The Glittering World
Ratings2
Average rating3
15
Ratings2
Average rating3
The Glittering World, by Robert Levy.
In the tradition of Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane), Scott Smith (The Ruins), and Jason Mott (The Returned), award-winning playwright Robert Levy spins a dark tale of alienation and belonging, the familiar and the surreal, family secrets and the search for truth in his debut supernatural thriller.
When up-and-coming chef Michael “Blue” Whitley returns with three friends to the remote Canadian community of his birth, it appears to be the perfect getaway from New York. He soon discovers, however, that everything he thought he knew about himself is a carefully orchestrated lie. Though he had no recollection of the event, as a young boy Blue and another child went missing for weeks in the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove. Soon thereafter, his mother suddenly fled with him to America, their homeland left behind.
But then Blue begins to remember. And once the shocking truth starts bleeding back into his life, his closest friends—Elisa, his former partner in crime; her stalwart husband, Jason; and Gabe, Blue’s young and admiring co-worker—must unravel the secrets of Starling Cove and the artists’ colony it once harbored. All four will face their troubled pasts, their most private demons, and a mysterious race of beings that inhabits the land, spoken of by the locals only as the Other Kind…
Reviews with the most likes.
I started reading this book after reading Ramsey Campbell's The Kind Folk. I was on a bit of a fairy kick and wanted to read another horror book about the fae. Sadly this book proved less than excellent. The novel is structured such that each of its four parts are told from the POV of a different character. I enjoyed the first couple of sections immensely, but by the time the book for the last one things really started to go off the rails. I had a tough time following the plot toward the end. Additionally I felt like the author really wrapped up the main mystery of the book and then didn't really have much else to do for the remaining pages.
The publisher's description comparing this book is Gaiman is nonsense. Levy's writing, while not poor, is nothing like the masterful prose of The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Overall the first 3 sections were a 4/4.5 star read, and the last was 2.5/3. Overall I'd call this a 3 star book.
