Hush by Dylan Farrow

 My Rating: 7/10

Would I reread: Yes

Will I continue the series: Most likely 

I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll be honest that I had no idea who Dylan Farrow was when  I decided to read this book, I legitimately thought the premise sounded interesting. A plague from ink that turns people blue and they eventually die and now all written word is gone but there’s bards who do Tellings aka illusions/magic. That’s pretty neat.

For a debut this book is quite good but it does still fall flat in some areas.

1. The characters were two dimensional, I didn’t feel any connection to any of them and they didn’t seem to have much chemistry with each other either.

2. The pacing is a little off. I’m not really sure how much time passes from start to end. I think we follow Shae in the village for a few days, then a week passes? A day to travel to high house and that’s where I lose track of time. The first week is dragged out where it doesn’t seem like she’s really learning anything but being stunted by Kennan. Then maybe a day with Ravod? Then time muddles again and we don’t know how much time passes. But it doesn’t seem like enough for Shae to know some of the things she knows about Tellings.

3. A mark was missed on not exploring the mysterious castle, it just suddenly was mysterious and magical when it needed to be.

4. What even was that random bipolar village with the flickering tavern??? It’s never explained.

After the compelling authors note at the end where some very good points ago it today’s world were made I looked up the author. Now knowing who she is I understand some of the points she was trying to make in this book. People can lie, gaslight, and use you and it’s your job to fight back like Shae does.

I did enjoy this book overall, the writing is well done and the story had me hooked, but like any other debut it could use a little work. I have high hopes for the sequel.