Shae is a young girl trying to survive in a village with vastly dwindling resources while being ostracized for having a family member who died of the plague known as The Blot. If that wasn’t enough to deal with reading and writing are strictly forbidden in this world as the plague was caused by ink. As an added taboo speaking certain words is said to bring about tragedy. This is not just a simple story of growing up but a story of the hard decisions you have to make when you decide to stand by your beliefs in a society that wants you not just quiet but gone. The magic system isn’t really fleshed out in this first book but I wouldn’t really expect it to be because you’re following a girl who’s never known anything but her desolate village. It’s difficult to world build when you only see small glimpses of the world through the eyes of someone who doesn’t have the ability to verbalize what she’s seeing/experiencing let alone to explain a complex system the reader is told it takes years and years to get some form of concept of.

The first book I’ve read in recent years that I was truly frustrated when I had to stop reading to do everyday tasks. Reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984 with the theme of can you trust your government to do right by its people but with the inclusion of magic. There’s something about reading about a plague while living through a global pandemic that makes it all a little more real despite the fantasy element to the story. Hush is a reminder that it’s not just the government you should question when forming your own beliefs but those closest to you. Corruption isn’t solely the people in charge but every person who agrees it’s easier to look the other way and keep their head down than to openly question the system. Overall I see Hush as more of a societal conversation starter than a fantasy novel but I wouldn’t consider that a bad thing. I’m very curious to see where the story goes in the second book.

I have been intrigued by the Farrow family since I read Mia Farrows autobiography years ago. I was really excited when I saw that Dylan had written a young adult fantasy novel and was really impressed overall with her debut. I thought she did an especially good job with the creative world building and really enjoyed the feminist aspects of Hush as well.

In Montane, the power of language belongs only to the Bards which have historically always been men. Our main protagonist, Shae, has lived in fear of contracting the deadly disease that killed her younger brother. Her mother can’t speak and she grew up in a village suffering from famine. On top of that, Shae is dealing with crippling anxiety she sees as a curse. When the Bards come to her village to collect their tithe, she sneaks off to see them thinking they can break her “curse”. She comes home only to discover that her mother was killed by a weapon that is only processed by the Bards which in turn motivates Shae to set out on a mission to discover the truth.

Throughout the course of the book, Shae finds herself training as a Bard in a dangerous castle. I thought it was clever the way we shared Shae’s perspective but knew we couldn’t always rely on it as she was being manipulated at times and her reality was sometimes distorted. There were several twists and turns throughout this novel and I found it difficult to put down. All of the characters are hiding things and I often questioned their true motives throughout the book. I did feel that the Blot could have been better explained. Although there were times I was left wanting more from the story and felt it didn’t live up to its full potential, I thought it was a solid book and am excited to read more from Dylan. There were several interesting parallels the world we are currently living in. The cliffhanger at the end left me yearning for a second book.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hush focuses on Shae, who lives in the town of Aster with her Ma. Ever since her brother died from the Blot, a disease that is contracted from interacting with ink or the written language, Shae and her Ma have been ostracized by the townsfolk. Shae’s situation only worsens when she discovers that her Ma has been killed in their home. She strongly suspects that her Ma was murdered by one of the Bards, highly respected individuals who perform Tellings through the use of magic and the power of words. There is one place that Shae knows she will be able to find the answers that she seeks: High House, the home to Lord Cathal, the ruler of Montane, and his Bards.

Farrow’s debut novel is an enjoyable, thought-provoking read. Shae is a strong female lead, whose convictions drive the novel’s main storyline. It is through Shae’s journey that Farrow ponders the morality of truth. In the novel, Farrow asks whether learning the truth is worth it - even if said truth is found to be more painful than the original lie. Combined with immersive world-building and an intricate magic system, Hush is a promising start to a new YA Fantasy series. My only wish is that the major reveals were not crammed within the last 50 pages of the novel.

