Glimmer

Author: Phoebe Kitanidis
Goodreads Rating: 3.50
Pages: 352
Format: ARC from ARCycle.

When Marshall King and Elyse Alton suddenly wake up tangled in each other's arms with zero memory of how they got there or even who they are, it's the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.
Terrified by their amnesia, Marshall and Elyse make a pact to work together to find the answers that could restore their missing memories. As they piece together clues about their lives, they discover that they're in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls. Everyone seems happy there, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town's perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything--not the death of Marshall's mom, not the hidden violence in Elyse's family, not even the day-to-day anguish of being a high schooler.
Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marshall and Elyse fall into an intense relationship founded on their mutual quest for truth. But the secrets they're trying to uncover could be the death of this budding love affair--and of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

I got this book from the ARCycle program, and I am so thrilled that I had a chance to read it and enjoy it. I had noticed it on the Goodreads Firstreads program where it was part of a giveaway, but that was one giveaway that I failed to win. I’m glad either way that the book fell on to my lap now, and that I was given this chance to read it because it was a really fantastic book that followed a really different plot line. Sometimes you see the same plot just repeated over and over with different character and slightly different details, but this took the Amnesia plot line to a whole new level.

I may as well start with the plot which follows two teenagers through a sleepy Colorado town that seems almost like Pleasantville. Things are perfect, people are happy tourists love it, it is nearly perfect, but as we dive in, it is clear that something very sinister is afoot. I really loved following Elyse and Marshall as they considered what could have happened as they first woke up with no idea who they really were, as they jumped from being kidnapped then to drugged and then to deciding to trust one another was something that was really great. Even later in the book, there are quite a few laughs.

Following their paths as they try to regain their memory at first was both bizarre and a really great way to see what makes a character and person who they are. The more we learn about who Elyse really was and who she became after losing her memory was so different. Just think about waking up one morning in a strange place and having no idea who you were and then having to put on clothes that didn’t feel like they were things that you would wear, and to top it off having people treat you a certain way, it must have been maddening.

I absolutely adored Marshall, whose first instinct at all times was to protect Elyse even though he hadn’t the slightest idea who she was and what they were doing together. That’s another thing, the amount of trust that moved between the two of them as they tried to work out the situation before them was amazing. Then again, when you don’t know anyone around you and everyone is treating you like you’re crazy, who do you trust? There were times when I was irritated at Marshall for being, well, a boy, but not everyone can be perfect.

Elyse on the other hand almost seemed a little too perfect as she was the one that seemed to have the power once they worked out what was going on in Summer Falls. She was the one who seemed to crack the code because of all these terrible things that happened to her. I almost felt bad for her when she discovered the reason why people would have their heatnaps, It only makes you wonder how many things you forgot yourself.

This book had a lot of great things going for it and one of those was that the book was told from both of their perspectives alternating each chapter. In doing this, Kitandis was able to really let us get into the heads of Elyse and Marshall who only had each other to watch out for the other. This really was a beautiful standalone, my only regret is that the book had to end, but this will not be the last book I read by this author. The book flowed beautifully and from start to finish I was hooked on how the book was going to end.

The Courts Decision: