The Glass Demon

by Helen Grant

Sometimes the path to the truth is paved with broken glass.

Teenager Lin Fox is a stranger in a strange land—Germany, where her father has come on a quixotic quest to locate a priceless artifact. The medieval (and possibly mythical) Allerheiligen stained glass is believed by some to be lost, by others to have been destroyed, and by virtually all to be haunted. A mysterious letter persuades Dr. Oliver Fox that he can be the one to find it—but someone else is determined to ensure that the glass stays hidden forever.

First, an elderly stranger is found dead in an orchard, then one of Oliver’s contacts is mysteriously drowned—both bodies inexplicably surrounded by shards of colored glass. As dark superstitions simmer, Lin embarks on her own search to find the glass. As her life comes to resemble the grimmest of fairy tales, she realizes that what she must find is not only the truth about the legendary glass but a way to save the lives of those she loves.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural, Paranormal

416 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 2010

About the author

Helen Grant has a passion for the Gothic and for ghost stories. Joyce Carol Oates has described her as 'a brilliant chronicler of the uncanny as only those who dwell in places of dripping, graylit beauty can be.' A lifelong fan of the ghost story writer M.R.James, she has spoken at two M.R.James conferences and appeared at the Dublin Ghost Story Festival. She lives in Perthshire with her family, and when not writing, she likes to explore abandoned country houses and swim in freezing lochs.

Helen's most recent novel Jump Cut was published by Fledgling Press in 2023.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those of you with a taste for the creepy will like this one. Lin Fox is 17, the precocious daughter of an academic at an unspecified top flight English university. Her father, bitterly disappointed at not receiving an expected professorship, has decamped in a huff to Germany with his family, Lin, her elder sister Polly, his second wife Tuesday and Lin and Polly’s baby half-brother, Reuben. (Fox’s first wife deserted her husband and young family and went to the States to be a political activist – as you get to know the family, you begin to realise why).

Fox has come to Germany to research his pet project, the Allerheiligen Glass, a lost series of 16th century stained glass windows illustrating biblical scenes, which are believed to have been destroyed. But Fox has reason to believe that they are still hidden somewhere in the remote Eifel area of Germany. He is completely obsessed by his work and takes no notice of his family’s objections. Lin can continue her education in Germany (she has been there before and speaks the language much better than he does), Polly is in a gap year and the utterly vain and useless Tuesday only has two interests in life – her appearance and sleep. Her baby is looked after almost entirely by Polly.

They are on their way to their destination – an ancient castle where they have booked lodgings (only the best for the Fox family!) when they see someone lying in an orchard and stop to ask the way. Lin, as the German speaker, is told to go and speak to him. When she approaches him, she finds he is not asleep but dead, having apparently fallen from the apple tree while picking a single apple, from which he has taken one bite. The curious thing is that he is surrounded by shards of broken glass. Lin’s suggestion is that they should go immediately to the police, but her father refuses to do this, saying that this will delay them unnecessarily and there is nothing they can do for him anyway.

This is only the first of an increasingly sinister train of events which are to befall them in the coming weeks. Needless to say, the castle is in a dark, impenetrable wood where there is no mobile phone signal and no landline. Their only neighbours are a peculiar farming family. The father is completely antagonistic towards them but his son Michel admires Lin and gives her lifts to school. Fox already knows that there is a curse on the Allerheiligen Glass, (which of course he pooh-poohs) and which is supposedly guarded by a demon.

It would be a shame to give away any more. The mystery deepens, is eventually solved by Lin, but this leads to tragedy.

