Shae lives in a world with no books or drawings. The Blot is a deadly disease that killed her brother and is passed through ink. It spread like wildfire, killing countless people and leaving everyone paranoid and suspicious. The only people who can fight against the Blot are the Bards, a group of magical soldiers that can seemingly work miracles. When Shae's mother is murdered, she becomes obsessed with finding answers, and she knows that the Bards have them. Finding the truth will test Shae to her limits, physically and mentally.

This book has three amazing things that work in its favor. 1. A heroine that is hellbent on finding the truth and revenge. 2. A magical military castle. 3. A coo-coo bananas magic system that will have you questioning your sanity.

Shae is a character you can quickly get behind. She believes her family is cursed. Why else would her brother be killed by a deadly disease, her mother be brutally murdered, and her grasp on reality seems to be slipping. She knows what she needs to do to get answers, and her profound determination has her risking everything to find them. Sure, some cute boys come along and try to complicate things, but Shae never loses sight of her purpose. She is a force to be reckoned with!

I loved the setting for most of this book. Hightown is the seat of power and home to the Bards. It is not so much a town, more like a military castle carved out of a mountain. Think Hogwarts but for a magical militia. I loved it.

I fell in love with this world and the characters. I cannot wait to see where Shae will go from here! I will be eagerly anticipating the next book!

First, thank you to Netgalley for an e-arc of this book. My apologizes this review has taken this long to write down my thoughts.

DNF at 25% as I tried to read this during the COVID pandemic. It was not a good idea. It wasn't a good idea for me to try and read any type of book that had the smallest mention of plague during that time or even now. However, this is not a bad book. The set up for the world at large is fantastic. So is the characters - Shaw is a strong character and I like that we have her in first person. I like getting her thoughts and seeing through the world. However, as it went on, I just felt more on edge the more I tried to push myself into reading this book. I will probably come back and give it another try, maybe when book 2 comes out, but, for now, it will remain as one of the books in a long line of them where I try and they just do not give me a reason to keep on reading.

This was not as interesting as I hoped it would be. It didn’t capture my attention within the first few pages and I kept getting distracted while reading it. This book was missing so much detail and so much story and so much building. There should be some room for improvement maybe the sequels would be better?

This debut novel has a very interesting plot premise involving the magic of words.

Shae’s character is relatable and realistic with moments of intense bravery when needed to continue her path, She has self-doubt and low self-confidence but she’s filled with immense power that she is unaware of, adding to the joy of this fantastical discovery.

I can see many YA fantasy fans liking this book, and could make many connections to the Red Queen style of writing as mentioned in the blurb. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for this ARC.

I wanted to love this book so much. The premise sounded so interesting. I think for me the pacing was not good for the amount of world building that needed to happen. The magic system also left me wanting way more. I wish the timeline that happened during this book was condensed a lot more and more time was spent building things up.
Probably won’t continue on in this series.

This book was absolutely wonderful! I loved the atmosphere of the book, I am a sucker for great details and engaging characters. Definitely something to look forward to in this title. The author kept me on the edge of my seat with the unraveling of the story! I look forward to reading more titles by this author.

This book was like a fantasy mystery and I really enjoyed it. It seemed fresh and new, as well as realistic. I did feel it could have been fleshed out a bit more - some of the magic and characters needed more depth. But overall it was a great story!

I've tried to read this book a few times and I don't know if it's because of the pandemic or something else, but I can't seem to get myself to read this book. I really hope it finds success and the readers who will love it, but I'd rather not force myself to read it and probably give it a poor review. The concept sounded so intriguing, but I think this book just isn't for me, at least right now.

I will keep my review very short, sweet and brief.

Ravod saves the book in more than one way. He deserved so much more and was the only reason I kept reading the book even when it went off the rails after Shea suddenly became the Chosen One (I still don't understand how).

If you want to read my extremely long (not so nice, definitely a rant) review. You can check it out here: https://bookgirlreviewsbooks.blogspot.com/2021/06/what-is-hush-reader-rant-edition.html

2.5 out of 5 stars (and it is only an extra half because of Ravod.)

