quippe | Entries tagged with frances hardinge

The Blurb On The Back:

In the underground city of Caverna, the world’s most skilled craftsmen create delicacies beyond compare: cheeses that can show you the future and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people here are unlike any other: they have faces as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and the famous Facesmiths will teach a person to display joy, despair or fear – at a price.

Into this dark and distrustful world tumbles Neverfell, a girl with no memory and a face so incredible to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. For Neverfell has a face that shows her emotions. A face incapable of lying. A face that is a dangerous threat and an irresistible treasure – a face that some would kill for …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Frances Hardinge’s middle grade novel is an inventive, intelligent and satisfying fantasy tale of innocence, deception, loyalty and standing up for what’s right. It’s cheesepunk for a modern age that any child aged 9+ will enjoy.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

On Gullstruck Island the volcanoes quarrel, beetles sing danger and occasionally a Lost is born ...

In the village of the Hollow Beasts, above the treacherous reefs and azure sea, live two sisters. Arilou is a Lost – a precious child with the power to leave her body and mind-fly with the winds – and Hathin is her helper. Together they hide a dangerous secret. Until sinister events lead to even deadlier lies, and to disaster ...

With a blue-skinned hunter on their trail and a greater enemy behind him, they must escape. Can the fate of two children decide the future of Gullstruck Island?

Discover a dazzling world, a surprising heroine ... and an incredible adventure. For on the island of Gullstruck nothing is exactly as it seems!

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

A gorgeously imagined children’s fantasy that combines a vividly created world that draws on many different cultures and traditions with a tightly written story of escape and revenge. It’s a long book but it held my attention from start to finish and left me hungry for more.

The Blurb On The Back:

As dusk approaches the good people of Toll-by-day slam shut their doors and tremble ... It’s time to discover deadly Toll-by-night – a very different place! And orphan Mosca Mye is trapped there, with only a murderous goose and a war-crazed dandy to help her.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This is a richly written, vivid and imaginative sequel to the award winning middle grade book FLY BY NIGHT. You don’t need to have read FLY BY NIGHT to follow this although it may help explain the relationship between some of the characters. However it is a long book and the pace drags at time while at times it feels a little over-written. However I remain a big fan of Hardinge’s work and for its faults the sheer creativity here makes it worth the time.

TWILIGHT ROBBERY will be released in the UK on 4 March 2011. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

”He could not fight the feeling that there was something seeping slowly from the well and hanging in the air above it.”

When Ryan and his friends are caught stranded and penniless late one evening, they steal some coins from a well for their bus fare home. Soon after, strange things begin to happen. Peculiar marks tingle on Ryan’s knuckles, light bulbs mysteriously explode and a terrified Chelle starts speaking words that aren’t her own.

Then the well witch appears, with her fountains for eyes and gargled demands. From now on, the friends must serve her – and the wishes that lie rotting at the bottom of her well.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This is a wonderful, weird, gripping and macabre story with interesting characters, wonderful set pieces and a dark underbelly. Definitely worth a look.