Review – A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 496 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Release Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1419724848
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought
Rating: 5/5 stars
“In the underground city of Caverna, the world’s most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare—wines that remove memories, cheeses that make you hallucinate, and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. On the surface, the people of Caverna seem ordinary, except for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to express (or fake) joy, despair, or fear—at a steep price. Into this dark and distrustful world comes Neverfell, a girl with no memory of her past and a face so terrifying to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. Neverfell’s expressions are as varied and dynamic as those of the most skilled Facesmiths, except hers are entirely genuine. And that makes her very dangerous indeed . . .”
I picked this book up at my son’s book fair because it sounded cool. This book took me nearly a week to finish, which is practically unheard of for me (I normally read 3-5 books per week). However, it ended up being a really fantastic read and I loved it!
Neverfell has lived with a master cheesemaker in seclusion in the city of Carverna. Carverna is an underground city where only the best of the best types of delicacies are made. People in Carverna can only learn expressions, not do them naturally. So Facesmiths are really important and only the very rich have multiple facial expressions. Neverfell is different, her face is constantly changing expressions which makes her both coveted and feared by the other residents of Carverna. As Neverfell goes digging for information on her past, she ends up threatening Carverna’s very existence.
At times this book was a bit slow but the sheer creativity and uniqueness of the story kept me involved. This was a crazy story that starts out pretty abstract but ends up being strangely compelling and cohesive.
Hardinge is flatout an amazing writer, even if it does take a bit of time and effort to read her writing. Her imagery is amazing and her ideas are phenomenally creative. I don’t know why I have never read another book by her before!
I ended up loving this world, these characters and this story…even if I did, at times, curse it for being so dense and hard to read. It didn’t help that the version I had was printed in a very small font, which slowed my reading speed a bit.
Hardinge’s writing style reminds me a lot of Catherynne Valente, although I do believe that Hardinge will be more accessible and easier to read than Valente for most readers.
Overall, I will definitely be checking out more books by Hardinge…and in the future I will just make sure to plan on dedicating a full week to reading them.
