Hey all, Dani here.
Happy Friday! So I actually have the posts for the rest of August laid out in drafts here on the blog, and depending on how I can schedule my weekend, it’s entirely possible that not only will I accomplish a decent amount of reading, but I also might be able to get the rest of my August posts scheduled. Oooh…I should probably finish my September blog schedule as well. I think I have a little over half of the month planned out already, which is pretty good.
Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend? I’m hoping to finish reading She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, Across the Saltwise Sea by A. Deborah Baker, and The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman…plus I may start reading Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. We’ll see how the weekend goes…well, I’m sure you all will find out if/when you read my August Reading Wrap-Up post.
Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into today’s review.
Graceling meets Red Queen in this exciting debut novel by an electrifying new voice
“Hush has all the trappings of a great fantasy: a curse, a labyrinthine castle, many secrets, and powerful magic. At the center of it all, a girl unwilling to allow her world to be twisted by lies when she knows the truth. A truly gripping read.” – Emily A. Duncan, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked Saints
They use magic to silence the world. Who will break the hush?
Seventeen-year-old Shae has led a seemingly quiet life, joking with her best friend Fiona, and chatting with Mads, the neighborhood boy who always knows how to make her smile. All while secretly keeping her fears at bay… Of the disease that took her brother’s life. Of how her dreams seem to bleed into reality around her. Of a group of justice seekers called the Bards who claim to use the magic of Telling to keep her community safe.
When her mother is murdered, she can no longer pretend.
Not knowing who to trust, Shae journeys to unlock the truth, instead finding a new enemy keen to destroy her, a brooding boy with dark secrets, and an untold power she never thought possible.
From Dylan Farrow comes Hush, a powerful fantasy where one girl is determined to remake the world.
My Thoughts:
Rating: 3 stars
Let’s start off with gushing about this cover, because honestly it’s gorgeous. Unfortunately they have undergone a cover change for the paperback, and will be going with that style for the sequel as well, which just makes me sad because it doesn’t have the same appeal. But overall I guess that’s a good thing for me because then I won’t be tempted to buy the sequel purely because of the cover.
The concept of this story was an interesting one, and at the beginning I was especially intrigued by the idea of the Blot.
I’ll be again completely honest by saying that I read this book about a year ago, and I remember some of the main points and characters, but not in the same way that I remember books I really loved. I can still rattle off details about some of my 5 star reads, even years later.
Anyway, Shae lives outside of town with her mom because her brother caught the Blot and died, which basically makes the rest of them outcasts because, you know, what if they have the Blot or can spread it? Despite this Shae still has a couple friends. Then her mother is murdered and Shae loses everything. If I remember right, she isn’t quite old enough, nor does she have enough money, to keep her house so the village takes that, and Shae is taken in by her friend Fiona and her family.
But obviously Shae wants to find out what happened to her mother, and so when the Bards come to town, Shae goes off with them, realizing magical power she didn’t fully realize she had, discovering the Bards may have had something to do with her mother’s death, and falling into a shallow insta-love situation with a “broody boy with dark secrets” as the summary describes him.
I wanted more explanation on the magic, and the world, and the characters. The book had interesting concepts; it just didn’t follow through with them, which can sometimes be a bit issue in fantasy worlds. Okay, yes, some fantasies just make you accept that this is how things are and never really describe how and why, but my favorite fantasies have such rich worlds and cultures and magic systems. Maybe because I read so much fantasy, I have high expectations for fantasy, especially when books are described as being powerful fantasies and exciting debuts and gripping and electrifying…don’t give me those expectations if you can’t meet them.
This book had potential. Perhaps I’ll check out another Dylan Farrow book in a few years. Sometimes within the fantasy genre, authors get better the more they write. We’ll see.
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Well, that is all from me for today. Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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