It is a gripping story, well-written, and not nearly as corny as it sounds.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen Grant's books always seem to get such mixed reviews, but I really kind of love them. If you've read The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, you'll notice some similarities here: the setting of a small German town, the main character's reluctant relationship with a neighborhood boy, some really crappy family dynamics, the possibility that supernatural elements are at work. And while sometimes similarities in books by the same author like this can really annoy me, I found that they didn't at all in The Glass Demon, just because I so enjoy the way that Grant writes. Both books are quiet, and sad, and creepy, and funny in parts, and for me, both main characters feel real in a way that few main characters do in books. Lin is self-centered and indecisive and angry and defensive, and does things she regrets, and deals with things in inappropriate ways at times--like many teenagers (and many adults) do. I found the story itself really interesting as well, and the history well researched and believable. It's not one of those books with action, action, action! though there is definitely a lot of tension and quite a climax towards the end. But for me, the thing I love is the slow building of suspense as Lin tries to figure out what's going on around her, and in the slow building and deteriorating of the bonds between Lin and the members of her family and between herself and Michel. There's just something deliciously dark and subtly hopeful about the stories Grant sets up, and I for one am most definitely looking forward to the next one she puts out!

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

To begin with this book was rating at 1, 2 stars tops. The first 100 or so pages I just couldn't get into it. The characters didn't seem all that interesting. It didn't read like a book I thought I should enjoy. Not just that I felt that things were happening in a blink of an eye, no detail just boom, boom boom. I didn;t see what else could happen. How it could develop, especially develop into a book worthy of 3/4 stars, one I would not regret buying.

BUT.....to my delight it achieved this. I would give it 3 or 3 1/2 but I rounded it up. The book - the content, the characters, relationships - got more intriguing, complex and exciting that I was desperate to turn the page. I felt, to begin with, a certain detachment towards the characters, but once the book got going, the characters seemed real, whcih is what I need in a book to fully enjoy them. For them to seem tangible, their feelings, their actions and Helen Grant achieved this once the story progressed. Lin and Michel were the most central characters, but with the help of her family and certain members of the town the plot became believeable and strong.

I was glad this didn't turn out to be a paranormal romance, as they all end up merging into one after a while - too much is the same, no originality. This was original. Compared to what I have read in the past anyway. I loved the history. And the relevance to demons and faith as well as folklore. I thought it was a very interesting and engaging concept that keeps you hooked.

So all in all an enjoyable read IF you persist otherwise you will have the wrong idea of this book. It gives you a trial but if perservere you will be rewarded!

[Cora Tea Party Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 Words: History, religion, secrets, family, tragedy.

Full review to come.

[Melanie Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise was interesting, and the suspense and pace were good enough to keep me reading, but in the end I was left disappointed. The conclusion was sort of anticlimactic in its normality, and none of the characters seemed to have any redeeming characteristics, other than perhaps Polly and Michel. But then again, their only positive traits tended to be their selflessness to the point of being doormats. I couldn't figure out why Michel loved Lin, unless it was just based on physical attraction and her being foreign. I also couldn't understand how Lin went from using Michel and not caring about him, to suddenly deciding she loved him. There was no epiphany, other than her suddenly realizing he was good looking after being humiliated by the priest she has a crush on, nor any sort of growth in her feelings for him.
Relationships between Lin's family members were also confusing. I was honestly shocked to discover near the end that Tuesday was her real mother, and Polly was actually her older sister, not her younger sister. There was something about the dynamics between them and how each of them acted that gave me the impression that Lin was older, and I don't recall anything in the text giving us their ages.
Because of the way Tuesday relates to the girls differently than she does to her infant son, I was under the impression for most of the book that Polly and Lin's birth mother had died when they were little, and Tuesday was her father's second wife, and Reuben was Tuesday and their father's son.
Lin tells us early on that she wants to be a scientist and be the only one in her family not interested in the arts. But as far as I can tell, only their father is interested in the arts, as a historian. Tuesday doesn't seem interested in much of anything other than fashion mags, Polly only seems interested in taking care of the baby, and there's no real indication that Lin is actually interested in science. Her whole "I'm going to be a scientist" routine only seems to come up when she's trying to rationalize her ill-fated crush on the handsome priest at her school. The fact that Lin can spontaneously draw the elaborate stained glass windows from memory in a matter of minutes was really hard to believe, particularly since Lin doesn't seem to spend any time during the rest of the book drawing or displaying any artistic talent at all, and she only has a few brief encounters with the windows in real life.
And for all of her apparent sympathy for Polly doing everything while Tuesday does nothing, Lin herself doesn't seem to actually pitch in to help out. Aside from going to school, and the few trips to the woods, I can't really figure out what Lin herself is spending her time on, and why she couldn't help her poor sister out.
I also think considering how much misinformation is given about Michel's brother, it would've been more effective to have Lin actually meet him, rather than coming to the realization that he was harmless via Michel's words and her own analysis of an event she didn't actually witness (when Michel's father comes over to the castle to threaten Lin's family, and Jorg comes along).
All in all, it's an interesting premise, the suspense and tension are well done, but it was hard to care about what happened to any of the characters when I didn't really like any of them (other than perhaps Michel and Polly, the only two I found sympathetic), and the big reveal was sort of a let down.

[Hweeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a sort of love-hate relationship I had with The Glass Demon. The story is narrated in a retrospective style so at about the end of every other chapter Lin goes like, "I was not to know (blablabla) will be (insert some horror)". It's an intriguing storyline, I must say, and the balance between some paranormal cause and a criminal cause of the deaths must have been difficult to hold, but it was done pretty well. You have no idea whether it was the glass demon or some other townie not so keen on the family's presence. The characters are pretty well-developed and I liked that Lin's father isn't this perfect, good-looking and strong father and he had his own (somewhat major) flaws. I could identify with him, though, his strong desire to see the glass and inability to put aside the glass even after so many (one more significant than the rest) deaths. I also liked the mystery surrounding Michel and family (Can't remember how to spell his last name! -.-); the violent, scary father and the don't-let's-talk-about-him older brother. Oh and the dog too, how can I forget that? Scary monster, lol. And about Father Engle, the way Lin was describing him... I totally wished he were alive, lol.

Altogether a somewhat interesting book, but I'd say I wouldn't have minded not reading it, I would say. There's just nothing in it for me.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second Helen Grant novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it (as I did the first one - The Vanishing of Katharina Linden). Set, like the earlier novel, in Germany and drawing on local legends to great - and genuinely creepy - effect, the book also paints a convincing picture of adolescent discomfort, to put it mildly, loneliness and displacement, the stirrings of first love, and the sheer strangeness of being oneself and having no one to share this with. It's sharply characterised, gripping and cleverly plotted. It's also, both comically and horrifically, a manual in bad parenting techniques. Recommended.

[Andrea Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED This book. The characters were fabulous - rich and interesting and deep with lots of empathy. The two main characters are teenagers, with another teen being a primary secondary character. Grant does a fabulous job of catching the teen voice - somewhat disgruntled, misunderstood, a little rebellious and a lot scared/cautious. She is able to give us a real mystery, with the added benefit of taking most of us - Americans anyway - out of our physical space comfort by placing the whole story in an area of Germany that is little visited and less often written about. The religious theme was not overdone, this from a non religious person, and I enjoyed the peep into the priests world. I would have liked him, the good looking priest, to make another appearance at the end, to explain himself more, but the ending worked well for me as it stands. I highly recommend this one! I gave it 4 stars only because I couldn't give it 4.5 stars.

[✶meow for heals✶ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lin Fox and her family move to Germany for a year so her father can track down the fabled Allerheiligen stained glass and win himself a reputation. Yet the moment of their arrival, death seems to follow, leaving behind a track of broken glass; the sign of Bonschariant, the demon who haunts the glass.

Secretive townsfolk, open hostility, even unhelpful law enforcers seem to point to only one thing. No one wants the glass to be found. What they do want is the Foxes out of their town, or dead.

There is something eerie in the way the town and its inhabitants were portrayed, and it set a lovely backdrop for the story to unfold. The castle in the woods, an almost isolated feel in the atmosphere - it was a great horror waiting to unravel.

Even the dysfunctionality that was the Fox family added to the overall suspence of the story. And at first glance it was lovely. Tuesday's somewhat immature, coquettish behaviour made me think of her more as an older sister than a mother. Polly's lie-low-and-let-everyone-tramp-all-over-her attitude reminded me a bit of Beth from Little Women. And although I couldn't relate to the doormat aspect of her personality, it was a relief to see her character develop - or change - spiralling into a darker side that we unfortunately never saw very much of.

