Title: Glow (Sky Chasers #1)
Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan
Release Date: September 13, 2011 (hardcover)
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 320
Source: ARC provided by publisher 

Overall: 3.5 Stars

Summary:

If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

Pulse-pounding and addictive, GLOW begins the most riveting series since The Hunger Games. 

My Thoughts:
It's not always easy to find a YA science fiction novel, so I when I first heard about Glow, I was definitely intrigued! If you're looking forward to reading the novel, I would suggest you completely ignore the comparison to The Hunger Games though because it's rather misleading... In any case, I found myself quickly immersed in the novel!

I was fascinated by the two entirely different societies that had formed on the Empryean and the New Horizon. The novel is split into several parts, with each one told in the alternating points of views of Waverly and Kieran... which made it all the more exciting because we were always kept up to speed on what was happening on both ships. When the New Horizon suddenly attacks the the Empryean, we quickly jump right into the action, and from then, we're continuously kept on our guard as Waverly tries to escape her captors while Kieran faces the difficult task of trying to save the ship. There were plenty of twists and turns, that's for sure!

Waverly took me by surprise! Through Kieran's eyes, we got our first impression of her and I rolled my eyes, totally prepared to blow her off... but I should have definitely given her more credit. She was intelligent and brave, asking questions to gain knowledge and quick to act in the face of danger. When she's first taken aboard the New Horizon and meets Anne Mather, their leader, Waverly has the sense of mind to keep her wits about her while also pretending to play along with whatever lies Anne was feeding the girls.

As for Kieran, I wasn't too much of a fan of his. If I hadn't known already whose point of view was being told, I probably would have mistaken him for a girl quite a few times, actually. He seemed rather clueless and lacking the sort of charisma you would hope to find in someone who's bound to be captain one day. The romance is actually light in the novel, mostly because everyone is separated, but it definitely wasn't hard to see why Waverly would have warm thoughts about Seth too. Neither of the boys are perfect though, especially in their fight for power and leadership over the younger boys... 

I also wanted to point out that religion plays a large role in Glow as well. The inhabitants on the New Haven are very much religious people, believing their voyage to New Earth as a mission of God's will. They would do anything to re-populate their ship... and well, there was certainly a  moment where something so morally wrong occurs in the novel that I was actually kind of disturbed. I liked seeing Amy Kathleen Ryan rise to the challenge as she made readers question just how far someone could cross the line to get what they want.

Overall, Glow is a wonderful start to the Sky Chasers series and I'm eager to see how Amy Kathleen Ryan will up the stakes in the next novel! If you're a fan of the science fiction genre, then I'm sure you will find the novel enjoyable to read.  Fueled by a web of lies and manipulation, welcome to the Empryean and the New Horizon...

And for something extra fun, you can "like" the GLOW facebook page where you'll be able to read the first 50 pages of the novel and take a quiz to discover which ship, either the Empryean or the New Horizon, you should be on! Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press for providing this review copy!