SOUNDLESS by Richelle Mead

by TPS reader ruppj19

In Soundless by Richelle Mead, a girl named Fei lives with her sister, Zhang, in a village without sound. None of the people in her village have been able to hear in a very long time. In her village, people are given one of three jobs, artist, miner, or supplier. Fei and her sister are artists, but her sister is starting to go blind, along with a number of other people in her village. Frequent avalanches and rocky cliffs prevent the villagers from leaving the town and escaping. They depend on a zip line to bring food up and down the cliff side so that they can live. In exchange for this food, the villagers work in mines and send down the metals they find in there. With the people in her village starting to go blind as well as being deaf, the food supply starts to dwindle and her village begins to starve. Fei is desperate to help but does not know how. One day, after a vivid dream, Fei wakes up with the ability to hear. Struggling to understand what this means, Fei sets off with a childhood friend and possible romantic interest named Li Wei, one of the people who mines the mountain, to try and learn why the food supply has stopped and why her people are going blind.

Soundless is a very good book, especially for those who enjoy folk tales and romance. The idea of living without sound, dependent on people you have never seen and most likely never will, is a concept that will pull you in and keep you interested.