As for the father. A work-driven, single-minded man, who could even momentarily forget the death of one of his own children for the sake of this hallowed glass (don't act like that's a spoiler because it isn't) - he frightened me the way a quietly unstable, charismatic villain would.

Then we have Lin. Lin and her foolishness. I didn't dislike her character, but I didn't like her either. For someone who seemed so determined to keep her family safe, I was astonished at some of the decisions she made. To me, she was imprudent, wreckless, and her treatment of Michel was just plain selfish.
And I ADORED Michel. But then again, I ADORE German boys so that may be a little biased. I didn't understand why he loved Lin, though (and no, it's not jealousy speaking); it seemed a little too forced for me. It would've been just as well if they were made platonic friends and nothing more. The "love" aspect really grated on me a bit. The word being thrown out and about in the book also made me cringe one too many times.
Maybe it's just me, but when I was seventeen I sure as hell didn't just see some random hunkaspunk and decide I was in "love" with him just because I imagined having special conversations with him.

The plot itself was ... fast-moving? Deliberate? The downside is that we didn't get a complete feel of the town and its townsfolk (or is it village and villagers?); somewhat understandable since Grant would want to focus on the Allerheiligen glass and the search for it.
What was a pity for me is that what made the book scary was the underlying feel in its backdrop. The story itself was not frightening, nor was it even suspenseful.

Another nit I have to pick is how forced things seemed. And I'm not just talking about Michel's sudden love for Lin - I'm talking about the hostility and cold shoulder the townsfolk gave to the Foxes. Sure, it was all spooky-spooky and suspicious when you were reading the book, but once you've finished and you think back, you'd realize there really wasn't any reason for that cold treatment. And don't tell me it has anything to do with post-war enmity between Germany and England because I. Don't. Buy. It.

Yet I enjoyed The Glass Demon; I liked the character development, disregard whether or not I liked the characters themselves. Grant also has a way of building up emotion and setting up mood, nudging readers to read on. So this one earns much over three but still less than four stars from me.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky story of a girl, Lin, whose family moves from England to Germany so that Lin's professor father can study a set of stained glass windows. The windows are rumored to have been haunted by a demon, but are widely believed to no longer exist. But then Lin learns that someone--human or demon--is willing to kill to keep the windows hidden.

Things I loved: Terrific tension--The Glass Demon is really scary! Great writing. Realism of Lin's family: they're not absent, they loom large in the story and are dysfunctional in tragically realistic ways. Loved the shock of discovering the real history between Lin and Tuesday. Loved the way Grant let the reader realize the pattern of the crimes just a moment before Lin does; the reader gets to feel smart, but without then having to spend half the book wishing Lin would figure it out too. Also liked the more realistic, less insta-soul-mate relationship that develops between Lin and a neighbor boy. Oh, and this is one of the few books where a protagonist doesn't tell parents/police/whatever about what's going on and I actually understood why.

Things I didn't love: Too much foreshadowing. Also, despite Lin's concern about her sister's rapid weight loss, she sure has a snide mental comment for every large character who wanders through the story. It does make sense, given the messages she's grown up with, but dang did it irritate me sometimes.

Grant keeps us guessing until the end about whether this is a paranormal story or a "regular" murder mystery. It's not paranormal--there's a human being behind the crimes, though there's some metaphorical talk about demons driving him to it.

[Dionne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a book! Fast-paced narrative with a character I liked. Helen Grant writes with a style I enjoy reading. Her sense of humour shines through, with the main character, Lin, snarky and with little patience for stupidity or arseholes. The characterization rang true for me—a teen who is not afraid to stand up for what she thinks is right, but second-guesses herself at times.

The main story was mystery and horror combined, underscored with the secondary plot of Lin’s sister, Polly, having anorexia, and Lin’s fear for her. This adds tension to the main narrative. It was all woven together smoothly. Her similes were deftly drawn, one of my favourites being, “Reality seems to be unraveling as though it were a piece of knitting and someone had taken the end of the wool and pulled until the stiches slipped, one after another, dissolution running back and forth across the work, faster and faster…”.

