Turnaway Girls follows the point of view of Delphernia who has been hidden away and told her only purpose is to serve others by turning their music into gold. The problem is, Delphernia has music inside her too which muddles her place in a rigid society. She tries to hide her secret, but someone has already found her out. When she leaves the cloister with a strange young man, can she keep her secret hidden?
The strength of this novel lies in Delphernia's narration - she is not quite reliable in that her worldview has been so limited and manipulated. Being included as a reader in her slow but believable revelations about the world around her provides an earnest perspective and adds an interesting flavor to the story.

Trigger warnings: Physical injury, abuse

7/10, I've been wanting to read this for a while and this seemed interesting to me and the concept looked good as well however the execution was only ok, while some aspects were great some needed some improvement especially considering I've read better books since then, where do I even begin. It starts off with the main character Delphernia Undersea or Delphernia for short and she lives on this island alongside other characters and the masters whose true colours reveal themselves later on in the book. Everything looks fine at first until the masters are just these very cruel characters and I could almost feel bad for Delphernia except for the fact that she didn't really experience any character development. Delphernia tries to do nothing about the situation but it just keeps getting worse and worse with one of the masters even ripping her nail off, that was brutal and I wondered why the masters would even do this but maybe she broke a rule or something along those lines. The ending however was action packed as eventually Delphernia led a revolution against the masters which succeeded ending this on a high note.

I'm a sucker for a book that twists language into something lyrical and magical. The Turnaway Girls does just that as it sets up a world where making shimmer/gold from music is not only possible, but something destined from birth.

Delphernia Undersea is a turnaway girl who can't do any of the things turnaway girls are meant to do. She can't make shimmer, she can't stop asking questions or thinking for herself, and she can't help but sing. Only when she's alone with her birds, though, because "girls with singing throats are swallowed by the sea."

As the book unfolds, we learn more about the world Delphernia inhabits and its history. If you're like me and you perk up at the merest hint of backstory, you'll be happy to know that quite a bit of it is delivered as promised and most of the questions I had were answered by the end of the book.

There are queens and princes and falling apart castles, as well as monsters both human and otherwise, and the important lesson of what love isn't.

The only thing that kept me from giving this a perfect score is that it relies far too much on Delphernia and Bly not communicating at all. He takes her from her cloister and they spend their first day or so together and then... that's it. He's forever away in his cave and Delphernia never mentions going after him and they never talk, but we're forever in dread of him mentioning her singing even though it's obvious to even Delphernia that he knows she can and does sing. Naturally it's only brought to a head once it's time for a Big Dramatic Rescue. Why? Did I gloss over the reasoning (beyond Bly being a little off) or is it simply a case of forced dramatic tension? Hell, Bly explicitly warns Delphernia during their first conversation not to trust the Childer-queen and yet she and Delphernia spend far more time talking than we ever see with Bly.

In any case, the story is written beautifully and I enjoyed it.

I received an ARC of this book and this was the honest review. Huzzah.

With an interesting hook The Turnaway Girls promises to be an enchanting tale to read. Unfortunately with it being so verbose and descriptive the plot threads are weighted down by it all. When it all comes together in the end, all the loose threads that you where given, it makes a good tale, but to get there takes some time. Long winded in some parts other just small scraps of info that don't make sense until the end, The Turnaway Girls stumbles it's way along until the end.

While looking for a book for my daughter, this one’s beautiful cover drew me in. I decided to read it myself, and yesterday, while about halfway through the book, my daughter started reading over my shoulder, got sucked in, and read to the end in one sitting.

The writing was lovely, but sometimes so heavy in poetry and metaphor that the pacing and plot suffered.

I was lucky enough to read an early draft of this book and can't express how special it is. Hayley Chewins writes with an elegance and complete surrender to fantasy that I go looking for in books by Laini Taylor and Kiran Milwood Hargrave. There is something extremely beautiful about when a writer opens up their soul and it pours onto the page into words with mystical lyricism that create images of liquid gold. This is a book about remaining true to who you are even if everyone around you is programmed a different way. Not only is it heartwarming and uplifting but it is also empowering; encouraging you to find your voice, lift it and never stop singing. It's beautiful.

This book is like a lyrical poem-dream, and I strongly recommend reading it aloud, even if you're alone.