A Face Like Glass

by Frances Hardinge

'Everyone should read Frances Hardinge. Everyone. Right now.' Patrick Ness A Face Like Glass is an astonishing and imaginative novel from the Costa Award winning author of The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge. In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare - wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people of Caverna are more ordinary, but for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to show (or fake) joy, despair or fear - at a price. Into this dark and distrustful world comes Neverfell, a little girl with no memory of her past and a face so terrifying to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. For Neverfell's emotions are as obvious on her face as those of the most skilled Facesmiths, though entirely genuine. And that makes her very dangerous indeed ...

• ISBN10: 1509818723
• ISBN13: 9781509818723
• Publish Date: 28 January 2016 (first published 10 May 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Macmillan Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[tweetybugshouse]

If your a love of Alice In Wonderland and dream of following the white rabbit down the hole and experiencing a world that is so completely unlike the over world then A Face Like Glass is the perfect book to keep you up into the late hours of the night. This a book where the author so cleverly weaves the answers in metaphors that you get lost in each descriptive chapter. I became totally wrapped in this story of Neverfell she a character that is so innocent on the surface but as each piece of the puzzle is unwrapped and examined that in the end is she really as innocent as she appears in those first few chapters as she pulled from that vat of cheese.

Also if your a lover of cheese you might want some on hand this book is literally coated with food references to the point where i was hunting cheese in the fridge and wondering what some of them would taste like. Also i began to dream about having a wine that would make you forget chunks of your life and then others that can bring them all back into clarity. It a very uniquely woven story that i totally enjoyed and was in awe of the magic of storytelling this author weaved in this book.

[wyvernfriend]

What if there was a world underground where people only had a few expressions, where one girl has a multitude of expressions and this starts a dialogue about the world and the politics of the world. Where the things that people produce are almost magical how can there be equality for those who have and those who have not.

It's interesting, closer to 3.5 than 4 but it did keep me engaged and reading, it suffered a little from being read just after Rose under Fire which left me a bit traumatised, if I had read it at another time I think I might have given it a 4.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

A Face Like Glass is a strong, imaginative fantasy that strives to bring the readers into the magiv of the world that Hardinge has created. This is a book that is as much about the experience and the atmosphere as it is about the characters or the plot; readers are to sit and marvel at the strangeness that is Caverna—an underground place where nothing and no one is what they seem. Imagine a book that is in intention somewhat like The Night Circus, although closer to traditional high fantasy.

Yet there is a plot here, and it is one of Court Intrigue. Readers who like Grave Mercy or The False Prince will be equally gripped. The courtiers’ plans may not be as convoluted or complex as it other books, but this is just a logical result of the world-building. In a society where using the wrong fork at a banquet can get one executed, plots do not always have to be complicated. Yet surprises are brought by the one outsider working against the Court in general, who has decided to use True Wine to erase and reinstate his memories, so that even he himself has no idea what his next move will be.

The pacing of all these plots is a little on the slow side. The bulk of the book is spent in setting up Caverna and all her quirks, so the schemes directly involving Neverfell and her mysterious past start moving late. It takes Neverfell, who is understandably yet occasionally annoyingly naïve, an equally long time to undergo some true character development and get some backbone and commonsense. Around page 350, she starts to realize that not everyone she meets in her life is her friend. She is a fantastic choice of protagonist for what Hardinge is trying to do in A Face Like Glass, but she is unlikely to make many “Book BFF” lists due to her unrelatability.

Interesting themes of the book include how to see the world as if it is constantly new instead of being blinded by familiarity, how to prevent/begin a revolution among the working class, and whether it is more worthwhile to see beauty or to own beauty. The questions are slipped lightly into the book and are not heavy-handed lessons. Think of Lauren Oliver’s books and how memorable quotes or ideas are scattered quietly throughout the pages.

A must-read for strong fans of fantasy. (Meaning if you love fantasy, you will love this book, but you have to be interested in magical world-building because the plot alone does not carry the book.)

This review was also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.