The Glimpse Review

TITLE The Glimpse
AUTHOR Claire Merle
PUBLICATION June 7, 2012 by Faber + Faber
READ May 17 - 19, 2012
BUY IT Amazon / The Book Depository

Once you've seen into the future, can you change your destiny?

In a near future, society is segregated according to whether people are genetically disposed to mental illness. 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 that 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 loom 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 intefere with, Ana sneaks out of her well-guarded Community to find him herself. Her search takes her through the underbelly of society and into the pits of the human soul. And as she delves deeper into the mystery of Jasper's abduction she uncovers some devastating truths that destroy everything she has grown up to believe, but she also learns to love as she has never loved before.

A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. -Definition from www.readwritethink.org

I'm not certain that I understand all the contempt going around regarding this novel.  Yes, it refers to people with mental illnesses as "Crazies" and yes, that is not very nice.  But this book is a work of fiction, not only that, it is a work of DYSTOPIAN fiction. I went into The Glimpse expecting a story about a futuristic society that is regulated by a system created by scientists to weed out people who have the potential to become mentally ill.  I also went into The Glimpse expecting our MC and her friends to find a hole in the system and attempt to flip it over on its head, and that's exactly what I got.

The thing I love about dystopians is when we get to watch our characters question everything around them.  They don't just follow blindly like sheep, and it almost always (in my experience) makes for an engrossing read. Ariana Barber was an interesting MC, she was definitely strong willed and she had an immense amount of perseverance.  Though I do feel she was quite quick to believe what other people told her, she always ended up making up her own conclusions and followed her decisions through with an admirable amount of conviction.  She had a lot of people in her life that have lied to her and the reader gets to watch her come out of her shell and question the very foundation on which she was raised.

There were a few parts of the story that I rolled my eyes at for example when the whole boat is watching Ana's missing persons report on TV and no one turned around and realised "hey! that's her, she's standing right beside us!" I mean she had her hair pulled up in a hat, it wasn't exactly an elaborate disguise! Also the random POV switching felt very weird to me, like 30 of the 33 chapters are all from Ana's perspective but there are about 3 random chapters throughout that all of a sudden switch to someone else.  For me, if you are going to have split POV's there has to be a sort of pattern or consistency, not just strewn amuck.

Overall this was an enjoyable read for me and the ending makes me hope that there will be another book in the series.  Everything is wrapped up pretty nicely at the end, but we do get one last act of defiance out of Ariana that sets up for a possible sequel. I recommend The Glimpse to anyone looking for a good dystopian read.