A promising book based on Chinese folklore that let me down | Soundless

Title: Soundless
Author: Richelle Mead
Published: November 10th 2015 by Razorbill

Goodreads summary: From Richelle Mead, the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines, comes a breathtaking new fantasy steeped in Chinese folklore.

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei's home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into a crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

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

REVIEW

Funny thing well definitely not for the author, every time I’m going back on the Goodreads’ page of this book, the ratings are getting lower and lower. To be honest, I was so excited about this book, because it was based on Chinese folklore, it was a fantasy, and it was written by Richelle Mead, author of the amazing Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. However, if I hadn’t known she was the author of this book, I wouldn’t have guessed, because it was so different from her previous works.

In the beginning of this book, I felt so bored, the pacing was really slow and not a lot happened. Fei and Li Wei decided to do something 25% in and this book wasn’t even 300 pages long! I was confused during the first chapters of the books, because I felt like the world had just been thrown at me, with no explanations. I felt it was more a dystopia than a fantasy, because it had such a typical dystopian novel plot… When Fei regained her hearing, I found it pretty easy, because she just had to read the words of someone who could read to understand what it was like, it was unrealistic.

Fei was a brave main character but she didn’t stood out to me, she felt like every other YA heroine I’ve read before, I lacked of connection toward her. I really didn’t like her relationship with her sister, because Fei was doing everything in her place – without asking her opinion sometimes – it was pretty irritating, especially when you know that Fei was the younger of them. I had actually forgotten that detail and thought it was the contrary, until I read other reviews, it’s how confusing it is. The romance she was into was pretty cheesy and predictable, like : “Oh I’m promised to someone I don’t love but this guy I’ve always swooned over starts to get interested in me.”

The plot started to be interesting when Fei discovered other villages. However, the climb before that took forever, I just wanted it to stop. The explanation behing why Fei’s village was lonely and treated differently was interesting, but I wasn’t blown away or anything…

This book is labelled as “Chinese folklore” but sadly, it was almost non-existent. Actually, it felt like the only reason I could think this book was set in a China-esque country was the name of the characters AND THAT’S ALL. This Chinese folklore I was promised was set in the last two chapters of the book…

Final thoughts:

I was expecting a lot of this book, because I love Richelle Mead, she always writes funny books with swoon-worthy characters. I’ve always loved getting into one of her books, because I knew I would love it. I was expecting the same of this one, but I felt let down. It was a short book where not a lot happened and that felt more like a slow first book in a series. I have this weird feeling that Richelle Mead was trying to prove she could do other things than Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by getting a book published as soon as possible (The Ruby Circle, last book in the Bloodlines series, was published in February, this one in November), but it didn’t work. I didn’t see a lot of research concerning Chinese culture, I think she didn’t know how to put it in the book.

Have you read books based upon Chinese folklore? Do you have any recommendations for me? Are you a fan of Richelle Mead? What did you think of that new novel of hers and are you excited for her new series, The Glittering Court?