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A review by elle_mentbooks
Hush by Dylan Farrow
3.0
I think this was an amazing concept for a YA fantasy novel. A deadly illness known as the “Indigo Death”, or more commonly, the “Blot“ is ravaging the land of Montane. In the small village of Aster lives Shae and her mother, though they’re barely scraping by. Following the deaths of her brother and father, Shae and her mother have been turned into community outcasts, all from fear of this mysterious plague. After another tragedy strikes her family, Shae realizes she has nothing left to lose, and she sets off on her own to seek out answers.
Not much is known about the Blot. Reading and all other written forms of language have been banned, as well as some specific words and phrases, such as ‘murder’. Once she decides to leave her village, Shae attempts to track down the Bards, a group of magic-wielders who have the power to alter reality at will. Their magic is not elaborated on much beyond that, and that’s honestly one of the things I struggled most with in this book. There’s really no explanation of the magic system at play. Some people can speak magic, but there’s no specific instruction on how they can do this. Apparently you can also sew your ‘Tellings’ into existence, but there’s only one example of this.
I don’t know, there was a lot of interesting ideas here. I think the author had issues with the story and narrative construction. There’s not much build-up, even if the ‘tension’ is there. Farrow’s writing is a lot of ‘this happened, then this happened and oh yeah this happened a while ago but I’m just telling you about it now’. I was missing elaboration. I wanted the world she created to feel palpable, but it all came off so flat.
The dialogue was also pretty basic and a lot of the characterizations were stereotypical. My guess is that she just hasn’t read that many fantasy books, especially YA fantasy, and is unfamiliar with the tropes of the genre. I‘m left with so many questions. What were those ‘training’ sessions about? How does the labyrinth work? How is this country governed? As tempting as it can be in this genre, you can’t just answer every question with ‘because magic’!
I want to give Dylan time to grow as a writer. Like I said, there were a lot of good ideas. The way that Shae can’t distinguish between reality and delusions was done really well. As a reader I was questioning my own perceptions of what I was reading. I think I would like to see more of that going forward, not a half-baked romance with some guy who has the personality of wet cardboard. Usually I wouldn’t continue reading a series I didn’t absolutely love right away, but there is something compelling here. Maybe it’s how compulsively readable the story is, I don’t know, but either way I will definitely be back for book 2.
*Thanks to Wednesday Books, St. Martin’s Press & Netgalley for advance copies!
Not much is known about the Blot. Reading and all other written forms of language have been banned, as well as some specific words and phrases, such as ‘murder’. Once she decides to leave her village, Shae attempts to track down the Bards, a group of magic-wielders who have the power to alter reality at will. Their magic is not elaborated on much beyond that, and that’s honestly one of the things I struggled most with in this book. There’s really no explanation of the magic system at play. Some people can speak magic, but there’s no specific instruction on how they can do this. Apparently you can also sew your ‘Tellings’ into existence, but there’s only one example of this.
I don’t know, there was a lot of interesting ideas here. I think the author had issues with the story and narrative construction. There’s not much build-up, even if the ‘tension’ is there. Farrow’s writing is a lot of ‘this happened, then this happened and oh yeah this happened a while ago but I’m just telling you about it now’. I was missing elaboration. I wanted the world she created to feel palpable, but it all came off so flat.
The dialogue was also pretty basic and a lot of the characterizations were stereotypical. My guess is that she just hasn’t read that many fantasy books, especially YA fantasy, and is unfamiliar with the tropes of the genre. I‘m left with so many questions. What were those ‘training’ sessions about? How does the labyrinth work? How is this country governed? As tempting as it can be in this genre, you can’t just answer every question with ‘because magic’!
I want to give Dylan time to grow as a writer. Like I said, there were a lot of good ideas. The way that Shae can’t distinguish between reality and delusions was done really well. As a reader I was questioning my own perceptions of what I was reading. I think I would like to see more of that going forward, not a half-baked romance with some guy who has the personality of wet cardboard. Usually I wouldn’t continue reading a series I didn’t absolutely love right away, but there is something compelling here. Maybe it’s how compulsively readable the story is, I don’t know, but either way I will definitely be back for book 2.
*Thanks to Wednesday Books, St. Martin’s Press & Netgalley for advance copies!