A Face Like Glass cover art

A Face Like Glass

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Face Like Glass

By: Frances Hardinge
Narrated by: Cassie Layton
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

A Face Like Glass is an astonishing and imaginative novel from the Costa Award-winning author of The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge.

In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare - wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people of Caverna are more ordinary, but for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to show joy, despair or fear - at a price.

Into this dark and distrustful world comes Neverfell, a little girl with no memory of her past and a face so terrifying to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. For Neverfell's emotions are as obvious on her face as those of the most skilled Facesmiths, though entirely genuine. And that makes her very dangerous indeed....

2013, The CILIP Carnegie Medal, Long-listed

2013, The Kitschies Red Tentacle Award for Best Novel, Short-listed

©Frances Hardinge 2012 (P)2019 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic Reviews

"Everyone should read Frances Hardinge. Everyone. Right now." (Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls)
All stars
Most relevant  
I've read this book on paper twice, and listening to it, picked up on even more clever details than before

One of the best living YA writers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it. The characters were intriguing, the world was new and vibrant. The performance was well done. I have read this book before and loved it, but I forgot just how brilliant it is until I was listening to it again. I would highly recommend this book.

A world like no other

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
[NO SPOILERS]
I got this book as a gift, and usually I read sword/sorcery so this was out of my usual comfort zone. Still, I gave it a shot and found myself hooked. 50 Pages in I brought the audiobook and binge read the thing in a couple days.

The authors prose is fantastic. The lines just flow - I don't know how else to say it. A bit like poetry, some words sound like the belong next to each other and others feel like a bump in the road. This books *flowed*.

The performance, likewise, is very well-done. The narrator does voices for other characters so well you'll forget its the same person reading. The tone shifts, emotion... the chosen narrator was perfect for this particular book.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. My only improvement is that the book ended too soon. We didn't get to spend enough time with the MC's after the climax so its left to your imagination to choose what happens to them next after they 'won'.

An unexpected surprise.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is one of fhe most original and atmospheric fantastical adventures I've ever read. The prose is as beautiful as it is fast-paced. The characterisation is second to none. I definitely fell under the spell of Caverna.

Dark, original, beautiful!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.