Today I read A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge. Up until today, I was impressed with Hardinge's creativity and originality. I found A Face Like Glass to be too much like Twilight Robbery. Both are about a girl who is an outsider in a city which makes its workers invisible, and which is filled with webs of deceit and manipulation, and where people live in terror of the people in power. In both stories, the girl topples the webs of lies and invisibility, topples the city, and draws the people of the city to escape it. In both, the girl's most reliable ally is a guy with a name that begins with E, a name that is an unusual word.
But despite the similarity which lowers my opinion of Hardinge's originality, it was a good book.
It is like a song I played yesterday -- "Brand New" by Peter Mayer. That is, it is about some who approaches the world with wonder, curiosity, and trust, and in so doing, allows the older, more cynical people to see people through her eyes.
And like Twilight Robbery, it reminded me of the invisible people in my world. Yet unlike the characters in the books, I don't think I have the ability to connect with the invisible people and make a difference.
The other thing about A Face Like Glass is the way the people can't make facial expressions, so they put on fake ones. People in low positions, have only a few expressions in their repertoire, all of them inoffensive. They feel frustrated when they don't have a face they can put on that matches how they are feeling.
I feel that way. I feel disconnected from other people. Like I am trapped inside myself, can't express what's inside me.
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