Reviews

I wish I could vividly describe how much I enjoyed this book in the way she colorfully describes the Wines that can take away memories or restore them with a single gulp, the True Cheeses with personalities, the Faces that must be learnt and taught in her universe of dangerous politics that trap you and never let you go, much like a spiderweb, and the twisting, unforgiving, ever-expanding tunnels of Caverna.

I wish I could describe how I felt the naive joy, endless curiosity, painful loss, betrayed sadness and edge-of-your-seat exhilaration Neverfell and the other characters experienced throughout the events of the book. There are so, so few books I can count that have made my heart ache or pounce like A Face of Glass has.

And how I wish it didn't have to end so soon. But I'm content to imagine where Neverfell's boundless energy and cheer will take her yet.

dylan_tomorrow's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

tl;dr: Masterpiece :-).

In more words (those tagged spoilers are major ones, only click on them if you read the book):

WHEW!

What a ride!

What a glorious romp!

What an great adventure through this fascinating twisted town of Caverna!

The end was just glorious

Spoiler

with the sun and the sky and the winds and the smells and the birds and that wonderful guide guy with the camels and seeing them as fairies through his eyes was riveting

, great flip of perspective!

I fell for Neverfell like all the people she drew to her with her honesty and her spirit and her wits and her creative craziness and her zany schemes and her hugs and her smiles and her faces.

Spoiler

I was so happy to see all of them make it, even Master Grandible and what the hell is the Cleptomancer gonna do now!? He has as much an idea of that as I! ROFL!

I loved the world-building. I loved the crazy plots and intrigues. I loved Neverfell and Zouelle and Erstwhile and Master Grandible and the Grand Steward and the wines and the cheeses and the traplamps and the evil assassin snakes and

I could relate to Neverfell so much at the beginning, as a pretty shy and reclusive guy and it was so amazing to follow her out into the wild big beautiful world inside the mountain

Spoiler

first and then the Outside in all its glorious wonders as seen through the eyes of them, how they wept when they bit into their first fruit

and

I can especially relate to Neverfell as I often feel like I can’t express myself very well or like I’m rambling or hyperactive – like right now :D – so seeing her being able to communicate, by using her face and body, all of her, not just her clumsy words and get through so well is showing me there is hope yet for me to actually get through to people and communicate better through the power of honesty and showing how I feel :).

I felt so much reading this. For the drudges, I felt their pain. I felt Neverfell’s excitement and hunger for new and alien outsidey things.

Spoiler

I felt delicious schadenfreude when they pwned the old guard I felt longing for Madame Appeline to be her mum and I felt the excruciating pain when it turned out who she really was.

The characterisation in this was splendid superb, as you can see with Enquirer Treble or the Grand Steward who I really felt for.

Spoiler

The only two villains I had no empathy for were Madame Appeline and Maxim Childersin. Well, I did empathise for who they pretended to be in the beginning …

This story consumed me, totally throwing over my schedule for yesterday as I just had to finish it, I had to read on. It mesmerized my like Caverna mesmerized her citizens.

Spoiler

–Apropos, WTF is Caverna? A Cthulhu-like monster? The mountain? The city, come alive because of all the crafty magic? It’s spacey-wacey, that much we know, but is it a living being, a metaphor?

And what about Neverfell’s dad?

Anyway, I just adore this book for the originality, the creativity, the captivating storytelling, the enormous empathy it makes you feel towards almost all of its wonderfully drawn characters and the humour, the fun, the warmth, the zanyness and the wonderful buckets of crazy! :D

Paradoxically, I’d love to visit Caverna one day. You know, once let visitors in AND out!

Spoiler

I love how much, in hindsight, it fits the Land of Faerie
and Hidden Elf Village tropes. Fascinating! :D

And I’d love to know what happened next to the exodus people. And to our Cleptomancer (best name ever). I don’t want him to become another Grand Steward. I hope he has the right kind of creative crazy to make Caverna thrive and prosper and become just about a whole lot less paranoid and consumed by unproductive fear.

It’s great to know that the fairy exodus people spread their magic craft out into the world. That just felt so right.

I’d love to read the deleted scene where Neverfell tells Master Grandible of all her adventures. I was so happy so see him go out into the Outside with the exodus and not reatreat into his caves again. I’m proud of you, Master Grandible! :D

Everybody who is even slightly sparked by this review, buy the book now! It is way less popular than it ought to be, considering how goddamn great and amazing and captivating and magical and original it is. Let’s rectify that! ^^

~~~ FIN ~~~

P.S.: Thank you so much for your review, Nataliya! I would not have found this curiously underrated gem and promptly devoured it within two days without it! You rock! :-D