BOOK REVIEW: Soundless by Richelle Mead ★★☆☆☆

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village. Her people are at the mercy of a mysterious faraway kingdom, which delivers food in return for precious metals mined from the treacherous cliffs surrounding them.

Then villagers begin to lose their sight, their rations shrink and many go hungry. Fei's home, the boy she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

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

Richelle Mead is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy books for both adults and teens. Her series include Georgina Kincaid, Dark Swan, Bloodlines and Vampire Academy, all receiving high praises. I've read Vampire Academy nearly ten years ago (vampire teen, yes please) and so I was expecting her writing to be something along those lines.

Soundless is fine as a standalone novel. There are only a few things I liked about this story. The way Mead captured how someone who was deaf since birth is now discovering what sound is like; frightening and overwhelming. She did a good job on that. Plus I did find the concept unique and intriguing because why else would I pick up this book.

And just to put it out there, a lot of readers complained about the dialogues. It's in italics and yes I do agree that it makes it out that the characters are telepathically talking because Mead uses tags like 'say' and 'tell'. I didn't mind that at all. I knew they'd be using sign language.

BUT.... BUT I can't praise this book at all.

I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK. No matter how bad it is, I do my best to read most books to the end, (unless the library hassles me to give it back). Soundless didn't capture my attention. It's just – BORING from a stylistic angle; it's from Fei's point of view and in the first person. And I still don't understand why she's the one that got her hearing back? Something to do with a sign of an omen and something to do with pixius, I guess. It was predictable in some parts and I wasn't entirely convinced with Li Wei and Fei's love story.

All in all, it's a no from me. I prefer any other story from Mead, but not this. The blurb was intriguing, sadly the delivery was not.

Rating 2/5
Publishers: Puffin
Publication Date: November 12th 2015
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Romance