A review by slimikin
The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

3.0

Cecilia Dart-Thornton's writing style takes some getting used to. She uses a surfeit of words where a handful would do and puts polysyllabic phrases in the mouth of her mentally handicapped protagonist. These stylistic tendencies are so aggravating, in fact, that I almost put the book down several times. But then, unexpectedly, the story began to shine through its clumsy writing, and the writing itself became a waterfall of rich sensory detail oddly suited to the world it describes. The story Dart-Thornton begins in The Ill-Made Mute makes use of a wealth of mythology and folklore, combining fey creatures with a quest and a romance for a compelling, if slightly disjointed, adventure.