Scan barcode
dylan_tomorrow's review against another edition
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, 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.
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 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.
The characterisation in this was splendid superb, as you can see with Enquirer Treble or the Grand Steward who I really felt for.
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.
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!
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
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 rivetingI 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 fruitI 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 Faerieand 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
hazelsnoot's review
The writing was so lush and descriptive but I felt like it slowed down the pacing to a point where I kept losing track of what the actual plot was.
dimplesage's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
miketurner1012's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
thebooklovingpanda's review against another edition
5.0
Frances Hardinge has an amazing way of describing things - like really complex feelings that you would never understand unless she was explaining it to you and then you're just like: Wow...I get how this feels!
The plot is super mysterious and full of murder mystery and politics, and seriously even I couldn't tell who was the good or bad guy until the very end. The plot twists I never saw coming and the end was a real surprise. The people I thought were good ended up being the most horrible puke-faced villainous scumbags ever but that just goes to show how well her characters are written!
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a title I first encountered when it was nominated for the Goodreads awards. I recognised the author from A Skinful of Shadows, and The Lie Tree, two dark and interesting stories that I found captivating in their own ways. I put in a request for the book at my local library and didn't even bother with the blurb. I often find that going in unprepared makes for a good reading experience. I'm gals that this book was worth the several months' wait.
My caveat going in, is that this isn't necessarily a title that everyone would like. There are some really strange and bizarre things happening in it. It has magical elements that don't line up nicely with science. The main character is called Neverfell; the names in this book have a lovely texture, reminiscent to me of Philip Reeve's work. The setting is primarily subterranean.
In an underground world, the people have no intuitive facial expressions. Every expression they use is something that needs to be taught, and performed by choice. This has implications for those in power having access to more faces to learn, and the underclasses not being given faces that would allow them to express their feelings.
Neverfell is brought up as an orphan who was discovered in the cheese-maker's tunnels. She is forced to wear a velvet mask because her face is disconcerting. She worries about this disfigurement, and has an isolated life as the cheese-maker's apprentice, unable to go out and with her only real friend being a message boy. Her first naïve foray into the wider cave system places her in dangerous situations as she is manipulated by people who she cannot comprehend.
As an Autistic reader, a lot of this resonates. The whole underpinning of a world where you can't interact intuitively, where people say things they don't mean, and you are a little lost in social situations, is a very familiar situation. Neverfell slowly begins to comprehend her difference from others and finds herself in the confidence of powerful people, some of whom are VERY strange indeed.
This is a powerful and adventurous story, with strange quirks and turns. There are secrets and mysteries, and some graphic violence. It is similarly dark and resonant to other books by the author; I'm really keen to see what other offerings I can unearth by Frances Hardinge.
My caveat going in, is that this isn't necessarily a title that everyone would like. There are some really strange and bizarre things happening in it. It has magical elements that don't line up nicely with science. The main character is called Neverfell; the names in this book have a lovely texture, reminiscent to me of Philip Reeve's work. The setting is primarily subterranean.
In an underground world, the people have no intuitive facial expressions. Every expression they use is something that needs to be taught, and performed by choice. This has implications for those in power having access to more faces to learn, and the underclasses not being given faces that would allow them to express their feelings.
Neverfell is brought up as an orphan who was discovered in the cheese-maker's tunnels. She is forced to wear a velvet mask because her face is disconcerting. She worries about this disfigurement, and has an isolated life as the cheese-maker's apprentice, unable to go out and with her only real friend being a message boy. Her first naïve foray into the wider cave system places her in dangerous situations as she is manipulated by people who she cannot comprehend.
As an Autistic reader, a lot of this resonates. The whole underpinning of a world where you can't interact intuitively, where people say things they don't mean, and you are a little lost in social situations, is a very familiar situation. Neverfell slowly begins to comprehend her difference from others and finds herself in the confidence of powerful people, some of whom are VERY strange indeed.
This is a powerful and adventurous story, with strange quirks and turns. There are secrets and mysteries, and some graphic violence. It is similarly dark and resonant to other books by the author; I'm really keen to see what other offerings I can unearth by Frances Hardinge.
jesslynh's review
5.0
To anyone that follows me---READ. THIS. BOOK.
The story blew me away and I can't explain, because to do so is to spoil elements of the book.
Just read it and don't read any book descriptions.
Trust me on this.....
The story blew me away and I can't explain, because to do so is to spoil elements of the book.
Just read it and don't read any book descriptions.
Trust me on this.....