Glass Town

by Steven Savile

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Glass Town was better than I thought it was going to be, but in a lot of ways, it still felt scattered and messy to me. I guess, ultimately, this wasn't the book I signed up for?

Josh Raines inherits a mystery from his grandfather - a mystery about a young woman beloved by his great-grandfather and his great-great-uncle.  Eleanor Raines disappeared off the set of Hitchcock's unfinished Number 13 and was never seen again.  So what happened to Eleanor?  Something is rotten in the Rothery, and Joshua can't help but to be swept up in it all.

It was Eleanor Raines and the Glass Town I wanted out of this book. There was very little time spent with these two, although they were a constant part of conversation. With so many different POVs, it's easy to see why nobody really had a fleshed out story. Multiple POVs are fantastic when they're used to accentuate the story, but this is a relatively short book and there were some that didn't seem to add to the promised plot. The two cops, Taff and Julie, were caught up on the side but didn't do anything to really add to the world building or to Josh's search. I could have done without them.

As an adult mystery novel, Glass Town does just fine. But don't come in expecting a lot of fantasy. There's speculation and a tease, but not full immersion. I mean, come on! Projections of old movies that come to life? A movie set removed from time and used as a prison? There were so many promises of things that interested me on the other side of the mirror that, once it became clear I wasn't going to get them, I lost interest in what was left.