seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from Bangladesh
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from T1
seen from Türkiye
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from Spain
seen from Philippines
seen from Estonia
seen from United States
I think I should start considering Francis Hardinge as one of my favorite authors because she is a writer of Brave Little Girls who are so clever and so brave and so weird and difficult and angular and young-old, ie my fucking jam, and I’ve never read a book by her that didn’t make me go “man that was really good” and at least one of them (The Lie Tree) articulated something about the threat of violence in a patriarchal society so well that it did a minor rewire of my brain.
Unraveller
A Novel Ideas Book Review
Author: Frances Hardinge
Quick stats: Genre - Fantasy / Rating - 4/5 / Political leaning - Left / Pacing - 3/5 / Characterisation - 4/5 / Worldbuilding - 5/5 / Readability - 5/5 / Prose beauty - 3.5/5
Summary: Hardinge once again delivers a masterpiece of fantasy worldbuilding. The story starts of with Kellen and Nettle - a boy with the gift of unravelling curses and a girl who he saved from heron-related hurdles. From your standard door-to-door curse breaking, they find themselves in a maze of intrigue, danger and bureaucratic incompetency as people work with... other beings to achieve their own ends. Things can only get more complicated as the Unraveller becomes entangled in the loose ends of threads he thought were tucked away.
Initial thoughts: I picked it up in the charity shop for £3 and it was worth every penny and more. The story hooked me in instantly and kept me going. I had been in a bit of a reading rut and this was exactly what I needed to pull out of it. The main characters were well fleshed out and likable, and the villain was delightfully awful. An ideal read for this time of year when you just want to be Out of the Real World for a while.
Likes: As mentioned before, the worldbuilding is stellar and beautifully woven into the story. At no point does she info dump, but instead liberally throws out seeds and nuggets of culture and folklore to paint Raddith in full colour to all who see her. Some say the book dragged on in the middle, but I honestly didn't find it so. I like books that take their time to tell their story, and Unraveller does so without being dull or dry. She also manages to create a story with very little romance but still interesting relationships.
The Nitty Gritty: Most of the side characters are not very well fleshed out. The only one that I actually cared about was Gall (and I will say I feel he was done dirty in some ways), the rest all just passed by without a second thought. I also think (though this is probably just a personal thing) that there was a bit too much dialogue where prose might have substituted, but then I am an avid dialogue hater. The ending was also a little rushed, but otherwise, excellent!
Behold! The glorious mess which is my reading pile. Happy to discuss any book from any series that you see here, unless this is going to be my first time reading the book in question. I’ll note it beside the titles. From top to bottom, we have;
Dante’s Divine Comedy
The Cay
Blood brothers
Stone cold
Shade’s children
Paradise lost + paradise regained
A ballad of songbirds and snakes
The rangers apprentice
the extremely inconvenient adventures of Bronte Mettlestone
How to cheat a dragon’s curse
Giant
The Shepard’s crown
Zo and the forest of secrets
Midnighters
Making Money
Grim tales
Neverwhere
The northern lights
The subtle knife
The amber spyglass
Chime seekers
Nura and the immortal palace
Life of Pi
Frostheart 2 (can’t remember name )
Terciel & Elenor
The hobbit
Face like glass
The light fantastic
How to twist a dragon’s tail
Kay’s anatomy
Happy here
Gullstruck island
The graveyard book
Charmed life
The hunger games
The borrowers
A hero’s guide to deadly dragons
The ragwitch
The unraveller
Sabriel
Truckers
Diggers
Wings
Surface detail
The left hand of darkness
Which way to anywhere
Carter beats the devil
Mortal engines
Violet Veil and a case of grave danger
Catching fire
Kat Wolfe investigates
The wolf wilder
Liriel
Dr. Lady really went “I want a liar”
Dr. Lady really went “why do useful people have to die though”
Dr. Lady really went “this is a straight man”
Being haunted by a ghost: spooky
Being haunted by 2 ghosts: double spooky
Being haunted by 2 ghosts with opposing political opinions who won’t stop arguing inside your head: HILARIOUS
If someone throws aside their pride and begs with all their heart, and if they do so in vain, then they are never quite the same person afterwards. Something in them dies, and something else comes to life.
Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows
A portion of my box sets and big books shelf!
Frances!! Hardinge!!! Is!!! So good!!! If you haven’t read The Lost Conspiracy by her, i recommend it!!! Enthusiastically!!!
sarah here: FRANCIS HARDINGE IS AMAZING AND I AM WORKING MY WHOLE WAY THROUGH HER BIBLIOGRAPHY. THE LOST CONSPIRACY WAS GREAT BUT THE LIE TREE LEFT ME SHOOK. MORE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HER. ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW.
