I read about Pigeonhole, where you get a piece of a book - a Stave- per day for a limited amount of time. The idea is that everyone who is joining is reading at the same speed as you. Face of Glass was my first try with Pigeonhole, and it worked, but still, I don't really like reading from my phone as opposed to my eReader which reads great.

What I liked about Face of Glass, mainly the stories that were interwoven into the main narrative. The leader of the tribe outsmarted the volcano, the Sun and the Moon. The main story was mwah. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting, but it was all far too easy for the main character. He raises from slave to leader in the blink of an eye, and from that conquers all the remaining problems in a likewise quick fashion. There were 8 staves of this book and I felt that there was hardly any problem that couldn't be solved within one of those. Which was a shame.

~Read through Pigeonhole~

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.

Welcome to Caverna, a sprawling, fantastical underground city where master vintners brew wines which can erase memory, where cheesemasters create dairy products which can destroy entire streets if not kept correctly - and where facial expressions have to be bought. It's a world to trap the unwary, one of beauty and majesty and magic, but one which is filled with machination upon machination. How can you trust anyone when the look upon their face is a lie, chosen deliberately from a limited and immediately recognisable range designed by a Facesmith?

 

Into this world falls Neverfell, a girl whose face is like glass. Unlike the rest of Caverna, her facial expressions come naturally, without needing to be learned. It is impossible for her to lie in this city of lies, and her arrival cuts deep to the heart of this rotten, dystopian society.

 

A Face Like Glass is a very...sweet story. It's nice. Despite all its deceptive horror, Caverna is a fascinating, enchanting world, full of larger-than-life characters, irresistible rogues, deep hidden tunnels, villains with hearts of gold. It's very much in the Edge Chronicles tradition of a caricatured, utterly alien world. Hardinge's prose reflects this: hypnotic and fairy-tale-ish, with twisty, turny sentences:

 

Wicked glints slunk along the iron angles of the mangled mangle.

 

You get the feeling she had fun writing this strange story of schizophrenic leaders and contagious Cartography.

 

The plot is, it has to be said, fairly ingenious, a thing of devious twists and unexpected turns, Big Reveal upon Big Reveal, with a suitably gruesome denouement. And Neverfell herself is a brilliant heroine, clumsy, talkative but not particularly eloquent, incredibly loyal and very honest. In a word, she's childish. Because, you know, she's only twelve. It's nice to see a YA heroine who actually acts her age.

 

A Face Like Glass is a pretty, original fairy-tale story with an interesting plot and fascinatingly strange characters (check out the Kleptomancer!). Would make a nice light read after, e.g., Bleak House or something similarly depressing.

 

 

Have you ever imagined how it would have been like to live during the Eighteen or Nineteen centuries?

Well, that probably  happens to each and every one of us, every time we read a historical romance, right?

Now imagine all of that...environment, but instead of  having the sky and earth for background, imagine it taking place below ground...among the rocks and earth.

Grandible the True Cheesemaker is content staying in his side of the Caverna making cheese that are beyond imagination, a scowl almost permanently on his Face. But when one day he pulls a girl out of cheese curds, this strange cavern city will be turned upside down. Neverfell has a face like glass, and in this place where even infants are taught to lie with their Faces, nothing will be same after they lay eyes on her.

This book was beautiful. It turned the heart and made me yearn for the right words to describe something that settles in the throat like unshed tears. I stayed up all night for this book even after promising myself to fix my sleep schedule.

At first I was skeptical. The beginning starts off like a very young children's story, with the main character Neverfell seeming more like six years old than twelve. And she gets thrown around in events, survives on pure luck and intervening characters, and bubbles over with ridiculous amounts of naivety. I can't stand those types of characters.
But Hardinge does something amazing. She knows how to develop characters without a sudden 180 switch in personality. It's a slow, deep change from within. One that tugs a little at the corner of the lips to a frown. And then the slightest wrinkle between the brows. And then the clearness of the eyes that see beyond fake Faces and lies. Neverfell becomes a character that grows into someone that takes action, that moves people. It's so lovely.

I love Hardinge's diction. The style of writing and her the word choice makes it all so real.

This is a world that I have loved getting to know. I wish it were a little longer and I think that there are certain parts that could still be fleshed out. But overall, what a beautiful world to know.

Four and half stars. If I were ten years younger, this would be five stars. Heck, I almost gave it five stars now. But the ending wasn't strong enough. It wasn't exactly weak enough that I have quibbles with it, but the ending just didn't tie up everything. It came a little too quickly without enough development, which makes sense because it's a secret. But still. I wouldn't consider a powerful ending.
Recommended for anyone who loves fantasy and beautiful imagery.