A Skinful of Shadows Hardcover – October 17, 2017

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I bought for my Kindle.Story (3/5): This ended up being a bit of a disappointment to me after reading “A Face Like Glass” and “Deeplight”. There are some neat ideas here and it is beautifully written but the story is really slow and I struggled to stay engaged in it. The story follows Makepeace who ends up at the estate of the Fellmotte family after the death of her mother. There she finds she is one of the few people who can be possessed by ghosts. The Fellmotte family are keeping Makepeace as a spare to hold the ghosts of the family. She ends up foiling all their plans as she flees across an England at war. The story ends up being sort of a cat and mouse chase and was devoid of a lot of the ingenuity I’ve seen in Hardinge’s other books.Characters (3/5): While I admire Makepeaces’s determination and wits I never engaged with her all that well as a character. You don’t really get to know any other characters all that well aside from the ghosts that Makepeace shares her head with. Makepeace was okay but I never fell in love with her. This is one of those books where all of the characters are somewhat selfish and unlikable.Setting (3/5): The other two Hardinge books I read were set in such amazing worlds that this setting was a bit of a let down. Yes, I guess it was decently done and the war torn English countryside was described well enough...but wasn’t really the point of the story. I am just so used to amazing world-building from Hardinge and there wasn’t really any world-building here. It was okay.Writing Style (3/5): While parts of the book are beautifully written and lyricall and I did enjoy some of the psychological discussions, mostly this book is just slow. Makepeace chases and is chased by various Fellmotte’s all around England, it gets repetitive and boring. I almost stopped reading this a couple of times and in the end I don’t think finishing it really bought me much. The idea of transferring souls of the dead into people who can host ghosts is fascinating and makes for some interesting scenarios, but the overall plot was just too slow.My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a disappointment for me. I was really looking forward to reading another Hardinge book, but maybe I just picked the wrong one here. I struggled with this some; it was boring and I didn’t like the characters. After being so impressed with “A Face Like Glass” and “Deeplight” I was just soooo sad I didn’t like this book more. I have both “The Cuckoo’s Song” and “The Lie Tree” to read as well, hopefully I will enjoy those books more.

I will admit I was a bit skeptical after reading the synopsis in a book shop. Having time to start a new book I took the chance and I’m so glad that I did.I’m not one for ghost tales in general, but this plot for this one tethered me.A necromancy of a sort is practiced by a high holding family steeped with legacy and secrets. A young bastard girl is sucked into this family drama after losing her mother and sent to them, her fatherhood’s family.A bubbling war bursts upon the country and matches the battles that have been simmering within the confines of the family’s estate. The girl has been kept more like a prisoner and house servant than any sort of family member. The war provides an opportunity to escape and along the way she learns some terrible family secrets that ignite the will to endure and rise above the curse of her family.This author creates a new way to look at ghosts and spirits and the vessels that can store them. I would love to keep reading about the characters- even if some of the Puritan names drive me a little crazy.The ending had all the feels and propped me up for more!

My middle schooler loves her books. He has to read books to test on and always picks her books. He has recommended that I read them all.

I was a bit bored at the start but the story got pretty exciting halfway through. The historical setting was interesting - I found it funny how much they were afraid of baths. Also I had no idea that they hated catholics that much.

I’ve read a few other books by Hardinge, and pretty much knew it was going to be good from the get go.She definitely didn’t disappoint.Hardinge knows how to tell a frickin story.Just read it. I promise you won’t regret it.

Last year, I read (and very much enjoyed) The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, so when I found out she had another book coming out, I was in! Alas, though it was strange and magical (in that it contained a supernatural bent), it just wasn’t what I was expecting.The concept is fascinating: a young girl discovers she can sense spirits, which is terrifying in and of itself. However, it turns out she can also house those spirits within herself, and the spirits know it. Desperate to “relocate” and hang onto human life a little longer, they pester her and torment her, forcing her to learn how to fend them off. In fact, her mother forces her into a graveyard regularly to practice, despite how much she hates doing so, and though she resents her mother for putting her through this, it eventually makes her strong enough to fend for herself against much older and stronger specters, the likes of which she never imagined.So much prospect in this story, but ultimately it fell a bit flat for me. Makepeace is an interesting character, and I admire her moxie. She is served up a rather difficult existence from the get, but she never gives into despair, always strategizing for the long-term goal. However, the other characters were rather despicable, even those who we are to believe are redeemed. I suspect that I was supposed to come back around and forgive a certain character (trying to avoid spoilers here), but the truth is, I never liked him to begin with, and the close relationship Makepeace was supposed to share with him was never fleshed out enough to feel like anything.It was weird, and I generally like weird. But I think I expected spooky or creepy, and it certainly wasn’t that. Since The Lie Tree was slow to boil, I anticipated the same with this book, but at some point, I started to wonder if the burner was even on. It just never got beyond lukewarm for me.In a word: meh.Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

It can't be an easy to write a book after winning the Costa Prize, constantly having one's award-winning former self staring over one's shoulder, asking whether one's new book is really up to the same standard. Happily, Frances Hardinge's latest novel is a more than worthy follow-up to the huge success of The Lie Tree.A tale of ghosts and the beginning of the English Civil War, at the story's heart is Makepeace, a girl (spoiler alert for those who haven't read the dust-jacket) cursed or perhaps blessed with the ability to see ghosts and to let them dwell within her. Like many of Hardinge's heroines, Makepeace is clever, brave, insightful and almost no-one recognises her worth. Luckily she is joined by an unexpected ally who becomes a protector and, more than that, allows Makepeace to unleash her own fierceness as she battles against oppression, a truly horrible fate and the arrogant assumptions of an ancient noble family.As with Terry Pratchett, behind Frances Hardinge's well-chosen words and compelling plots lurks a properly righteous anger at injustice and oppression and an urge to stand up for the weak against the strong. She also knows that the occasional joke in no way lessens the seriousness of a piece of art.TL; DR? - It's a great book, you should read it.

