REVIEW: The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano

Image from Goodreads

The Glass Spare bears all the hallmarks of its era (just past the midpoint of the 2010s YA fantasy): a vague fantastical world, a teen girl protagonist with a magical ability that jump starts the narrative, and a male love interest that becomes part of a generally flat love story. 

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad book - these tropes wouldn’t be popular if they weren’t the perfect coat hanger for a multitude of tales. The thing is, tropes work when you do something interesting with them. For me, The Glass Spare almost reached that place, but sadly fell short. 

A retelling of the Midas myth that subs in glass for gold, The Glass Spare centres on Wil, a princess who can turn things to glass with a touch of the hand. A horrible accident sends her on the run from her father and brings her in touch with Loom, the love interest of this tale. There were some positives to it. DeStefano has an addictive style; despite not enjoying the book, I ended up finishing it anyway because it had the engaging, simple narrative flow to while away a few hours. I was able to get emotionally invested in Wil because of her relationships with her siblings and parents. Family dynamics are always engaging and interesting, and in truth I wish that this has continued to be the focus. Although not part of Ovid’s version of the myth, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 18th Century retelling concludes the tale by having Midas accidentally turn his daughter into gold when she is mourning the loss of their rose garden, that has been turned all to gold as well. That modern dynamic could’ve been interesting to deconstruct and subvert in this modern retelling. 

Sadly, after the inciting incident, we go into another kind of story, one that’s about journeying and building up a romance. With the premise we had, I had been hoping for more politics and more family drama. The world was also not nearly as fleshed out as it could - and in my opinion, should - have been. I don’t really see the point in making a secondary world setting if you’re not going to lean into it. It’s good enough for some basic escapism, I suppose, but it’s honestly very fuzzy. The book also engaged in head hopping within the narration, which seems like a basic editorial flaw that I’m surprised wasn’t picked up during revisions. 

Perhaps it’s a function of having read pretty far beyond a lot of YA by now, but The Glass Spare really didn’t do anything for me and I won’t be picking up the sequel. I would recommend it to anyone brand new to the YA genre, and I would recommend borrowing it from a library or getting a free eBook sample first to see if it’s to your taste. At the end of the day it’s a perfectly fine YA fantasy and general palate cleanser after reading heavier stuff, but it’s not much more than that. 

★★½ (rounded up to 3 on Goodreads)