Back to Blog
A face like glass review6/6/2023 ![]() One of the most joyous aspects of A Face Like Glass is that, from a brilliant premise, Hardinge goes on to weave a richly textured world in which that premise fits naturally, and the reader is able to suspend their disbelief. ![]() ![]() It soon emerges that this is a world where characters are incapable of spontaneously producing faces as babies, and must be painstakingly taught a series of ‘Faces’ (the number and breadth determined by one’s social class) by ‘Facesmiths.’ Neverfell, however, is unable to lie, because her face always shows exactly what she is feeling – she has “a face like glass”. Entrapment is a recurring motif (light is provided in this subterranean world by ‘flytraps’, predatory plants which depend on human breath to emit luminescence), and the novel’s inciting incident occurs when Neverfell discovers a gap in Grandible’s tunnels while pursuing a rabbit (in a possible sideways nod to Lewis Carroll), and escapes into Caverna. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |