Bad Glass - Review

Bad Glass
© 2012 Richard E. Gropp
isbn13: 9780345533937
Del Rey

I borrowed the eBook version from my Public Library's online Overdrive system.


I like this book. I didn't like the characters too much. But that isn't a criterion of mine in order to like a book. Bad Glass is well written, with dynamic characters that sustain throughout the story. The landscape is vivid and believable, even when events and circumstances are very unusual. I like speculative fiction that makes me think and wonder, and keeps me curious about what is going to happen. Gropp's Bad Glass certainly did this.

Dean Walker, the first-person narrator, is a young man who professes to be looking for a way to make his mark in the world. He is a photographer and he goes to Spokane with the hopes of getting exceptional photos that will stamp his name on the profession of photojournalism. Spokane has been off the maps for several months before the Dean gets there. Strange occurrences are going on in the city, and no one has been able to explain what or why. The military are there; they have cordoned off the entire area, not allowing anyone in or out. Dean must sneak into the city, and once there he observes very odd occurrences that he cannot explain. The city is in chaos--a sublime chaos, actually. Dean is robbed of his supplies but rescued by the lovely Taylor. Dean is intrigued with her and readily accepts her invitation to stay at a large house with her and several other people. Bolstered with booze, pot and eventually prescription drugs, Dean attempts to become closer with Taylor while he continues to take photographs he can smuggle out to Internet forums.

Spokane seems to be in an alternate reality. All of the subordinate characters are richly drawn and believable. I was curious about each of them, and wanted to know how they would fare under the odd circumstances. Dean's view of what is happening is not reliable because of the drugs he's been taking; even he admits this at several points. Nonetheless he has photographs which seem to substantiate the curious state of affairs in Spokane. The ending was intriguing, and even after reading the cryptic last chapter, I still had doubts about what had happened.

But this is what made me like the book. I'm still thinking about it, several days after finishing. And I know in a few months when I go back and see the title, I will remember the book quite vividly.

This title was a Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in a First Novel (2012)