Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Soundless by Richelle Mead
Series: Stand-Alone
Published by Razorbill on November 10th 2015
Genres: Young Adult Mythology, Young Adult Fantasy
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Source: Own Copy
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From Richelle Mead, the #1 internationally bestselling author of Vampire Academy and Bloodlines, comes a breathtaking new fantasy steeped in Chinese folklore.
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 Beiugo, where a startling truth and an unlikely romance will change her life forever...

First Impression: A story of self-perseverance in the face of the unknown.

Second Impression: I liked how the story was written. It uses certain costumes and vaguely bases a fantasy world around it. I found it quite impressive. The people of a small village where Fei is from known only one way of life. They are split into different classes. The miners, mine for the metals that keep their village alive for the village is on top of a mountain with no way down and the only thing that keeps them fed is sending metal down through a line in exchange for food. The artists supervise the daily life of the village and return to report it in an expressive artistic way that will be displayed the next day for the whole town to witness. They must only observe and never intervene.

For you see, everyone in town is deft. Their only way of communication is through sign language and reading the painted word from the artists. Unfortunately the town is also suffering from people going blind, and no one known why this is happening. It’s interfering with the mining and thus causing the man managing the zip-line below to send them more food. When Li Wei’s (a miner) father dies in an accident in the mine because he was losing his vision, Li Wei sets out to try and climb down the mountain and have the lineman reconsider sending them so little food. Fei is forced to go with him when her own sister’s sight begins to fail, and the last thing she wants is for her to become a beggar. Especially in the world so scares of food.

The only thing is, Fei is the only one that can climb down the mountain because her hearing has returned and she is the only one in the village that can hear the rock slide and thus avoid getting killed.

When Li Wei and Fei make their way to the world below, what they discover not only stuns them, but the mystery and betrayal towards her people leaves them wanting the same salvation and pleasures of life the people in the township are experiencing. As they try to get back to their people and enlighten them of the deceiving lies, the danger follows them.

Third Impression: The book was okay. No, you must understand, I really enjoyed it. I must have if I finished it so damn quickly right? And I did. I like the underlying feel of the story, it felt diverse from the normal reads that keep popping up in my kindle lately. Fei was an interesting character, but where she was strong and brave, she was also a bit naive and weak. I know she wanted what was best for her people, but ultimately failed to see the bigger picture. The entire time I was reading this book, I was curious to how she was going to accomplish what she was set out to do.

Okay, I must say the ending was a bit of disappointment. I kind of expected that it was going to happen in such way, but it still left a bitter pill in my mouth. I wanted something more, I wanted to see the people stand up and rebel. I wanted to see them use that anger and sorrow that they had battled for so long and unleash it on the cruelty that kept them on top of the mountain. Yes, I admired the village folks for doing everything they can in order to survive under their circumstances, but I also envisioned some kind of a revolution for them. Not just become a sort of a fish out of the water and hope that a myth saves them.

There was also a bit of romance in the book and it was cute, but everything did end a bit too perfectly. Sure, the author did not take it to the extent of making your teeth ache, but Fei seemed to have literally got everything she could ever want. It left me wanting a bit more meat on these dry bones, so to speak and wishing that the story was not a stand-alone – maybe it would have been better for it. This is one time that I did not feel it had a strong ending and left me feeling a bit disappointed, but I guess it does bring closure to those that needed in light of the events and HEA.

I did enjoy the writing and the story telling. It had a folk book feeling, and even thought it wasn’t detailed, it was understandable. It did not bore me to tears with an influx of information, therefore I did not find the book dry. I enjoyed every minute of it, despite wanting a better, stronger, and possibly overall a different ending. Thought I liked it just fine, I felt that the story in general had a lot of potential. But, if it meant to feel like a folklore, in which it absolutely does, then it is understandable.