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A review by kaitmary
Hush by Dylan Farrow
2.0
When I saw the description for Dylan Farrow’s YA fantasy debut Hush, I was intrigued by the premise. There’s an original, magical world with exciting elements to be explored here, but unfortunately, the overall development is half-baked at best.
Seventeen-year-old Shae lives in a world without books and written language due to the Blot, a pandemic-style disease that infects people through the use of ink. The only people allowed access to such materials at the magical Bards who oversee the nation, traveling to the villages to grant “miracles'' that sustain the communities… if they gain the Bards’ favor. On top of banning books, the Bards have a slew of taboo words and activities for the everyday citizen. Disobeying means death.
Years after her brother died from Blot, Shae and her mother are outcasts in Montane. The people fear that they, too, have Blot. Then Shae finds her mother viciously murdered and is told by the Bards that what she saw was not real-- her mother died in an unfortunate accident. The experience opens up a new revelation: That Shae has reality-altering magic of her own. Suspecting a murderer among the Bards, she joins their ranks, training to become one of them while secretly trying to hunt down a killer.
Thrilling premise, right? I wish the rest of the novel lived up to it.
To give the novel some kudos, the early worldbuilding really worked for me. Montane felt like a dreary but very real village. Its mistrust of Shae jumps off the page in a pretty visceral fashion. The way townspeople are expected to turn on each other to appease the Bards is chilling. As Shae travels, the places she goes to leave a mark. The magical system that rules over the kingdom and gives the Bards their power, however, is never clearly defined. Nor is the history of the kingdom beyond Blot occurring and somehow allowing the Bards to take power.
The worldbuilding shortcomings could be forgiven if there wasn’t a much bigger issue with plot and pacing. Shae’s magical abilities cause her to lose grip on reality often, thrown into a chaotic state where she can be sure of nothing. This is fascinating to a point. The novel quickly becomes so caught up in Shae’s real-or-not-real fever dreams that it forgets focus on a plot beyond that. Shae is investigating her mother’s potential murder, but everything is interrupted by her breaks from reality. Perhaps it’s meant to be purposefully jarring and drag you into an unsettling headspace, but instead it’s tedious.
The repetitive nature of her illusions is not helped by the fact that, to me, obvious villain is obvious and the minimal red herrings provided felt wafer-thin. Throughout the novel, Farrow is trying to deliver a message about victimization and gaslighting that should be particularly poignant coming from her, but it’s tangled up in so many distractions that it never fully develops. That was probably the most frustrating part for me.
There’s also a wet cardboard love interest. It’s been a few months since I finished the book and honestly, I don’t even remember his name.
I’m not saying Hush is a horrible book. I just think it wasn’t fully there yet. Farrow’s ideas are good, but need finesse and development. As a writer, there’s plenty of potential, it just feels like Hush needed a few more brainstorming sessions to shore up the plot and more investment in the character interactions.
Seventeen-year-old Shae lives in a world without books and written language due to the Blot, a pandemic-style disease that infects people through the use of ink. The only people allowed access to such materials at the magical Bards who oversee the nation, traveling to the villages to grant “miracles'' that sustain the communities… if they gain the Bards’ favor. On top of banning books, the Bards have a slew of taboo words and activities for the everyday citizen. Disobeying means death.
Years after her brother died from Blot, Shae and her mother are outcasts in Montane. The people fear that they, too, have Blot. Then Shae finds her mother viciously murdered and is told by the Bards that what she saw was not real-- her mother died in an unfortunate accident. The experience opens up a new revelation: That Shae has reality-altering magic of her own. Suspecting a murderer among the Bards, she joins their ranks, training to become one of them while secretly trying to hunt down a killer.
Thrilling premise, right? I wish the rest of the novel lived up to it.
To give the novel some kudos, the early worldbuilding really worked for me. Montane felt like a dreary but very real village. Its mistrust of Shae jumps off the page in a pretty visceral fashion. The way townspeople are expected to turn on each other to appease the Bards is chilling. As Shae travels, the places she goes to leave a mark. The magical system that rules over the kingdom and gives the Bards their power, however, is never clearly defined. Nor is the history of the kingdom beyond Blot occurring and somehow allowing the Bards to take power.
The worldbuilding shortcomings could be forgiven if there wasn’t a much bigger issue with plot and pacing. Shae’s magical abilities cause her to lose grip on reality often, thrown into a chaotic state where she can be sure of nothing. This is fascinating to a point. The novel quickly becomes so caught up in Shae’s real-or-not-real fever dreams that it forgets focus on a plot beyond that. Shae is investigating her mother’s potential murder, but everything is interrupted by her breaks from reality. Perhaps it’s meant to be purposefully jarring and drag you into an unsettling headspace, but instead it’s tedious.
The repetitive nature of her illusions is not helped by the fact that, to me, obvious villain is obvious and the minimal red herrings provided felt wafer-thin. Throughout the novel, Farrow is trying to deliver a message about victimization and gaslighting that should be particularly poignant coming from her, but it’s tangled up in so many distractions that it never fully develops. That was probably the most frustrating part for me.
There’s also a wet cardboard love interest. It’s been a few months since I finished the book and honestly, I don’t even remember his name.
I’m not saying Hush is a horrible book. I just think it wasn’t fully there yet. Farrow’s ideas are good, but need finesse and development. As a writer, there’s plenty of potential, it just feels like Hush needed a few more brainstorming sessions to shore up the plot and more investment in the character interactions.