Blurb
For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom. When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei’s home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation. But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon. Richelle Mead takes readers on a triumphant journey from the peak of Fei’s jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiguo, where a startling truth and an unlikely romance will change her life forever.... Lauren I really, really wanted to like this book. The premise was amazing, the cover was awesome, and the author was a New York's Bestseller. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, quite a bit. To begin, the hierarchy of Fei's village is poorly constructed. On the top of the chain of command are artists who basically just watch the people around them suffer and paint it so that the few people who aren't going blind can see and understand what happened in the past. While art is beautiful, it isn't actually earning food for the village, so why are they the most fed? And as said earlier, everyone is going blind. Who is actually going to be able to see their beautiful artwork? The second in line are the servants who clean the main hall and the artist's quarters. This job is more necessary, and I could see the need for their work. The lowest on the chain of command are the miners, the only ones who actually earn food for the village. This is what really bothered me. The miners are the only ones working and feeding the village, so why do they receive the least amount of food and the least amount of respect? This really felt like a repeat of "the oppressed caste gains equality" theme. Another flaw of the book is the way village life is portrayed. The book doesn't show us life in the village, it tells us about it. It describes to us why we should love this character and why Fei deserves our admiration. It doesn't really leave room for the reader to grow attached to the characters or to become invested in the storyline. Third, I found the romance slightly irritating. Most of it, from what I've seen, was Fei feeling dizzy or weak around Li Wei. It really just fell flat for me. The point was to create tension and angst with the classic forbidden love, but really, I felt nothing. I wasn't invested in the characters or their emotions. Though there were a few more things I would fix, what bothered me most was the ending. If you're looking for a more scientific explanation for the mountaintop residents losing their hearing, I would not recommend this book. Instead of making the reasons clear and the hints throughout the story known, it just made everything seem tacky and childlike. While I usually love fantasy, this was a bit of a stretch for me Finally, it felt like the main conflict was not resolved in the end. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book. It had an excellent premise, but did not deliver. Mac I read the first two pages and gave up. :P
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