The description of the book intrigued me, it started out exciting however as the book went on the writing seemed to jump around and eventually I lost interest. As much as I wanted to love it something just didn't click with me.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for this brilliant ARC

This read was a little from what I'm usually into. But man I'm so glad I read this book!
This had a little bit of fantasy mix in it. Which I normally wouldn't be my type of genre.
It was a good book packed with a mystery/fantasy feeling.
I loved the message this book had in it. The whole feeling of the book just had all the feels!.
Dylan is a fabulous writer and I look forward to reading more!

You know those days when you wake up and think let me start the day by reading? Yeah well an hour later, I had finished Hush and was still swiping thinking there was more to read.

Totally enveloping and well worth the read. Any book that builds it world around the power of the written word, is typically a yes for me.

My only complaint was the lack of clarity on what a "telling" is.. the nature of the Bards' magic was just a little murky honestly. And I would have liked a little more character development, as the pacing was so fast with the sprint to the end, but I can not wait to see what is next! This was a solid debut for sure.

I'd say its more of a 3.8 leaning towards a 4

I was drawn into this book instantly. Great characters, engaging plot, and wonderful world building.
A truly lovely debut, that I will highly recommend to friends and colleagues.

Interesting concept but it needed more. I loved the feminist undertones, which is needed in Fantasy! It just didn't have the umpf other YA SFFs do.

Hush is a unique debut novel that had me invested from the first page. Shae, the protagonist is a strong character that is determined and tries to accomplish anything she puts her mind too. Although she is pushed down a whole bunch of times, she always knows how to hold her head up high and make the best outcome for herself.

There are some aspects of this book that could have definitely been improved on, such as the world-building or history of the Bards, however, this is not an element that took me out of the book completely. An interesting aspect that I surprisingly enjoyed was the “love interest” of the book. I truly was not expecting the direction it went into! I’m looking forward to what the sequel bring us.

I enjoyed this book and all its twists and turns. This is a really unique fantasy novel and I haven't really read one like it that I can recall. The world and locations are described with just the right amount of detail given. The characters are quite relatable and the plot seems well thought out every step of the way. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an amazing YA fantasy!

I enjoyed this book! At first, the main character Shae's powers reminded me of the character Kira in Gathering Blue. I was a little apprehensive that it would be too similar, but I was quickly proven wrong. The world that the author Dylan Farrow created was really interesting. It took me a few chapters to be able to fully envision what the Tellings were and how they were done. This book definitely kept me on my toes! There were so many twists and turns- most of which I did not see coming. and omg the ending!!!! can't wait for the next book in the series!! Overall, a great read.

I was intrigued at first but I couldn’t get past the first chapter. Did not like the writing at all.

DNF at 50%.

Initially, I was really into this book. The premise is incredibly unique and interesting, and I flew through the first 20%. I found the magic intriguing and it made me want to keep reading (although the Bards and the Telling were not actually explained). I felt very sympathetic towards the main character, Shae, and I was intrigued to see which direction the story would take.

However, I was quickly left disappointed. The first fifth of this book was very fast-paced, but it began to drag at around 25% and I found myself skimming due to boredom. I lost interest in all of the characters, including Shae. I was very annoyed with several of them, particularly Fiona and Mads, because of how they reacted to Shae’s obvious grief.

I continued to push on in the hopes that the story would improve, but it did not. By the halfway mark, I just decided to stop reading.