The journey Lin undertakes reveals her strengths, while it exposes the weaknesses of those around her, including her father and mother. While I was not scared while reading this book, I did fear for the characters, although assumed Lin would come out of it alive since she was narrating. If you want a book that is within the thriller genre but has a literary slant, you should try this book. I couldn’t put it down. I’m off to find Helen Grant's other books now. Bye.

[Natalie Cheetham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lin Fox is not happy to be spending her last year of high school in Germany, as her father searches for medieval stained glass. It's rumored that the glass is cursed, and when Lin and her family keep encountering death, and when someone/something begins threatening Lin's own family, she begins to believe the rumors. Can Lin and her new friend, Michel, find and fight the demon behind the glass before it's too late?

I really didn't get this book. A demon haunting medieval stained glass...not really my thing. A better book could have made me interested in the topic...but this novel just fell flat. The characters not only disinterested me, they confused me and annoyed me. Was Tuesday Lin's mother? How could Michel be "in love" with Lin when he barely knew her for an instant? What the heck was the point of Michel's brother? At 16-17 years old, isn't time Lin got over her name???? Worst of all was Polly. Not only did I find her spiral into anorexia unrealistic (please, she is practically dead after only a few weeks?) it was ridiculously unnecessary, in my eyes.

[Tasula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 17 year old girl and her family are taken to Germany so her father can search for a set of stained glass windows that are reputed to be cursed and inhabited by a demon. As they travel to their temporary home in Germany, a series of deaths and attacks starts to plague them. The girl is eventually convinced that the glass demon is real and is killing people who are involved in some way with the stained glass windows. The heroine (Lin Fox) and a neighbor teen (Michel) are very likeable, with some demons of their own.

[Jonathan Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a great MR Jamesian premise at the heart of this book, and the setting of the rural Eifel with its gloomy pine forests and crumbling castles adds dollops of atmosphere. Grant’s protagonists are believable and the writing is brisk but cunning enough to draw you in. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the last act but that doesn’t detract from a gripping YA title that never speaks down to its audience.

[Lyra Creates · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Well worth the read!
I first read this in high school and remember being taken away and extremely impressed, but I worried that I might not like it as more of a grown up (in years anyways) as the case was with other books. I actually might've liked it more the second time round!

The book has a very clear and enticing writing style and setting descriptions; the author uses lots and lots of metaphors but I found them very appealing to the feel of the book. For a person whose never been to Germany, I got a good feel for the setting what with the author's descriptions of the place and the local characters. The characters were very 3D-ish, they felt real and Grant focused on giving each of them a specific personality that they played through the entire time except for a few places where you could see more of their other traits and that made them feel very lifelike to me. The father, Oliver Fox, was a work maniac, he was obsessed with his work on medieval arts and you could, in numerous circumstances, see how that would even dominate over his affections for his family and their safety. Tuesday was a fashion geek, and a very insensitive 'mother', if she could even be called that. Polly and Lin's personalities took up opposite sides on the spectrum of child neglect, and (this applies to all the characters) I loved how, even if I didn't like the character, they were so real and interesting that I was engrossed with their development the entire book. Even all the town characters, like Michel, had similar feels.
THE PLOT was great => at first it was a bit slow, but then it gets its claws into you and wouldn't let go. I finished the first 50 pages in a week, and the rest of the book in one day! And for a person who usually guesses book endings correctly, I did not guess this one.
Also, in regards to the Allerheiligen Glass, the matching of the pictures in the glass with the cause of deaths in the book, while at the same time walking the line between paranormal and ..well, normal was also very well done.

One thing I did not like though was the attempted cliffhanger at the end of almost every chapter. It did work at times but at others I felt like it was a bit too much.

All in all, an enjoyable read! Will definitely try out her other books.

[Bethany J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and completely forgot I even owned it. Overall, I enjoyed it. As I was re-reading, some of the stuff came back to me, but I was surprised at how much of the book was still... well, a surprise.

