The Glittering World by Robert Levy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

A group of 4 friends- Blue (Michael), Gabe, Elisa, and Jason- venture out to Canada to visit the home of Blue’s deceased grandma in hopes of selling it. They arrive at “The Cove”, a place with magical vibes that almost make you feel high 24/7. While checking on his grandmother’s house, Blue finds newspaper clippings about a boy named Michael who disappeared with a friend into the cove when he was 6, and emerged from the woods 2 weeks later with no recollection of what had happened. As the four try to sort out Blue’s past, Blue and Elisa go missing without a trace. History seems to be repeating itself and it looks like no one will be leaving the cove anytime soon.

This book was alright. I understand what Robert Levy was trying to do but the execution was a little off. A found myself confused a couple times and had to go back and re-read a few pages. Even after that, I still have major plot questions. This certainly was a very interesting book; Good paranormal adult novels are hard to come by. I think that Levy aimed to have this novel resemble a Neil Gaiman fantasy, but it fell a little short.

That being said, I did like the layout of the book. It’s divided into four sections- each of the four protagonists gets a turn to narrate what’s going on from their points of view. This gave it an interesting twist and was a lot more fun to read than a 3rd person omniscient book.

The Glittering World was a quick, but interesting read. I think it is a great debut novel with a good writing style and I will definitely read another Robert Levy book in the future.