Finished: October 2, 2017
Page Count: 487
Genre: Low Fatasy/Dystopian
I finally
finished, A Face Like Glass by
Frances Harding and I can’t help but feel my mind go blank. The story focused
on the tweenaged girl Neverfell, who was born on the surface, but mysteriously
ended up in the subterranean city of Caverna with no memory. She becomes a danger
to the people of the city due to showing all her genuine feeling on her face
rather than being unable to do so without learning how to display these
emotions, or faces as they’re called, like everyone else. This make her a
danger to the city, since she can be used to lie if her memory is wiped about
certain events as she’s asked to give a testimonial. To top it all off,
Neverfell doesn’t want to stay in Caverna but rather escape onto the surface which
she often dreams of. Neverfell is successful in her quest to learn the truth
and escaped the city, and the story ends with an epilogue implying she lives a
good life which give me a pleasant feeling since everything’s all nice and
concluded if anyone say that the book is part of a series is speaking crazy
talk even if it’s true and I don’t care for another book in the story because
this is a good enough ending for me. However, when I say the ending gave me
a pleasant feeling that only lasted for an hour or so after finishing the book
and soon I was left with the impression of, “so that it huh?”
Don’t get
me wrong, endings where everything is wrapped up in a nice package with maybe a
few lose ends to prevent all the characters from living the American Dream are always
best to me, with the exception of some stories that run on mysteries which
deserve to remain a mystery. This ending, however, seemed to strike me when I
wasn’t paying attention and leave me with a deep mental scar that I need to
think about. Just take the time to imagine not being able to change one’s
expression unless thinking about it, or knowing the proper way to make that
expression. In Caverna, aristocrats with a wide disposal of faces use this to
their advantage by choosing the right face to manipulate other people into
submission. In addition to having a wide arrange of faces at their disposal,
the aristocrats are also mostly Craftsmen, people who are masters at a skill
such as winery or cheese making, but rather than simply being able to make the
tastiest foods, winemakers brew wines that can erase or restore memories and
cheesemakers craft cheeses that bestow visions on others. These powers make it
easy to take advantage of others and end up in a circle of violence and hatred
in the city, which are primary factors effecting the politics of the city. Using
these concepts, I think Harding was trying to tell the reader that all people
have the capability of people will twist their interoperation of good and evil
in order to benefit themselves. Take Maxim Childresin, a wine master who takes
in Neverfell at certain points in the story and the primary antagonist, kills
the leader of Caverna, the Grand Steward, in order to obtain power and put his
family in a better position that it currently is. This act may seem evil unless
one realizes he does it for the benefit of his family. Maxim sees his actions
as a good thing because he helping others despite hurting others at the same
time. I for one think he’s doing the wrong thing, as he’s outright murdering
people to archive his goals and no matter how much he says his actions are for
his family (so that’d be the excuse of killing for a good cause), his motives
are still partially selfish since his family includes himself so that’s
selfish. Not too many characters do something out of the goodness of their own
heart except for Neverfell, Erstwhile (a deliver boy and Neverfell’s friend),
and maybe Zouelle (Maxim’s niece and friend to Neverfell). Even Master
Grandible only takes in Neverfell as a child so he can have someone to trust.
Because of this, most characters twist reality to benefit themselves.
Speaking of
Maxim, if I lived in Caverna I’d be one of the people to abuse my faces and
true delicacies (I seem to recall that being what the rare goods craftsmen
produced were referred to as) for my advantage for reasons similar to him. Because
of this similarity I found myself to be very understanding when it came to
Maxim killing the Grand Steward for the sake of his family and Madame Appeline
(a facesmith and secret ally of Maxim) enslaving Neverfell’s mother to create
faces for her. Despite the fact that the characters were mostly had warped
perspective and motives, I thoroughly enjoyed the personalities of the
characters in the story. Part of the reason is because I have a fondness for
those with a couple screws loose (they remind me of myself), but also because
they had clear understandable motives that helped me appreciate their character
more and respect their actions, like Maxim who is actually my favorite
character for that reason. Other characters like Zouelle and Erstwhile were
also some of the most enjoyable due to growing as characters thanks to their
interactions with Neverfell. In Erstwhile’s case, he became more open change and
a friendlier person, looking out for other. Zouelle was able to grow a
conscious and developed a stronger sense of right and wrong. These
transformations that the characters went through made them more likable for me
and kept me invested in the story. Ironically enough, Neverfell herself was
definitely one of the less interesting characters.
While her
amnesia was cliché it was executed in an interesting enough fashion that I
cared about what happened to her. Neverfell’s amnesia was one of the things I
disliked most about her however as it made her character very ignorant of the
evils of the world and awestruck with all she saw. Her naïve nature was often
times an annoyance to me for some reason, as I simply got irritated when she
acted a fool despite trying to be tolerant with all characters. I did, however,
love how her character grew wiser over the course of the story as she was
exposed to new people like Maxim, the Grand Steward and Zouelle, and new places
like the Drudgery. Her transformation was the one I welcomed the most and one
of the most impactful, as with her new found knowledge she was able to devise a
successful plan to evade capture by Maxim and escape Caverna (one of the best
parts in the story by the way). This however was not enough to me for her to be
redeemed, so Neverfell remains to be one of my lesser favorite characters.
Overall, I
found the setting of the plot and concepts presented in the underground city
such as the presence of true delicacies, and a lack of ability to display
functions without thinking about it to be very interesting and well written in
the story. The messages Hardinge told in this story were also very meaningful
and the characters embodies these traits well. This book wasn’t my favorite though
despite the strong characters due to them not being strong enough to leave a
mark long enough and the conclusion being so sound that it doesn’t make you
wander about what happened once the story finished for very long, due to being
so solid and wrapped up. My recommendation for you to read this book however is
moderately strong if for those who’re interesting in seeing what a world where
people need to learn how to express emotions is like, a refreshing take on the
dystopian novel genre, or a low fantasy political violence on a small scale.
More blogs posts on, A Face Like Glass
Looking for the book
Characterization in the book
No comments:
Post a Comment