A review by ladythursday
Island of Whispers by Frances Hardinge

3.0

This is the story of a young boy who is suddenly dropped into the role of Ferryman, who must carry away the Dead from the island to the broken tower.

It was a short yet very atmospheric middle-grade novel about death and its effects on the living. The writing was beautiful - not overly complex, even though it was dealing with a heavy subject, while also being quite lyrical.

The main character was flushed out and easy to sympathize with, which I think is important with children's books. That said, most of the other characters felt flat to me. The “antagonist” of the story is a lord who has lost his daughter and doesn’t want her ghost to be taken to the broken tower yet. Symbolizing the denial stage of grief, his character was necessary and interesting. But there were also two wizards working for him and I can’t say the same thing about them. They had so much potential and yet we never got to know them. What they were symbolizing was made clear through the end but even that didn’t feel satisfying. 

Overall, I felt like this was a great concept written in a beautiful way - but could’ve been executed more thoroughly. I enjoyed it while reading, but it didn’t have a lasting impact on me.