable. 

Rating: ★★★