Advance Review: All Just Glass by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Book: ALL JUST GLASS
Author: AMELIA ATWATER-RHODES
Genre: YA PARANORMAL

Published: January 2011, DELACORTE PRESS


I received this book through Good Golly Miss Holly ARC Tours for free, in exchange for an honest review.



From Good Reads:
Sarah Vida has given up everything for love. From a legendary family of vampire-hunting witches, Sarah was raised to never trust a vampire, to never let her guard down, and to avoid all tricky attachments of the heart. But now Sarah IS a vampire—changed by the boy she thought she loved. Her family has forsaken her, and Sarah herself is disgusted by her appetite for blood.
Aida Vida is Sarah's older sister, the good, reliable sibling who always does her family proud. But when Aida's mother insists that Sarah be found and killed, Aida is given the one assignment that she may not be able to carry out.


My Review:
Some years ago, I read the first two books that Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote in her DEN OF SHADOWS series. I enjoyed them immensely. She knows how to weave words and create worlds that seem as if, like Narnia, they can be discovered around the corner, or down a dark alley, or indeed, in the back of a wardrobe. ALL JUST GLASS seemed as if it was sure to be a good addition to the previous work that I had read from Atwater-Rhodes.

I'm sure that I have mentioned this before in my reviews, but I try not to find out too much about a book that I am seriously considering reading for review. Sure, I might read the back cover copy, or hear tidbits, especially for very hyped books. But, I don't go out of my way to retain any of the information to which I am exposed. For this reason, I really only knew three things about the plot of ALL JUST GLASS. One: It was about a witch who was turned into the thing she hates most: a vampire. Two: Her sister, also a witch, was tapped to hunt her down. Three: The events of the book took place in the space of 24 hours.

I will say that Atwater-Rhodes did not disappoint on the prose. She manages to create a dangerous world full of witch vampire-hunter families, and pit them against the vampires that now hold one of their own. The writing is at times, sparse and crisp, to match the situation. In other places, there is lush description that delves deeply into both minds of the sisters that must face each other on different sides of the battle lines. Sometimes, there would be pages of almost exclusively dialog, but it all worked toward the ultimate goal of telling the story that unfolds within the pages.

The only thing that didn't work for me is the timing. Yes, I knew from the beginning that here lies almost 250 pages that detail only 24 hours. I also knew that this could become a sticking point for me. I need things to be logical, even within a fantasy world, I absolutely hate jump-the-shark moments. If you start out by saying that time won't make sense (ex. Dr. Who), I can jump on board. But, I spent much more time on this book not actually reading, because I kept flipping back to the beginning of each chapter. Does this happen consecutively? Concurrently? How do I fit in all of this action in only a few minutes? were some of the questions that filled my head.

Which isn't to say that I didn't think that the book was extremely well-written, just that I didn't fully engage, or become immersed in the novel. If you can turn your head off to the whole time, and how time passes idea, then there would be no problem. Basically, I proved to myself that Atwater-Rhodes still has the ability to make me marvel at the worlds she can build. ALL JUST GLASS is a solid addition to the other novels she has written that I would call favorite reads.


3/5 for plot
3.5/5 for characters
4/5 for language

My Rating: 10.5/15 (3 stars)

Recommend, if you liked:
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan