Book Review: The Lie Tree; Frances Hardinge.

I'm so glad that I didn't abandon this read in something for something more November-y because boy, it was a good one! I've read one book by Frances Hardinge before, 'Cuckoo Song', and enjoyed it immensely. I went into this with pretty high expectations and still had them blown out of the water. In fact, the thought of reading more of this book actually put a smile on my face.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: The Lie Tree
AUTHOR: Frances Hardinge
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children's Books
PAGES: 410
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery

RATING: 4.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
It was not enough. All knowledge- any knowledge - called to Faith, and there was a delicious, poisonous pleasure in stealing it unseen.

Faith has a thirst for science and secrets that the rigid confines of her class cannot suppress. And so it is that she discovers her disgraced father's journals, filled with the scribbled notes and theories of a man driven close to madness. Tales of a strange tree which, when told a lie, will uncover a truth: the greater the lie, the greater the truth revealed to the liar. Faith's search for the tree leads her into great danger - for where lies seduce, truths shatter...

What I Liked:

• Hardinge's most impressive skill is definitely her world-building. She always just seems to get it right, no matter what era she chooses to write about, and this time she chose my favourite: the Victorian era. Specifically, the point that Darwin's 'On The Origin Of Species' had been released and challenging the ongoing superstition and blind religious faith with science and reasoning. It was interesting to see women in this book because the limitations of their gender did not stop them from being strong in any way. Mix that with a bit of magic and you have the perfect book recipe!
• Characters were a huge deal for me, especially when it came to family dynamics and the feminist values that peeked through the story-line. I liked Faith, she was a flawed but likeable heroine, and so clever. Myrtle too was interesting and proof that appearances can be deceiving. Even the clearly misogynist men grew on me to an extent largely because there ignorance was actually treated with humour rather than seriously.

What I Disliked:

• While I will always applaud Hardinge's superb writing skills and ability to make things interesting, the pace still felt a little off (like in 'Cuckoo Song'). In some ways the slow-build up worked, but at other points, especially around the beginning, I mostly wanted Hardinge to get to the point. Once she did, it was excellent and the ending was handled in just the right way, so this is really a pretty minor flaw.

Overall Conclusion:

I loved that not only was this a good story that could be read by people of all ages, but also an analysis of human behaviour and the powers that both truths and lies hold over our relationships and lives. I loved the ongoing sense of struggle: evolution vs. creation, science vs. magic, superstition vs. sense and even women vs. oppression. It created a very tense atmosphere that gripped me and wouldn't let me go. Hardinge has really got the whole story-telling thing down and the Costa 2015 Book Of The Year award is well deserved!

Book Review: Cuckoo Song; Frances Hardinge

Goodness gracious, ten days? It really took me that long to read this book? I shall have to do much better than that in the future, I have been very busy over the course of this month! Still: I've finished and am eager to share my thoughts! I'm entering this book into the Monthly Motif challenge too, there's certainly a mystery to be solved in this one!

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: Cuckoo Song
AUTHOR: Frances Hardinge
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Pan Macmillan
PAGES: 416
GENRE: Horror, Young Adult, Mystery, Fantasy

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.


Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest to find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late...

What I Liked:

• Hardinge's imagination is extraordinary! She came up with a pretty unique concept in this book and I found myself completely sucked into the creepy world that she wrote, particularly the details about Triss' condition. Some moments literally had me recoiling in horror! It was full of many twists and turns, unexpected rules that were consistent and nicely devised and the context of the era that the book is set in was really well researched. I have a big thing about Authors doing research before writing in certain time periods or on particular subjects and I found that Hardinge had done a great job!
• The characters were really well-written. All were complex, likeable and really sucked you in to their personal tragedies. I liked Triss as a main character. I found her to be likeable and as complex and scared as I expected someone in her given situation to be. But more to the point, I watched her character develop throughout the book and really liked the subtle changes. There was a certain irony (those that read the book will understand) in that as the story goes on, she seems to become more of her own person and less 'fake'.
• I was a really big fan of the relationship development in this story. As Triss sets off on her journey, she encounters characters who you might not expect to become her allies. It was really nice to see the way that Hardinge built those individual relationships, no characters felt unimportant or forgotten. She gave each ample attention which was something that I really enjoyed.

What I Disliked:

• I had one small gripe about the pacing of the book. There were times when it did feel a little slow and this meant that I took frequent breaks from reading it. I wanted the twists and turns to come a little faster than they did, but then I fear that we may have lost some of the development that we see in various characters throughout the book. Still, I knocked off a star because this clunky pacing did make the end feel a little anti-climactic after such a build-up.

Overall Conclusion:

So wow, I was blown away by this book. Perhaps it was a bit slow at times but I loved the world that Hardinge built, the characters she wrote and it was nice to see a good amount of development over time. There were so many great moments and Hardinge shows here that she is a very good horror and fantasy writer. Her ideas were very creative and some of the horror found within was pretty disturbing and certainly succeeded in giving the book a creepy tone. I would love to read more of Hardinge's stuff, an exceptional talent!