Book Review: Glitter by Aprilynne Pike

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Genre: YA/Fantasy/Science-Fiction

Plot: Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.

When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play . . . blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny.

Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates.
Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.

But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.

Opinion:

Picture it my darlings: The palace of Versailles, gold trimmed everything, corsets and coattails, jewels upon diamonds, frivolous spending, a cutthroat society and cakes that would make THE Marie Antoinette weep with longing! *Sigh* cinched waists, social climbing and overly-priced deaths?! What more could we ask for!

Now if that doesn’t make you twiddle your fingers with delight, then maybe this will! This little gem is set in modern times, but the inhabitants of the palace of Versailles keep tradition. Their fashions, politics, and dialect haven’t changed a bit…except they make have toned the French down a bit in exchange for English. This, my dear readers, is something like you have NEVER read before.

Danica Grayson is trying to buy her way out of Versailles, in the hopes that she won’t be forced to become Queen. Though becoming Queen is a dream for most of the Lady’s residing in Versailles, for Danica, it’s her biggest nightmare. After Danica accidentally witnesses the King murder a young women, her mother blackmails the King into making Danica his betrothed.  Now with only months to escape the palace, Danica must find a way to raise 5 million Euros to buy her way out forever. But how? After discovering that her father has a nasty addiction to a street drug that comes in the form of patches, Danica comes up with a brilliant idea and gets herself in touch with his supplier. The drug is called Glitter, and Danica plans to sell it to everyone in the palace of Versailles, in a new cosmetics line. With this highly addictive drug made into shimmering face creams and lip balms, the extravagant women of Versailles begin to spend everything they have in order to be in trend with the fashions and get their fix. But the King is smarter than he looks, and Danica is about to realize that the game she is playing make cost a life or two. She must decide if it really is worth it, to leave the palace of Versailles forever.

“With both of us in our finery and my arm on his, we appear to be a blissful couple headed off to a night of feverish revels—not a jailer escorting his prisoner to her cell in the first blush of sunrise.“

THIS BOOK. IS. AMAZING.

Though this is placed in the palace of Versailles, and has some SERIOUS Marie Antionette-ness all over it, this story is truly something new and exciting. I found myself becoming truly enraptured with the world that Aprilynne Pike submerges the reader in, a world that holds both past and present times. Danica lives in Sonoman-Versailles, where the fashions and lingo mirror that of 18^th-century France. But outside of Sonoman-Versailles, the world is very much like the one we live in. People where jeans and hoodies, they have cell phones, and they certainly do NOT have Kings and Queens. The meshing of these two worlds is truly something else, but I enjoyed that most of this story takes place in the palace. The fashions and politics displayed in Versailles are done beautifully by the author, and she even ensures to give the characters a very proper and distinct way of speaking to differentiate them from the rest of the world. I fell in love with the world that Danica was living in, even the horrors of it.

“Not something a gentlemen of breeding would ever do. Strangle a woman half his size during their amorous tryst? Yes. Crush her dress in public? Never.”

Danica was VERY interesting for me, because I still feel as if I don’t quite know her. At first her character seemed much smarter than all the riffraff that inhabits the palace, but at other times she seems just as ignorant. One moment I find her having a very mature and educated outlook on the world, and the next moment she is just as materialistic as the rest of women sauntering around the palace. That aside, I can’t help but adore her ferocity. This girl can be downright cold and calculated, and I…absolutely LOVE her for it. She can make cutthroat decisions and live with them, even if they tear her up a little inside. Though when it comes to a certain death, I am baffled at how tame her reaction is. I was expecting her character to have more human feeling than just crying a bit and moving on! She’s supposed to be the good one!

This story is ripping at the seams with manipulation and calculated moves. There are so many ruthless and deviant players that are working against Danica, even herself. The women of the palace are just as you would expect them to be, crawling over each other for the smallest crumb of extra acknowledgement or a chance at a higher social standing. But the biggest player of them all in this tale, is the king. The reader finds out early on that Justin (the king) is an atrocious and vile young man. He is arrogant, selfish, and is not above murder and scandal. His character DOES have a few moments of being…less horrible, which I find myself FASCINATED with! I have a hunch that he might turn a new leaf, maybe become somewhat less of an ass? Maybe not. But the fact that Danica is noticing these small moments as well makes you wonder…

“When one is dining with the devil himself,” I mutter, “a vast amount of preparation is in order.”

Glitter is one of those stories that entices you with a gorgeous cover and begs to be read. It snatches your attention and refuses to let it go, leaving you craving more and more…just like Danica’s cosmetics. I HIGHLY recommend that you guys purchase this book TODAY! Not only did it pull me out of my reading slump, it left me with a bit of a book hangover (which I am okay with). Gowns, games and glitter! You don’t need much else!