Tag: Frances Hardinge

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

lie treeBlurb: Faith’s father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father’s murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . .

Age: 12+

Price: £6.99

As you may know, this is a well recognised book, having won the Costa Award which is a very big book award, and was nominated for the Bookseller YA shortlist award 2016. I read this book and I really enjoyed it. I have read another Frances Hardinge book called ‘Cuckoo Song’ click this link to read the review of it….http://larawhitfield.co.uk/?p=162 but personally I preferred ‘The Lie Tree’. Unlike her other books, this one includes a murder and I know all of them are mystery books, but this one is an actual murder story! I liked that you have no idea who the murderer is right up until just before it is revealed. This book is set in the 1860s as Frances said at Hay Festival and I found it really sad that the main character Faith, was turned down by her Father and his scientist colleges because she was female. This book is full of secrets and lies and it is very superstitious which I could relate to. However, the thing that made love the book the most and that probbly pushed it from a 9 to a 10 was simply the way that it was written, I just love the way that Frances Hardinge writes her books. The way a book is written tends to change things, maybe it’s just me (oh well).  I had my copy of this book signed by Frances Hardinge at  the Hay Festival as well which is an extra bonus. This book is for both genders and I give this book a 10 out of 10 stars and hope you enjoy it too.

P.S. I am finally on Instagram, username is NJTBBTC

P.P.S. NJTBBTC unless you haven’t worked it out stands for Never Judge Teen Books By Their Covers….

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

18298890Blurb: The first things to shift were the doll’s eyes, the beautiful grey green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss’ s face. The tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.

‘What are you doing here?’ It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. ‘Who do you think you are? This is my family.’

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 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 . . .

Age: 12+

Price: £7.99

This is a horror novel, so if you are not into those kind of things, don’t read it! Personally, I didn’t find it very scary, but I have read a lot of scary novels, so that might be why. This has an original story line and is hard to predict what will happen next, if you love surprises, this is the book for you, however, if you don’t like creepy doll’s, DO NOT READ THIS!!! This book is mostly aimed at girls, and I give 9.5 stars out of 10.