So, my likes for this book.
1. The suspense -- this book does a good job of keeping you interested in the mystery surrounding the glass and Lin's family.
2. (for the most part) Lin's narration -- there were some parts I didn't like about her voice as the narrator of the novel, but overall, I enjoyed it. There were points where I was very sympathetic to her as the protagonist.
3. The characters -- I really liked the wide variety of characters. We only got to see them partially through Lin's eyes, but I still greatly enjoyed what I read.

And my dislikes.
1. There was... some really awkward comments made about fat people that I really didn't appreciate. One of the very minor characters (who, let's be honest, didn't really need to exist) was almost the stereotypical type of fat (constantly eating sweets, heavy breathing, sweaty--basically "gross") and was mocked by Lin for it. This really didn't help me like Lin more as a character.
2. Lin -- I have a love-hate relationship with Lin Fox. There were times I really liked her and others where I sort of wished someone would tell her off. Mostly I liked her, but there were a few points (some of them related to the point above) where I didn't like her much at all.
3. Pacing -- Some of the pacing of the novel was a bit off. There would be times where I'd be hung up on suspense and then brought back down by excessive narration. It wasn't constant, in my opinion, but there were a few moments that really brought me down.
4. Flowery prose -- There were times when I liked the metaphors being used, but there were others where it felt a bit excessive. I didn't necessarily hate it, though. It just dragged certain points of the novel out when they didn't need to be dragged out.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

De glasduivel is het 2e boek van Helen Grant, haar 1e boek is De verdwenen meisjes. In eerste instantie denk je dat je te maken hebt met een historisch boek maar niets is minder waar. Hier heb je toch wel met een ongelofelijk spannende thriller te maken met een vleugje geschiedenis en fantasie. Al zat ik overdag te lezen, sommige stukjes bezorgde me de rillingen op mijn ruggengraat. Spannend van begin tot eind, op het puntje van je stoel.
Lin Fox verhuist naar Duitsland vanwege haar vader, professor Fox. Professor Fox doet onderzoek naar de gebrandschilderde “Allerheiligenramen” en hoopt hiermee zijn carrière weer op de rit te krijgen. Lin wordt door haar vader betrokken in de zoektocht naar deze ramen omdat zij de Duitse taal beheerst, ook al wil ze dit eigenlijk niet. Al vanaf aankomst in Eifel is het duidelijk dat ze hier niet gewenst zijn, ze worden de schrik aangejaagd door lokale bewoners. Er vinden zich onder vreemde omstandigheden moorden plaats met glas bij de lijken, dat geeft hun een zeer ongemakkelijk gevoel, toch wil professor Fox door zoeken. Lin gaat op onderzoek uit naar deze ramen en treft hierbij haar buurjongen Michel. Tijdens dit onderzoek gebeuren er rare situaties binnen haar eigen familie wat de angst op het hart brengt, toch zet ze door. Op een bepaald moment zit Lin op school en krijgt een heel ongemakkelijk gevoel en dat wordt alleen maar versterkt na een telefoontje van haar vader. Ze gaat heel snel naar huis en treft ze daar haar zus Polly dood aan in vreemde omstandigheden. Nu nog meer gebrand om er achter te komen wie er achter de moorden zit en de betekenis van de “Allerheiligenramen”gaat ze op onderzoek bij de kerk in het bos. Ze komt erachter wie het heeft gedaan en raakt verwikkeld in een heftig gevecht met de nodige verwondingen.
Het einde is zo geschreven dat er nog wel eens een vervolg achteraan zou kunnen komen.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obsessed with finding the Allerheiligen glass, a grouping of medieval stained glass windows that have been missing for centuries, Lin's historian father moves the whole family to a small town in Germany for Lin's final year of school. What none of them know is that they're about to step straight into a nightmare, one that begins with a dead body mysteriously surrounded by broken glass that Lin finds in an orchard before they've even arrived at their destination and will bring death and destruction right into their home. Dark legends surround the Allerheiligen glass, and as the bodies pile up, they appear to be coming true - but whether a demon or a more mundane explanation is behind what is going on, one thing is very clear: Someone wants Lin's family gone, and they will stop at nothing to drive them away.

