Series: The Singing Hills Cycle #6
Author: Nghi Vo
Source/Format: NetGalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Tordotcom; October 7, 2025
Synopsis from Goodreads...
Hunger makes monsters in this dark new tale in Nghi Vo's Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle.
Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes. Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly... because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.
This series has always had its moments of darkness woven within the stories imparted to the reader through Chih and Almost Brilliant’s experiences with the people they’ve come across in their travels. The characters are always complicated (not always sympathetic, but complex), but the series has always stressed the idea of the importance of every story, no matter how small or who it comes from. That’s part of what I love about the Singing Hills Cycle.
The tone of A Mouthful of Dust, however, felt especially bleak with aspects of horror. In particular, it was a story of demons and folklore, food and hunger—a tale of people driven to the brink and what they did in their most desperate hour. And though the famine was buried in Baolin’s history, the city’s past was restless. There were secrets that refused to stay buried, and Chih as well as Almost Brilliant are caught in the thick of it.
Overall, A Mouthful of Dust was excellent, and I’m looking forward to what Vo has in store for this series next.
About the author....
Nghi Vo is the bestselling author of the novels Siren Queen, The Chosen and the Beautiful, and The City in Glass, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and Lambda Literary Awards and the LA Times and Ursula K. Le Guin Prizes, and has won the Crawford, Ignyte, and Hugo Awards. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Tordotcom) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
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