Hush

Shae and her mother have lived as outcasts since her brother died of the Blot.  This highly contagious disease comes from books and reading.  So those things have been outlawed to prevent the spread of the Blot.  It starts ink-stained veins in the eyes and hands and spreads to take over the body in a painful pulsing network of disease until the victims cry for death.  Since her brother's death, Shae's mother hasn't spoken a single word, and Shae's only communication is with her best friend Fiona and Mads, who has been in love with her for years even if Shae can't understand why.  

When Shae returns home to find her mother murdered and the house ransacked, she is horrified.  Fiona's family takes her in, but it isn't long before she can feel her friend's parents tiring of her presence and the gossip that surrounds her.  To make matter worse, the local magistrate and everyone else now seems convinced Shae's mother died in a landslide.  The harder she tries to defend herself, the angrier everyone in her poor village becomes.  That's when Shae decides to leave.

High House is home of the Bards, the ruling force of the country.  They are trained to use tellings to alter reality and see the truth.  Shae believes the Bards can help her, but her arrival at High House brings shocking revelations and uncomfortable truths.  Will Shae uncover the truth about her mother's murder before she is silenced forever?

This series opener by Dylan Farrow has all the ingredients of a winning fantasy series, but it just falls a little flat for me.  It took Shae a little too long to figure some things out and way too long to feel a sense of outrage seeing the lavish lifestyle of High House compared to the rest of the country.  Also, the is one of the worst cases of instalove I have ever read.  Not only did she instantly fall in love, but the object of her affections is dismissive and rude.  I kept waiting for some explanation for this, but there was none.  Farrow's author's note about victims of abuse and violence being silenced is powerful, but I'm not sure that message really came across in the story.  This was ok but not great for me.