Reviews

Glow by Ned Beauman

Only show reviews with written explanations

chicawhite's review against another edition

Go to review page

Couldn’t get over the writing style. It was so pretentious.

ewilson2114's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

This book ended up being overwrought and showoffy with its emphasis on the author's knowledge of neurology, which also adds nothing to the plot or atmosphere
Awkward dialogue, strange difficult to follow story with these unclear nested narratives

Could've been interesting! Was not!

meepsharrison's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

micco_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

ending felt cut short , while at the same time felt like it dragged on for too long

travisclau's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

One of the most polyvocal novels I've read in a very long time -- you hear Beauman flirt with very contrasting discourses from global politics to neurochemistry. He admits in his acknowledgements that he takes many liberties with neuroscience, but I think that's where the imaginative potential of the book really is. Drug use and drug culture occupies a strange space in the novel -- the serious drug-users are scholars of "lambent pleasure" but also caught up in the flows of global capitalism and corporate corruption. These users are simultaneously within and without the circuits of power; or as, one of the characters will say, they inhabit the distortions in these networks that try to document, regulate, and control human lives. They are liminal -- seemingly complicit and resistant. The novel is at its strongest when it digs into the interiority of these characters, where we are given access to the experience of those that are often not heard -- underprivileged people of color like the Burmese in London. I was taken by the narration and the fantastic, almost aphoristic passages of free indirect discourse. Beautifully written even if the plot can be thin at times.