Author: Claire Merle
Expected publication:  June 7th 2012 by Faber & Faber (UK)
 

I received an eARC from Faber & Faber (UK) via Netgalley. Thank you.

My interest in this book fluctuated the whole time. From bored, disbelieved to fascinated then lost. But all things considered I think The Glimpse was still a decent read. It didn’t excite me like other dystopian books I have read before but honestly, there were times that it was really engaging but I’m completely saddened that it did not sustain it.

I was about to take the issue of how the book incorporated mental illness seriously. But just like love is an illness in Delirium, I’m giving this one a free pass. Even though my history in psychology is not in the clinical side, I just couldn’t entirely pretend that I’m clueless. Diagnosis of mental illness is more complex; there are lots of thing to consider. The book however generalizes this that for me felt different and in the process loses my strong prenotion. This is just me, but I would have preferred if it uses the already existing categories of mental disorder instead. In the book, it classified schizophrenia, depression (mood/affective) and anxiety as the big three. But after I finished the book all these things in my head had taken a backseat; especially after I found out about the ‘glimpse.’ Then it mentioned shaman and the spirit world that completely removed the crease in between my eyebrows and all those serious thoughts. I’m somehow relieved. Another thing is that story itself slammed down the idea of a test identifying which are pures which are not (I’m also not comfortable with the term ‘crazies’) **spoiler**it turns out that it was just big fraud and no gene mutated patterns were found but they still push through the project. And they’re not really crazy.**spoiler** But all in all, the way it handled the subject was one of the major factors why I find it less entertaining.

Now going back, the story was passable. Ana the main heroine was daughter of a famous geneticist Ashby Barber who also one of the people behind the pure test. Then it was found out that she’s not actually pure and realized that her father altered her test result. In the long run, we found out what her father role in the grander scheme of things. And some other secrets about their government. And I must say that part where I was really interested.

It also reminded me of some other books, like Delirium and Matched. The binding reminded me of the matching procedure in Matched. And because of that I can’t help comparing the characters from that book to this one. Jasper reminds me of Xander. And Cole, yes, you guessed it right; he’s kinda like Ky for me. Like him, Cole opened a lot of secret doors to their society. The ugly truths. If you follow the pattern (did I mention it’s a love triangle?) you probably have a hunch who she chose. So no denying that I liked the romance (I’m hopeless romantic what can I say). That’s also one of those times that I enjoyed. But that said this made the characters tad unoriginal to me.

It was a fine read. It offers nothing new. However, I think the idea of a society that focuses on mental health was interesting. It just that the execution failed to impress me. Needless to say, to those who love dystopian books I think this will suit your palate.