Shae lives in a time of banned books. They are banned, not because of the words but because of the ink on the page. The Ink is the cause of a terrible plague known as "The Blot" so books and writing have been banned everywhere in the country of Montane.

After Shae's little brother catches and dies from The Blot, Shae and her mother are virtually exiled and ignored by most of the town. They are pariahs in their own town.

When Shae starts seeing things around her and accidentally making things happen, she fears that she has contracted The Blot and seeks help from the Bards who control the magic of the land.

Before she can get their help, her mother is murdered and the town covers it up by saying it was a landslide. This is the final straw for Shae and she runs away to find the Bards to save her from her curse and to find her mother's murderer.

What she finds outside of her tiny town is much more than she ever could have believed.

Final thoughts: Another good premise that is poorly done. The world and characters just aren't built well. The plot is pretty predicable and the hidden villain is really pretty obvious. I feel like this was only published because of the author and not because it's actually good. Not worth the read and not worth going to the next book in the series.

Rating: 2/5

Fascinating and imaginative, this fantasy debut by Dylan Farrow is worth reading! I look forward to seeing the rest of her work in the future!

I feel like there was sooooo much missing from this book. Like honestly, the bare bones isn’t enough. I need more of everything! World building, characters, feelings!

This book was different but it did keep me entertained. At first I thought it was a rendition of hush, hush, I was wrong! I would recommend this book.

Debut novel by Farrow is a YA fantasy of triumph, despite the great tragedies that occur in the character's life.

Layered with secrets, magic, lies, and a curse, the struggle to find light in the darkness can be difficult, but Farrow finds a way to bring hope into a world that, at times, seems hopeless.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was really interesting and I liked the character driven bits, but I feel like more time spent worldbuilding would have been a great benefit. Love the action and the mysterious feel.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

Hush was a fantasy that ive been wanting to read for awhile. Dylan has a talent that i quiet like. I really cant wait to read the next book in this series

Hush by Dylan Farrow has been on my TBR for a lot longer than I'd care to admit, especially when I found it pretty enjoyable.

Hush is the story of Shae, a village girl who has lost her family but finds that she has extraordinary power. While this power makes her an outcast in her village, it allows her to start training to become a Bard where she is quickly singled out as a favorite of their leader, Cathal. Unfortunately, being Cathal's favorite might not be for the best.

I absolutely loved the idea of the magic system being tied to the written word but I also think that Hush did not do a very good job of explaining it. The magic system, and also the dangerous Blot, seemed to be a little bit all over the place and worked in whatever way the plot needed it to work.

The other problem area was the ending. While I am happy to see that there is a sequel planned, it felt like Farrow was trying to put an ending that would allow the book to work as a stand alone, just in case. However, there was just too much to wrap up and it ended up being clunky. I'm glad to see we will be getting a real ending in Veil.

A beautiful debut novel!

I stayed up late into the night to read this imaginative fantasy. From the characters to the plot to the world building, everything was perfect. I certainly recommend this one for all fantasy lovers and those who want to get started with the genre. I look forward to the next novel Farrow writes.

5 stars.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

I wanted to like this novel so much and it was just, disappointing. This was boring and it felt like there were so many details left out to explain so many areas of this novel and maybe it was edited out? Maybe this novel was like twice as long and they took all that information out? The world building was rather weak and this novel felt like it jumped from one situation to another with very little transition and it was terribly inconsistent. In the end it just didn't make sense. Then, the novels flow was so choppy, the magic wasn't really explained, the quasi romance felt SO forced, it was just boring and I kept hoping this would get better and it just didn't. The ending was such a quick and contrived happily ever after situation that did not make sense! Obviously, there is still an opening since this is supposed to be a series, but still.

I can understand this author has been through a lot and I super appreciate her author's note and fully support that writing this novel was a huge therapeutic type help to her, however, I feel like this needed a lot more editing. I wonder if her publisher was just rushed to get this out because of the documentary coming out around the same time and it would give more publicity to the novel? I will not likely finish this series, however, if the author writes a new novel/new series I am absolutely willing to give it a try!