I stumbled across this in Habourfront Library last year but never really felt like it was time to read it (yes, I am a mood reader) until now! Although this was written in 2016, it happened to be a very timely read with an interesting world!

The Glass Sentence starts with a legislative proposal: since the earth has been shattered into different Ages, the people of Boston, New Occident propose to shut their borders to all foreigners (with an amendment to chase all immigrants without proper papers out). Sophia and her uncle, prominent cartologer Shadrack), are opposed to this but when representation is literally bought by money, what can they do?

As Sophia trains under her uncle to read various maps (stone, glass, etc) in preparation to leave before the borders close, a tragedy happens – Shadrack is kidnapped. Sophia, with her lack of inner sense of time, must somehow find her uncle and bring him home safe.

I’ve got to say, the opening chapters with the proposal to close borders felt extremely apt for 2020 and hit hard. I had to check to see when the book was written because it felt like it was written for this current time.

Apart from that impactful beginning, I really liked the worldbuilding here! After a Great Disruption, the world is split into different Ages – some prehistoric, some advanced, some in the middle. Travelling across them requires maps and not all maps need paper. Sophia’s journey was fun and exciting and I enjoyed travelling with her and meeting the various characters that help her in her journey.

That said, the book had one pretty big flaw: I didn’t actually understand why the villain was bad. I’m trying not to give any spoilers, but while I thought the villain was well-written in terms of giving her a believable cause to fight in (and also, that twist about her identity!), the problem was that her cause didn’t actually seem that evil. We’re given several chapters dedicated to Shadrack’s point of view and to be honest, I didn’t really understand why he was refusing to help her. I suppose it raised the stakes and was to show how far she was willing to hurt bystanders/henchmen to achieve her goal, but honestly, it all seemed rather unnecessary.

This is the first of a series, but I feel it works pretty well as a standalone and don’t actually feel the need to read the next book. I definitely enjoyed it and I liked that there wasn’t a romance subplot (thankfully, because although this is YA, Sophia is just in her teens). If you like fantasy books with plucky heroines and unique worlds, you may want to check this out.