**Review originally posted on Goodreads July 2014**

This popped up as a Goodreads recommendation, I'd never heard of the author but the book sounded interesting so I took a chance. I am so glad I did.

Hardinge is an incredible world-builder, this is like nothing I've ever read before. I read someone else compared it to Alice and Wonderland, and I get where they were coming from - the whole 'down the rabbit hole' experience, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn't do the book justice. I am quite fond of the concept behind The City of Ember - the cataclysmic event, the city underground, the drive to get out - A Face Like Glass is sort of similar but on an entirely different level of awesome.

The world Hardinge builds for us is wonderfully weird and fully fleshed out. The culture and politics alone is astounding. The characters leap off the page, and there is enough magic and wonder to make people draw comparisons to Harry Potter - though it's nothing like the Potterverse. There you've got wands and here we've got killer cheeses and wines. Yes, seriously.

I've just finished Fly by Night and Fly Trap and Gullstruck Island and Hardinge does not fail to impress. She is the real deal and I can't believe she's not getting more attention. I imagine her books are somewhat hard to categorize - they're children's books but they aren't like anything else out there. The writing isn't dumbed down, but is fullbodied and bursting with vocabulary. Precocious pre-teens to adults will really get a kick out of Hardinge's writing, and A Face Like Glass is my favorite so far (though they are all amazing). I eagerly await her next...

**Original review (if you can call it that):

Incredibly brilliant. I want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. Highly, highly recommend. 10 stars!!

Who doesn’t enjoy vivid and creative imagery? I absolutely appreciate the care and deep love the author put into this piece. However, it was an extremely slow read for me because the detail often became so overwhelming and redundant that I got annoyed and bored by it. I found myself taking days of breaks between reading more and only pulled back out of curiosity and thirst for the outcome. The ending was a bit sloppy with a twist that did end up changing the entire book and I honestly still don’t know how I feel about it. I may give this another read sometime, with the new perspective and see how it changes the experience.
I feel like this book was poorly edited and arranged, but it’s not a bad book by any means. Definitely could have been received better with a shorter length, removal of over recycled descriptions, as well as plot placement.

This book is a pleasure to read! Its twists & turns keep you engaged and the rich world created by the author is full of characters & details that delight the reader`s imagination. Elements of humor & relatability are woven throughout this fantastic tale, which I would consider appropriate for younger and older readers alike. At times I found this reading experience akin to that I had reading the Harry Potter series, though the affection I have for JK Rowlings' characters & prose was more profound. If you are looking to be transported by a story of imagination, mystery, & adventure, I found this page-turner to be a real treat. Upon finishing it I immediately set out to learn about what else this author has written, hoping her other novels can transport me as effortlessly as this one did.

Although I've never written a review on a book I've read, I often think about them for sometime afterwards. As an aspiring writer, it is probably good to divest some time in determining what I liked about a book and what bothered me. However, some books aren't even worth it.

That being said, I enjoyed this book, but as I was reading I did find myself annoyed by a few things. Although the storyline was a bit different, I was often reminded of "The City of Ember" (disclaimer - I didn't read the book, but saw the movie).

Both take place in underground tunnels, caverns and cities with the young heroine wanting to escape to the outside world above. As I neared the end of the final chapter, it became apparent that the ending was going to be almost exactly the same as in 'Ember' and I started to get upset ay having invested so much so much of myself in this nearly 500 page book. However, the author redeemed herself in the Epilogue with a twist that I did not see coming.

The author is very good at description, but there was always something missing in the character descriptions. Part of the magic of reading is envisioning the characters and places in your head. Each reader sees them differently, as well as how the writer saw them. I can't say what exactly it was that was missing, but I could never fully visualize the characters. I hadn't read anything else by this author, so I have nothing to compare it to. I now wonder if this was intentional so as to make the Epilogue even more of a surprise. Hopefully, I am not alone in not suspecting the revelation.

I did like the characters though, even if some of their names were a little too telling...Neverfell, Erstwhile, etc.. At times, though, they seemed to act and talk as though they were much older than they were. I also would have liked to have had more of Grandible and The Kleptomancer and delved into their backgrounds a bit, but it was lengthy enough as is.

Again, I did enjoy this book, although the first few chapters were a bit of a struggle. At about chapter six, it really took hold and I strapped myself in for the journey. My remarks aren't to fault the author on anything as it was very well written. These are just feelings and observations I had while reading and are probably more to help me than anything else.

I love this writer’s books! The creativity and cleverness of this book’s words and world lit up all the parts of my brain. Like Hardinge’s other girl heroines, Neverfell is spunky, intelligent, kind, brave, and much more believable and compelling than any beautiful elegant princess. I don’t want to spoil the pleasure of having the world unfold to new readers, so I won’t say more other than that you and your children should read this book.