Early Review – The Glittering World by Robert Levy (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: February 10th, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1476774527
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. I am going to be completely honest here, the only reason I read the synopsis for this book and subsequently request it for review was because I though the cover was absolutely gorgeous. It ended up being an interesting read that reminded me a lot of Elizabeth Hands stories (Waking the Moon, Blacklight).

Michael “Blue” Whitley returns to his home village of Starling Cove, a remote town in Canada to sell his grandmother’s house. He is a successful chef but deeply in debt after starting his own restaurant. Three of his friends; Elisa, Jason, and Gabe accompany him. When Blue gets to Starling Cove things start to get weird, Blue disappeared into the Starling Cove woods for 2 weeks when he was younger and couldn’t remember any of that time. Now that Blue is back he is hearing voices and the woods are calling to him. Blue will find that the truth of Starling Cove is stranger than he ever imagined.

This was an interesting book. It has a very dreamy quality to it. The book is broken into four section and we hear from each of the characters in those section. First we hear from Blue, then Jason, then Elisa, and then Gabe. Each section is further along in time…so the story progresses in time but is told from a different viewpoint.

The dreamy quality and the magic that at first seems to be mystical realism but ends up being something far stranger reminds me of Elizabeth Hand’s books. This book is also compared to Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Land…and it is somewhat similar to that book in feel as well.

Strangely enough the book also has a bit of an alien invasion feel to it. Our character’s run-ins with the Other Kind, commonly called fey by the people in town, are very otherworldly and a bit disturbing.

This is an odd little story. I enjoyed it and enjoyed the descriptions, but it is one of those stories that is a bit ambiguous. At the end you are kind of sitting there like…well, okay…what exactly just happened here. Also this is definitely an adult book; there are definitely some disturbing parts in here including torture and some sexual aspects.

Overall I enjoyed this book, it is very different from other books about fey I have read. The description throughout is well done. The book starts out with a lot of elements of mystical realism and then evolves into something that is outright fantasy. I enjoyed the characters and the dreamlike setting of Starling Cove. The story has a very dreamy feel to it and is somewhat ambiguous at parts. I enjoyed how it was structured with the four points of view progressing through time. I would recommend to those who enjoy dreamy mystical realism stories and don’t mind a bit of ambiguity in their story.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge