Soundless by Richelle Mead – a Review

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Description:
For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei’s home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon.

Richelle Mead takes readers on a triumphant journey from the peak of Fei’s jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiugo, where a startling truth and an unlikely romance will change her life forever…

Review:

Soundless by Richelle Mead is a fantasy novel using Chinese folklore as the theme. Soundless was a very different type of story by Richelle Mead, and though this was sort of a dystopian story, it was totally different using the chinese folklore theme.

Fei, our heroine, is a young girl who lives in a mining village high up in the mountains, with no way to leave. All the residents are deaf, as they use sign language to talk to one another. No one knows why they cannot hear, since this has been the way of life going way back. The miners in the village must work hard to pull precious metal from the mines, in order to ship them via a line down the mountain in exchange for food for them all. Slowly, some of the miners are going blind, causing fewer metals to be pulled, and thereby less food to feed them.

Fei is an artist, one of the few chosen ones, who have the daily job of recording history through their paintings. Fei’s sister, Zhang is also an artist, but she has begun to hide the fact they she is slowly losing her sight. One night Fei has a dream, and wakes up with different vibrations. She begins to realize that she is beginning to hear things. She is afraid to tell anyone, and doesn’t know why this has happened. Fei spends the next few days listening to different sounds, and it was nice to watch her try to understand what the sounds are.

Li Wei, our hero, is one of the miners in the village, who has become disgruntled at the poor conditions. Li who sees his father die from all those years in the mine, begins to protest the conditions. Li many years ago helped save Fei from a fall, and she has always had a crush on him. But they are like night and day, as he is determined to fight this kind of life, and she is content to do what she is expected to do. Once Fei’s sister’s impending blindness is discovered, and Zhang is demoted to a servant, she will go to Li and agree to help him.

What follows is a very interesting story, as Li and Fei sneak out together and make their dangerous attempt to go down the mountain (via ropes) and try to ask for help. What they find isn’t what they expect. There are so many different aspects of the story, including the budding romance between Li and Fei. Whatever the discoveries they find, and there are many, some horrific, Fei will stop at nothing to go back to save her sister. The wild ending was exciting, especially with the added fantasy element. To tell too much more would be spoilers.

Soundless was a different but excellent storyline, which I thought started somewhat slow, though any world-building is normally that way. However, the last 1/3 of the book was very well done. If you are looking for a pulsating action packed adventure, you will not find that in this book. In the early part of the book, I did find myself losing a little interest, but thankfully I kept going and in the end, I did enjoy the story, and found the entire concept very interesting. Richelle Mead did a fantastic job writing this story and making it believable to us.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Author