Review: Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

Genre: Supernatural | Teen Romance

Glimpse is an endearing novel about the blooming love between two teenagers who struggle with overcoming the shame of their parent's secret love affair, and coping with the emergence of Zellie's supernatural premonitions. When Zellie begins to have visions of death involving those around her, their new love is put to the ultimate test--she must choose between leaving Avery to protect him from a gruesome death, or remain with him and risk indirectly being the cause of his demise.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the ultimate religious figure somehow having supernatural powers that are (seemingly) unrelated to God. The first novel does not explain the origins of this power, only that it is specific to women. Zellie eventually gets a mentor who trains her how to use her power to help save people. The plot was decent and interesting, despite the obnoxious teen vernacular, until the second half of the book. When Avery and Zellie discover that their parents had an affair that left Zellie's mother pregnant, they do not stop their relationship. Now, while I understand that they are not technically blood related, this come too close to incest for comfort. Combine this with the secret societies, poor references and language used in an attempt to appeal to a young teen audience, and the sudden appearance of the grandmother who faked her death and you have a good plot gone bad. The brief appearance of a boy who has the same power as Zellie (introduced about three pages after her grandmother says that only women have the power) gives me hope that Zellie will fall in love with him, ditch Avery, and get away from the incest.

Glimpse is an easy read and the plot is intriguing enough to appeal to an older audience, just expect a plethora of valley-girl sayings and character immaturity. It is a YA novel, after all. I'm considering reading the sequel, just to see the direction Benefiel takes.



Rating: 3 out of 5 owls



Nook | Kindle