Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

In a land where music belongs solely to Masters, a 12-year-old girl dares to sing. Cloistered with the other turnaway girls, Delphernia Undersea knows her place is to be quiet and invisible and her role to obediently transform the Masters' music into gold—a process called "making shimmer." But somewhere between knowing her place and actually keeping it, Delphernia not only cannot make shimmer, but she flouts Mother Nine's warnings that the sea swallows girls with singer throats and sings secretly at night, molding her voice's bright notes into fluttering golden birds. When a strange Master chooses to take her with him as part of the Festival of Bells, Delphernia is suddenly thrust into a dangerous world of music, royalty, unearthed secrets, and freedom in the form of a pale, defiant trans girl named Linna. Music and secrets, in fact, are in the very bones of this debut novel. Chewins' unhurried, first-person narration by a brown-skinned, curly-haired protagonist deftly reveals a tapestry of magic, power, and rebellion thread by ethereal thread. Questions of stratified gender roles, corruption, and what happens when a society stops asking questions fit with (and even enhance) Chewins' tale of music, magic, and self-discovery. An abrupt conclusion is the only piece that feels out of place, distracting precisely because readers will have been utterly mesmerized by the rest of the narrative.Hope is ever the thing with feathers, and feathers abound here. (Fantasy. 10-14)

ALA Booklist (Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Chewins' creative and imaginative debut is set in a cloister on the fantastical island of Blightsend, where Delphernia works as a turnaway girl, trained to make gold out of music that the island's Masters play. Turnaway girls are not allowed to sing, but Delphernia secretly does at great risk to her safety. When an opportunity to leave the cloister arises, she takes it and meets others with secrets of their own. Bolstered by new friendships and the courage inside her, Delphernia endeavors to help bring truth and freedom to Blightsend. The writing in this novel is beautiful ft, poetic, and flowing like the sea t the plot is confusing. It stalls at the start and never fully forms, ultimately feeling disjointed. Though geared toward middle-grade readers, children may struggle to stay engaged with a story that is more about the poetry of the writing than the progression of the plot. However, persistent readers who reach the story's end will be rewarded by unveiled secrets and unifying connections between the narrative's events and characters.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Lyrical language and vivid descriptions bring the eerie world of Blightsend alive in this haunting fantasy. Delphernia struggles to endure a life underground and alongside the sea, which she has been told since childhood will swallow her if she sings. Sinister villains, golden birds, a prince with a tortured soul, a young queen, and a strangely magnetic girl round out the cast of this spellbinding tale.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

In a land where music belongs solely to Masters, a 12-year-old girl dares to sing. Cloistered with the other turnaway girls, Delphernia Undersea knows her place is to be quiet and invisible and her role to obediently transform the Masters' music into gold—a process called "making shimmer." But somewhere between knowing her place and actually keeping it, Delphernia not only cannot make shimmer, but she flouts Mother Nine's warnings that the sea swallows girls with singer throats and sings secretly at night, molding her voice's bright notes into fluttering golden birds. When a strange Master chooses to take her with him as part of the Festival of Bells, Delphernia is suddenly thrust into a dangerous world of music, royalty, unearthed secrets, and freedom in the form of a pale, defiant trans girl named Linna. Music and secrets, in fact, are in the very bones of this debut novel. Chewins' unhurried, first-person narration by a brown-skinned, curly-haired protagonist deftly reveals a tapestry of magic, power, and rebellion thread by ethereal thread. Questions of stratified gender roles, corruption, and what happens when a society stops asking questions fit with (and even enhance) Chewins' tale of music, magic, and self-discovery. An abrupt conclusion is the only piece that feels out of place, distracting precisely because readers will have been utterly mesmerized by the rest of the narrative.Hope is ever the thing with feathers, and feathers abound here. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Delphernia Undersea, 12, longs to escape the dank cloister where she must silence her singing voice or be -swallowed by the sea.- As one of the turnaways, who are neither seen nor heard, Delphernia-s only function is to make shimmer: gold molded from the music of the Masters, which pays the Custodian of Blightsend for their upkeep. Delphernia can-t seem to create shimmer, though, and is punished cruelly for it. Then, while everyone sleeps, Delphernia frees her voice, creating a golden bird with a beating heart. When she is chosen by young Master Bly to leave the cloister to spin gold, she-s terrified that her secret-that she can create life with her song-will come out, but wonder and shocking revelations await her on Blightsend, as does a friendship with a fellow outsider, a female Master named Linna Lundd. Writing in Delphernia-s wry voice, Chewin, a poet, weaves an unusual, beautiful debut that sings with all the grace of the cloisterwings that Delphernia brings to life with her soaring voice. Entwining themes of rebellion, freedom, identity, and finding one-s destiny are at the center of this lovely tale. Ages 10-14. (Oct.)