REVIEW: Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

Title: Glimpse (Amazon)
Series: Zellie Wells, #1
Author: Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Genre: Paranormal YA
Source: review copy from author
Published: April 2010 (self-published)

Zellie Wells has a devastating crush on Avery Adams, the son of her mom’s high school sweetheart. At her sixteenth birthday party, held in the basement of her dad’s church, she finally finds the courage to talk to him. Turns out, the devastating crush is mutual.

As Avery takes her hand and leads her out onto the makeshift dance floor, Zellie is overwhelmed by her first vision of his death; shocking because not only are they both covered in his blood, but they’re old, like 35, and she is pregnant.

Afraid to tell anyone about the vision, (she’d just be labeled a freaky black magic witch, right?) Zellie keeps the knowledge of Avery’s future to herself and tries to act like any other teenager in love. When they get caught on their way to a secret rendezvous by her mom and his dad, they are forbidden to see each other.

Convinced that their parents are freaking out unnecessarily, Avery and Zellie vow to be together no matter what. They continue their relationship in secret until Zellie learns that their parents are just trying to prevent her and Avery from suffering like they did. The visions are hereditary, they’re dangerous, and if they stay together the visions will come true.

Now Zellie must choose between severing all ties with Avery, like her mom did to prevent his father’s death, and finding a way to change Avery’s future.

Why I Read this Book: I really enjoy reading YA novels, especially those with unique paranormal elements, so when I first heard about Glimpse I was intrigued. I was anxious for this book to reach the top of my reading pile and I’m happy to say that it didn’t disappoint.

What I Liked: The story held my interest from the start. This is the kind of book where you find that you’re not constantly looking to see what page you’re on. I was in the zone and the pages were just turning themselves. The narrative is easy to follow; Glimpse is told from Zellie’s point of view (POV) and switches to Avery’s POV using third person narrative.

The climatic part of the story happens half way thru the book and just keeps going from there at a brisk pace. I’m not saying that the beginning was a slow starter, because it wasn’t, but once things took off they really took off.

What I Didn’t Like: Avery falls in love with Zellie after their first make out session. I’m not a fan of characters, especially teens, falling in love too quickly. I like a bit of build up in the relationship before characters start using the “L” word.

Then there was this part, at the end of the book, that had me scratching my head:

I’d been doing nothing besides teaching VBS and hanging out with Dad, which was great, but […]

I had no idea what “VBS” was. Not a clue. I was able to Google it to find out that it’s an acronym for Vacation Bible School but I think it would have been helpful if the author would have spelled it out. Not a big deal and this had not effect on my rating but I’m throwing it out there so that when you read this book (which I hope you do), you’ll know what it means.

Overall Impression: I had chills when I read the last few lines of Glimpse. This book was pure YA reading satisfaction. Fans of YA and paranormal genres will surely enjoy this unique story. Although Glimpse doesn’t have a cliffhanger ending, the book did leave me with some unanswered questions (particularly about Benjamin). I am anxiously awaiting the release of Glimmer, the second book in this series, which comes out in November of this year.

The Book Vixen’s Rating: