The Hush

by Skye Melki-Wegner

Chester has taken to the road, traveling from village to village desperately searching for his father, who has disappeared. One night while fiddling to earn a few coins, he accidentally connects to the Song the music that fuels every aspect of the world, and that it's illegal for him to interact with. He's caught and sentenced to death for his crime. Only a licensed Songshaper can bend music to his will.


But someone in the crowd a member of the infamous Nightfall Gang stages a daring rescue and whisks Chester into the Hush, a shadowy nightmare mirror-world where Music can be deadly and Echoes can kill.


Susanna, the Captain of the Nightfall Gang has been watching Chester. She needs him to pull off an elaborate plan that will take down the governing body that keeps her an outlaw and made her the fragment she is. Susanna needs him to exact her revenge, even if he dies doing it.


Combining complex stakes, shifting loyalties, nods to fairy tales, and a Western feel, The Hush is a lush and exhilarating fantasy perfect for fans of Catherine Fisher's Incarceron and Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker.

• ISBN13: 9780857985668
• Publish Date: 2 March 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: AU
• Publisher: Random House Australia
• Imprint: Random House Australia Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

4½ Stars.
The Hush is a imaginative, engaging and enthralling fantasy, with elements of suspense and science fiction. Skye is one of my favourite authors, she creates vivid worlds in which readers can fully immerse themselves, likable characters and is an advocate for creating strong, but flawed heroines. She makes reading effortless and simply entertaining.

Told as a third person narrative, it follows both Chester and the Nightfall Gang, Susannah, Sam, Dot and the fabulous Travis. They know all too well what the Conservatoruim is hiding, and plan on exposing their secrets and recruiting Chester for their cause. The world building is so incredibly vivid, switching from the realism of our world to The Hush, where sorcery creates a dark and dangerous landscape of rain and Echoes. A cross between middle grade and young adult, I was hooked from the very first page and was torn between flying through the pages and trying to savior the storyline.

I simply loved it. Fabulously written, Skye is the ultimate Australian fantasy fusion author for the young and young at heart. Although the storyline delivers the reader with a satisfied finale, I would love to see The Hush continued in what would no doubt be an epic adventure series. At this point, I'd read this girl's shopping list. She's just that incredible.