The Glass Spare, by Lauren DeStefano (OwlCrate Cover) | Book Review #305

This review may contain spoilers.

A banished princess.
A deadly curse.
A kingdom at war.

Wil is the youngest spare and the only daughter to the world’s wealthiest king. Sharing a castle with the nation’s heir and her alchemist prodigy of a brother, Wil has honed her invisibility as her strength. That is, until the day she discovers her deadly power: she can crystallize living things—even people—with a touch. After a tragedy changes the course of her life, she must help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, even as it descends into war.

Here is a link to The Glass Spare [GoodReads].

I didn’t even know of this book until I opened one of the OwlCrate boxes my aunt had gifted me. I seriously doubted whether or not I would end up liking The Glass Spare. However, YA Fantasy is one of my favourite genre’s, and I was in genuine need of a random read.

I actually started reading The Glass Spare on the Sky-Train to class. Which is unexpected – but I didn’t want to study on my commute, so my start into The Glass Spare was it!

I found the prologue of the story to be very interesting, and if the prologue wasn’t as it is, I don’t think I would have been intrigued enough to read the rest of the book. Which brings me on to my next point: in terms of points of view, there’s really only 1 main point of view: from Wil. However, there are a few chapters/bits of The Glass Spare where we don’t read from Wil’s POV, but rather a narration of some other characters. I’m glad for these narrated parts, since they serve as an intermission of sorts.

Wil is probably one of my favourite characters that I’ve read. I was honestly very pleasantly surprised when I found myself liking her character. ~~The reason that I say that is because I have read DeStefano’s first series “The Chemical Garden” and I didn’t like that series nor the characters in the long run…~~ Wil’s character was very surprising to me. She has an incredibly close bond to 2 of her 3 brothers, and it shows. She’s also a character that I would honestly love to have a friend if she were real. She’s appropriately daring in what she does in her everyday life. Wil can be bold when she wants, or when she needs to be. She’s also very talented in hiding herself and making herself invisible.

Wil, being the character that she is, is so strong for someone in her position. If you(‘ve) read the book you can see that everything is not what meets the eye, where it concerns Wil. People have this way of thinking of her as something, when she’s something else entirely. Wil is clever. She’s capable of many things, including protecting herself–which she’s done more than just a few times. Wil is a whole multitude of things, and maybe that’s why I like her so much. She can be passive, emotionally strong-willed…supportive, and so much more.

‘This was the way it had always been between them. The world tried to destroy them, but they kept each other alive.’

What makes The Glass Spare different from all the other books I’ve read, is that when Wil touches something living, it immediately turns into a gemstone. I haven’t read a book that has this kind of predicament. I’ve read a book where the main character touches someone and they die, yes, but they didn’t turn into a genuine-real-deal gemstone. That’s for sure!

What I liked about The Glass Spare overall was that there were some elements in this novel that were somewhat parallel to our world, but had a Fantasy twist to them. I also enjoyed the relationship that Wil has with 2 of her 3 brothers. The way that Wil interacts with them is so real to me. Wil’s actions throughout the whole book actually feel incredibly real, and not something produced, or forced. Another thing that I liked about The Glass Spare is that the story pulled at my heart strings. Actually, The Glass Spare totally broke my heart, like, 3 times over in as many pages!!! *cries for eternity*

There were a few things about The Glass Spare that I thought were iffy. It bothered me that the plot of the story seems to change after 3/4 of the story has passed. I for sure didn’t see where The Glass Spare was going to go, but I didn’t expect it to go the way that it did. Another thing that I’m iffy about is the fact that there are so many secrets that Wil has kept. Hopefully these secrets will be revealed in the second book.

What I definitely did not like about The Glass Spare is one of Wil’s brothers. I also did not like what happened to her oldest brother! Hopefully I’m not alone on that last bit.

I like how the book ends. How The Glass Spare ends is interesting, which also leads me to say that I’m incredibly intrigued as to how the next book (The Cursed Sea) is going to go.

The Glass Spare is definitely a book that I could see myself re-reading.

I give The Glass Spare, 3.5 stars on GoodReads.

Have you read The Glass Spare?

Happy Reading!
Adele

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