4/5 Stars
Through Glass (The Glass, #1)-Rebecca Ethington
I had chosen to cover my walls with memories. Cohen had chosen to cover his walls with his future. The future he had hoped for. In every single one of his dreams, he and I were center stage.
Paintings, sketches, crudely drawn finger paintings; one after another covered his walls. They bled into each other as they faded and swirled; one wish, one future, one into another. I looked at each one as my vision threatened to cloud over and the emotion touched my eyes, tears threatening to break free.
I saw the two of us holding hands on a pier, a broken down carnival surrounding us. The two of us lying together in a bed as we laughed. His lips against mine as we sat beneath a blackened sky with a dozen twinkling lights above our heads. My body, on the wall where he had pushed his bed up against, my eyes looking into the air in front of him, staring into the exact spot where he had lain.
***
I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t care.
Except I did.
I cared about her. She was all I could think about. So much had been taken away from me, however as the light burned into me, the brightness scarring my brain, she was still there.
Her smile, the fiery red color of her hair, the way she tasted when I kissed her. The way my fingers moved when I painted her.
Alexis.
Plot: Alexis thought all of her dreams were finally coming true, at 17 she received her acceptance to her first choice university, had a wonderful home life, good friends, and would have the next four years to try to kindle romance with her childhood best friend and crush Cohen. On the day everything changed, Alexis finally mustered the courage to cross the friend zone, taking a risk, and kissing Cohen. When he kissed her back it felt like everything was perfect and was suddenly coming together just the way she wanted it. Exhilarated, breathless, and dizzy with the aftereffects of that life-changing kiss, Alexis hurries up to her room to get changed for their first date, looking across the way through her window into Cohen’s bedroom. He’s there, longingly smiling at her through the glass when his lazy, happy grin turned into outright horror. Alexis tried to see what terrified Cohen but it was out of her line of sight. One by one the lights were cut, leaving the world in complete darkness, the sun dimmed, seeming to disappear behind a black cloud of ash. Swirling bits of darkness fell from the sky like black rain, a rain that fascinated and seemed to call her neighbors from their homes out into the street, eager to touch the magical black specks. Alexis was just about to open her window and give into the temptation when Cohen’s grandfather touched the black mass and a creature formed out of the droplets. A horrifying black beast with razor-sharp golden talons, jagged feathers, a hulking, muscular body that leaked and seeped darkness simultaneously creating it and one with it. The creature lifted its talons and slashed, cutting grandpa Cohen until all that was left after the attack was a white pile of ash. Confused and scared out of her mind, Alexis doesn’t know where to turn and her hopes sink when she realizes that the window between her and Cohen was the closest they’d be able to get. Alexis fears for her family, cries for the loss of life as she knows it, and is quickly struck my an acute pain in her head that shoots white light behind her eyes. It’s a broadcast from the creatures. They call themselves the Ulama and they have a set of rules that must be followed should the humans want to survive. They must stay in the house, be absolutely silent, and eat the food given to them. The Ulama arrive in packs after the message, destroying each house so that all food, all sources of light, of memory are destroyed, ripped to shreds. Alexis and Cohen learn to live this way, hunkering to be together yet forced apart by the space between their two windows and the strange, deadly creatures. Through Glass is about survival against all odds, about terrible choices, hopes, dreams, and becoming more that you thought was possible in the face of oppression.
PROS:
- Watching an artist work has never been so sexy. Cohen is gorgeous, sensual, charming, funny, and so deliciously tempting. The scenes between him and Alexis are rife with steamy sexual chemistry that ignites right off the page. The build up of their relationship though short is unbelievably powerful and perfectly paced. These two are meant for each other, like two pieces of a beautifully puzzle they fit so well that you will be overwhelmed with feels. Embrace it, love it, it’s fantastic.
- The suspense is brilliantly written, every single moment is fueled by mounting tension that will wind you up and have you bracing yourself for impact. The clicks on the stairs, the slow, sinister approach of the Ulama is so terrifying and full of anticipation that will have you flipping like mad through the pages just to see what happens.
- Alexis is a bold, strong, determined, heroine. She takes charge and though she is afraid, she is willing to fight to the death for survival. She’s crafty, savvy, and able to survive the ruthless hunting of the Ulama, braving the darkness, fighting against their mental manipulation to save herself and the man she loves. Plus, her fashion sense is ridiculously awesome. I had the strongest urge to draw her. Camo, leather, a superhero shirt, and steel-toed boots, she’s a complete bad ass.
- The utter loneliness, and yearning for human touch, how Cohen and Alexis stare at each other through the window, communicating through silence with sign language, unable to touch, to kiss, to hold one another is heartbreaking. The emotion is poignant, and creates a genuinely heart-felt connection with the characters.
- Action-packed, filled with just enough mystery to keep you on your toes, and guessing throughout the story.
- The Ulama are complex, gruesomely described, dangerous creatures straight out of your worst nightmares.
CONS:
- Some of the descriptions and word choices are a little repetitive. There was an overuse of the word “the” as a sentence starter. Stylistically there should have been more variety in sentence structure.
- The explaination for the creation of the Ulama, their release, and the subsequent events that led to the black out was too short and should have been expanded on in-depth. A couple of sentenes wasn’t enough and was more confusing than anything.
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I remembered that day.
I remembered because it was the day I became alone.
It was the day that everything was perfect until the monsters took it away. Then the house went silent and the birds stopped singing. It was the day when everyone disappeared, everyone except the boy, the only person I have seen in two years.
The boy I talk to through the glass.
Pleasant reading,
-BB
Young Adult Book Madness 