Perhaps others will find Hush enjoyable, but it just wasn’t the book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
First, I want to say I read the summary going in and was intrigued by the plot. It dealt with things that I thought were interesting. However I was unsure how it was going to work. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would end up really enjoying it because it seems like such an intriguing concept. Unfortunately for me I felt that while this book was good and I enjoyed it, it lacked something. I felt like I never got invested in the book as I would have liked to. Not that it was bad, it was not, just something didn’t click with me.
I liked the writing overall. I think Farrow is a very talented writer, and the ease with which I read the book I adored. I felt that there was enough description, and yet, I did feel at times that the dialogue fell a little flat to me. To me at points it didn’t feel natural, but more forced to get the plot going somewhere. Yet, I was engrossed because the writing was good and it kept me entertained for the amount of time that it took me to read it. No doubt, Farrow is talented.
The pacing of the book is where I had a bit more of an issue. I felt that the pacing just never settled in for me. Instead it very much bounced around to everything happening very fast to suddenly being really slow paced. It confused me a bit and often made the story feel very incohesive. Which is a disappointment because I feel the story would have worked better with some small minor pacing tweaks.
As far as the plot goes, I think that was fine. I understood well enough what was going on, even if the plot twists were blatantly obvious to me, it didn’t take away my enjoyment of the book, I was just curious how our heroine was going to find out! There were a few subplots, but they were worked into the plot, and so it did feel like they all meshed together fairly well. I will admit at points I was a tiny bit bored.
As far as characters go, I didn’t love or hate any of them with any degree of emotion. I think they were all fine. Sometimes they came off as a little bland, and didn’t have as much depth to them as I might have liked. I was neutral at best on the characters. What I did find was that there is a small romance subplot, and I am still unsure how to feel about that…I didn’t love it. I was just overall “eh” on that subplot. So, characters were slightly flat.
As far as world building goes, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think some more explanation was needed. I felt I could grasp the concepts, but there was still so much unknown I was left struggling a bit with it.
Overall, I think this book maybe needed a bit more polishing. I liked it, and I will be curious to see what happens next, and maybe we’ll get some answers to the questions I had in this book.

This is a really interesting book where language effects magic and a strange illness called The Blot. This magic system blurs the lines of reality and even changes it at times. As the story progresses the characters learn more about how this magic works and ways they have been mislead in their previous understandings of this magic which is both fascinating and a little confusing. It does seem like this will be better explained as the character’s themselves learn more but sometimes as a reader I wish the aspects that they do understand had been better explained.

Aside from this I loved the characters. It was interesting learning their true actions and motivations among the secrets and gas lighting. With pretty much every character I spent time believing both that they were truly looking out for the heroine and that they were a villain and the twists back and forth were really well written. Finishing this book left me wanting more of the story, I need more answers about what it really happening and I want to see where the characters go from here.

I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. It just fell short of my expectation due to the intriguing description and beautiful cover. Maybe I had too high of an expectation. But overall, I enjoyed it and keep me wanting to finish it.

This ticks all the boxes of YA fantasy. Young woman discovering her power: check. Order of the world not as it seems: check. Love triangle: check. So I found the story to be predictable. Yet, the world-building was fantastic; Farrow builds a depth that allows readers to fully immerse themselves in this world and its events. More importantly, Farrow captures the impact of gaslighting and doubt, and the need for courage and belief in oneself. This is an obstacle I have not yet seen a YA heroine face and, in this day and age, it's an important one to see reflected on the page.

DNF.

Oof. I was a bit cautious about this one. I love YA fantasy but I'm weary of celebrities/people with large platforms publishing fiction. This is okay but nothing great. Run-of-the-mill and mediocre, but I wasn't invested enough to continue after 20%.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The portrayal of the insidious nature of lies propagated by powerful people was perfect. I have experienced the confusion you can feel when you see and exist in a reality that no one believes. This author perfectly portrays that existence, and still it is a hopeful story at its heart.

I look forward to the next book in the series!

Very grateful to netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is one powerful story. Right from the start I was invested with Shae, wanting the answers she craved. And then the questions deepen with the death of her mother. And they deepen again. And again. It's amazing how the story unfolded, each layer richer than the next. I was easily able to imagine the world, feel the weight of the fears, and beliefs, and that is due to how wonderfully real Shae was portrayed. As the story evolves so does she and the way you feel for her. Her determination is admirable and I love the way she handled herself as each new twist wrapped her, spinning her world each time you though she was going to find her footing.

The power of words is amplified both with themes and the plot but more strikingly through the author's deft use of them to weave a world so rich and absorbing. This an intelligent YA fantasy with sharp edges that can be as profound as you wish while still being the fantasy escape you crave. The end sets up for more to come and this pleases my heart.