This is one of those books that slowly creeps up on you as the atmosphere gets ever more sinister and the suspense continues to mount. Having read a number of reviews before picking up the book, I knew not to expect the paranormal elements hinted at in the description to actually manifest and enjoy the book for what is was: A haunting, atmospheric murder mystery. The settings are well realized, as is the oppressive and threatening atmosphere, but I didn't particularly care for the characters and the pace was painfully slow at times.

[Echo's Journey Through Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so first of all, I was shocked by the reveal of the killer, I didn't see it coming. But second, I didn't love this book so much, if not counting the last 100 pages. Third, even when I was shocked by the reveal, I was a bit disappointed in it.

I liked the characters and I guess the plot too but it wasn't amazing. The first 200 pages were quite boring even when there was a few deaths. The deaths didn't give me that creepy feeling that I love in thrillers. And I didn't really connect with the characters either.

That said, I enjoyed this. I was very intrigued to find out more. But just the overall book isn't that memorable, which is sad since I had really high hopes for this one. Anyway, I still enjoyed my time reading this and I'm glad I did.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the previous book I read by this author, so maybe it's just my mood (it's February, the mood is ... not good), but after thoroughly enjoying the opening passages and European setting of this book, I suddenly realized that almost everything about it was terrible. Lin is perfectly justified in her grievances against her terrible father and her terrible stepmother, but from the moment Michel shows up she treats him like absolute crap without any good reason, while still using him for transportation and information. The description of the Allenheiliger glass is interesting initially, but the same ground is gone over repeatedly, the villain could not be more obvious, people are forgiven who shouldn't be, and generally it all fell annoyingly flat.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Helen Grant's first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, but unfortunately have been rather disappointed by her second book. The Glass Demon promised much, not least a connection with one of my favourite M. R. James stories, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, but, although I enjoyed the scene-setting in a dark German forest and ruined castle, the plot unfolded in too predictable a way for my liking and the air of supernatural mystery and terror that was such a feature of the earlier book just didn't seem to work this time round. Nevertheless, if The Glass Demon is a way into the stories of M. R. James for young readers it will have achieved something of lasting importance.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read that ultimately disappointed--another thriller disguised as a mystery, albeit this one had a Gothic tinge. The writing and prose style hearken back to young adult novels of yesteryear (maybe think a denser Susan Cooper) which I enjoyed.

SPOILERS, COMING, MAYBE






What disappointed was the reveal of the villain--there were several suspects--including the title demon right up to the end--but not enough information was given for the reader to do anything but guess. That means it wasn't a mystery but a thriller.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was okay in the beginning, a bit boring but kept me going; story picked up at the last 25% of the book. Why does this book identified as fantasy and supernatural and yet I didn't think it is?

So the story picked up at around 80% and thought it would be good at the end but I felt a bit disappointed at the end. I really hoped that the story would follow through if you know what I mean.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a great reading year for me.
Add this to the long list of unimpressive reads recently. This book had an interesting premise, but the writing was just bad. First of all who is Tuesday?! I thought her sister... step mom,... nope.
Also, her sister's death was mentioned at the first of the book and it happened at the very end.. I hate it when authors do that.
The romance was not romantic.
The actual story was incredibly dull and the ending was unsatisfying. What a disappointing read.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinarily good. I loved the scary theme in the book and how the horror was accompanied by a taste of romance. It was very nice to have a logical explanation for the supernatural things that were happening and I loved the fact that two teenagers were forced to commit murder out of self-defence. A very well-written and well-planned book.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The concept was interesting and it was fast-paced with lots of action, but the ending was really disappointing and the baddie was uninspired and the ending left me frustrated.

[Caren Mitchel · Rating 4 out of 5]

something of a mystery book, something of a supernatural story, a tiny bit of religion thrown in.

[Talie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another murder mystery set in Germany where fairy tales seem plausible. YA -romance - familial issues discussed. Great description of setting and characters. Author makes it all so tangible.

[Jen Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great for younger, inexperienced readers. It will be shocking to them. I reached a point and it became too much. dnf.

[nickiknackinoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!! I had finished it in two days!! I was so engrossed that I'd read two hundred pages without realising!!! It was an easy read and a great story!! Highly recommend