Richelle Mead remains to this day one of my favourite authors. Her series The Vampire Academy, despite the horrendous name, is my ultimate favourite series. A series that I will most likely be doing a more detailed post on soon. So when a new stand alone novel by Mead comes out… Count me in.
Soundless takes place in China in a small village at the top of a mountain. The inhabitants of this village are all deaf and cut off from the rest of the world due to their position on the mountain. The only aid they receive is through a zip line which takes hampers of food up to them in exchange for the metal they mine. Yet trouble begins when it turns out that people are starting to become blind as well as deaf and to make it even more dire, the food they receive from below begins to reduce. One morning our protaganist, Fey, wakes up to find that she has her hearing back. Queue a mission to find out what is happening to their village and the slowly diminishing aid.
Based on Chinese folklore, this is a very unusual and fascinating read. It is rather short and she has done incredibly with the world and the challenging concept of writing sign language and describing gaining hearing for the first time. Not an easy feat! The novel itself is a lovely read and the characters in the book are great. The resolution at the end is satisfying and was a really nice surprise.
However, I just can’t shake the disappointment that it wasn’t longer and the character development due to that was not up to the standard that I hold Mead. It lacked the spark that I am used to seeing in Mead’s writing but as a fan of any writer, it is always difficult when they do something different. Reading it standalone and as a first time reader of Mead would have made a massive difference.
Richelle Mead has a new series coming out this year and I am going to snap that up like nobody’s business!! So you will be hearing more about this author very soon. Hopefully, this will contain the spark I am looking for.
Soundless by Richelle Mead
120secondbookreviews 