Strange Magic - Darren Hayes

Glimmerglass
Faeriewalker, Book 1

Author: Jenna Black
Genre: young adult, fantasy
Pages: 294

Brief Summary:
Fed up with her alcoholic mother, Dana Hathaway contacts the father she has never met and runs off to meet him in Avalon. A brief explanation: Avalon is the city between Faerie and the human world, which is located somewhere in England. Dana quickly discovers that life with her Dad will not be as uncomplicated as she expected, what with his being a political bigwig and Dana being a political trump card because of the powers she never knew she had. Add some boy drama and some violence and you have Glimmerglass.

Review:
Like many of the current teen sensations, Glimmerglass has a beautiful cover, which drew me to it. Honestly, when I checked the book out from my local library, I had no idea it was about the fae. The book is better written than many teen novels; Black is quite capable of constructing complex sentences. In fact, her writing style seems very similar to what I imagine mine to be like.

I enjoyed the book, but I did not love it. The characters lacked depth (yes, I know I'm complaining about this all the time). Dana, unlike most teen main characters, acts young for her age and I kept finding myself thinking she was 14. Despite her early independence because her mom was debilitated by alcohol, Dana seemed completely unable to take care of herself. Hopefully, the second book will be a coming of age story for her, where she will mature and learn to take advantage of her powers and stop being a pawn.

Ethan, the main love interest so far, does not appeal to me too much. If Black wants him to be the guy of the series, then she needs to do some convincing. I recommend this to fans of Kelley Armstrong's series that begins with The Summoning.