A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge: I am so claustrophobic right now

A Face Like Glass 

by 

Frances Hardinge

Caverna is a massive underground city where food is more than just food, and art is something powerful and dangerous. How else can you categorize cheese that brings visions of the future but could explode if put in the wrong position? Or wine that makes a person forget or remember certain memories while being fiercely territorial to the point of destroying itself for the chance to destroy another wine? This may sound fantastical, however, Caverna is far from a paradise. 

Born in the darkly beautiful caverns, babies are completely unable to make expressions on their own. So, a few Expressions are instead learned, unless you have the money to buy more numerous and diverse Faces. All except Neverfell, a little girl and apprentice to the best cheese master in Caverna, he hasn’t blown anything up in a long while. Neverfell's face is so strange and terrifying that she hides it with a mask and never leaves her Master’s tunnels. That is, until she slips out of her Master’s Tunnels through a literal rabbit hole (I don’t even have a joke for that. I just really, really, like it) into the beautiful and dangerous city of Caverna.

Characters

Neverfell: Neverfell is just a tiny bit mad. She doesn’t belong in Caverna and, even though she’s forgotten it, her brain still knows that something is terribly, terribly wrong. Can I just say it? I mean it’s kind of obvious. Neverfell is from the Outside. Her face isn’t carefully controlled to express the right things. Because of that people can read every single emotion and thought in her face; which leaves her terribly vulnerable in the dark and twisted city that is Caverna. To add to that she’s terribly naïve and utterly incapable of understanding deceit. At least, in the beginning. Neverfell grows so much in this book. Like, there might have been some tears involved kind of growth. But I won’t spoil any of that.

Master Grandible: the famous cheesmaster I was talking about. He’s a grumpy little sod, but I loved him. True, in the grand scheme of things he’s not in the narrative much, but he’s never forgotten. He’s probably the only person the reader and Neverfell could trust to tell the truth and by the time you’re a few chapters in you’ll be missing his grumpy face.

The Grand Steward: The Grand Steward is, in part, responsible for the terrible acts in Caverna. Clinging to life for well over five hundred years with different magical concoctions the Grand Steward can’t truly taste or experience anything anymore. So, the crowning achievement for any of the prominent artesian families is to create something that the Grand Steward can taste. It’s an honor that most people kill to gain.

All the different families who have no idea what to do with Neverfell: these people are totally despicable. They see a little girl who has never learned expressions and who can’t hide what she’s thinking at all and they don’t know what to do. Should they kill her!? Keep her as a strange pet? Or rope her into their convoluted plots to kill and deface anyone who poses a threat to them? It’s terrifying, watching Neverfell crash her way through their plots like a bull in a china shop. A china shop that could kill her. Okay, bad metaphor.

Likes

The writing is drop dead gorgeous: I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t provide examples. But I felt like it needed to be said. I’m not usually one to gush over word choice and stuff (I’m not very good at it to boot) but dang I’m impressed. I’ve mentioned how darkly gorgeous Caverna is and the words reflect that. They’re dark and beautiful too. Except when they talk about poor mad Neverfell, they shift tones a bit there and it’s brilliant. Okay, onto the stuff I’m actually good at gushing over.

The World: like Y’all don’t even understand. I was literally claustrophobic while reading this book. I had to go read outside for a while because I thought I’d go as crazy as Neverfell if I didn’t see the sun. Caverna is utterly suffocating. It’s beautiful and magical but everyone in it is just dying real slow. So many people try to create a world with a dark side, a world with consequences, and they fall flat. Meanwhile Caverna throws hundreds of dangers at you and the lack of the sun but it continues to draw people in with its beauty and magic.  Well, it might for some people. I don’t fall for that crap because the underground and I get along like oil and water. Which is maybe why Caverna is so freaking terrifying to me. Speaking of which...

Can we talk about the stakes guys? ‘Cause, I’m going to talk about the stakes: We’ve all seen rebellions. They’ve become quite the popular plot device these days. Well, no. No you haven’t seen a rebellion. Not one like this. The modern rebellions have a kind of pattern right.

Look here’s the oppressed people

*gives reason for them to be oppressed*

look at how terrible everything is

*inciting moment happens*

Well a bunch of people died in suitably tear-jerking fashion but it’s okay because we have freedom!

Yep! Been there, done that: I know how this goes.

 This is an all new kind of rebellion. The Drudges, A.K.A. the working class, are given one Face. A small hardworking smile. It’s sick. It’s sick in a way that no other book has done in a while. There’s something inhuman about denying people something so simple as expression. They smile through debilitating work and cruel enforcers and their friends being killed with nonchalance because they don’t have any other Face. It’s horrifying. That being said, when Neverfell comes along and gives them a chance to escape to the Outside you’re begging these people to take it: to go out, see the sun, to learn to smile and frown and everything else they’ve been denied. It’s heartbreaking when people don’t make it in a whole new way. Needless to say, I was rooting so hard I thought I’d break the book.

Dislikes

Honestly, I don’t have any. Sure, I remember having complaints while I was reading it. but after the ending, I just can’t justify them. A Face Like Glass is a brilliant book. You might not think so all the time. Heck you might not while your reading it. But it sticks with you. It stayed with me in a way that a book hasn’t done for a while. I’m still thinking about it and I read a whole other book in-between then and now. A Face Like Glass deserves all the hype and praise it’s getting, because it’s sneakily brilliant. Kinda like Caverna actually. Good metaphor.