A gripping novel for a young adult readership that will make you want to unplug your play station for a week of words in Fantasy Land. In the early part of the novel, Frances Hardinge captures the thrill of living in Poplar, a semi-rural suburb of London in the 1640s, where Makepeace, the laundry girl with the 'dint' in her chin and the power to absorb ghosts, both animal and human, sees the curses and the blessings of her Puritan world. She could tell 'there must be great truths shining' in the preacher, 'and love like a great white comet'. Hardinge is very good at holding her characters at several ironic removes like this, and you can never guess which way the pendulum will swing in a society caught on the cusp of Royalist-Parliamentarian temper. The period detail grounds the piece, but the story itself is a yard-long yarn of the most implausible kind. Neat and nimble writing, especially in the similes that crop up from time to time, saves the day, as in 'Habits, places and faces grew into you over time, like tree roots burrowing into stonework', or 'Makepeace could see the ghosts glittering and seething with black fury, like beetles scrambling around on a burning log', or metaphors: 'Lord Felmotte was not a man. He was an ancient committee. A parliament of deathly rooks in a dying tree.'The ancient ghosts that haunt the aristocratic Felmottes and their centuries of ancestors, lingering on through the stuffy traditions of Royalist ardour, convey Hardinge's acute sense of social breakdown at the heart of the English Civil War. Fantasy sniffs out the real friction of class inequality in moving and subtle ways and, just because you might think that Lady April (any relation to Mrs May?), with her age-old wisdom, should know better than to walk towards a lighted fuse wire moving rapidly towards large kegs of dynamite, the language will hit you with an even bigger bang: 'The embroidered silver cross spilt over the edge of the altar like the cleft in a tongue'. The suggestion of demonic intent lurking behind an inverted religious icon is truly creepy. There is much to keep the reader hooked here, not least in the deep understanding Hardinge has of the power of the peacemaker in Makepeace. Biffo the bear gives some pretty big biffs to ward off the foul Felmotte freaks, but beyond the strength Bear wields is the greater power of the girl, who understands that if communities cannot live side by side, then you need to carry one inside you and, after all the bickering and hissy fits are done, something like peace and reconciliation in our time, as well as hers, might not just be a dream.

This is my second read by the author. I own The Lie Tree and haven’t got round to it yet. I will read the author’s back catalogue as I’ve been impressed by what I’ve read so far. Apparently this is a follow up to The Lie Tree. I had no idea while reading this and don’t think this made a difference. This is very different than other books I’ve read, so original and absorbing. Makepeace is sent to live with sinister relatives, the Fellmottes after her mother’s death and discovers creepy skeletons in the family closet. The Fellmottes are gifted, able to capture and be used as a vessel for spirits which makes them an object of fear, suspicion and terror in the Puritan society the book is set in. The author brings to life the Puritan society with fantastic historical detail of The Civil War. Makepeace is in a very tricky situation, if she sets one foot of line her relatives can have her locked up as a mad witch. I enjoyed this so much.

A Skinful of Shadows is Frances Hardinge’s eighth novel, but the first since she shot to international acclaim in 2015 with The Lie Tree. As such, there will be a lot of people watching to see if this one can match the brilliance of her last. I think they will be impressed with what she has produced.In Skinful, Hardinge employs the effusive style of language her fans known and love. It is full of rich descriptions and original, inventive metaphor. It’s clear its author is someone who loves words.Unlike her previous work, Hardinge only develops one fantastical element. Without giving away too much of the plot, it has a heroine whose family has a unique relationship with the dead. Rather than her usual style of developing many such elements, Skinful simply follows this one down all of the paths it can lead.But that doesn’t make Skinful one-dimensional. As well as the fantasy element it explores its real life historical setting – the early part of the English Civil War. Hardinge is known for her exploration of political issues through her fantasy settings. In an echo of our times, Civil War England is a place of extreme polarisation. Royalists and Parliamentarians are each convinced of their righteousness and the others corruption. Hardinge’s heroine has to pass through each world and ultimately rejects both.It is a great read for any YA (or adult!) reader.

Since its purchase I’ve read this book more than once and with each reading have been struck by the richness of Ms Hardinge’s storytelling. With so many twists and turns in the plot, I won’t detail the story itself—too afraid of spoilers—but will say she has the ability to sum up an essential concept in a single exquisite sentence. The first chapter alone contains one of the most perfect I have ever read. I won’t quote it here (read the book!) but it speaks of priests, parents and children so truthfully, and poetically, it’s a delight.No matter how dark things get—and believe it, this story gets very dark and very creepy indeed—within the dark there is light, there is love and there is an underlying moral compass (and if ‘moral compass’ sounds pious, it’s not—here it’s a lively, intelligent, very practical thing). She explores the political machinations of the time and the ordinary people caught in the squeeze. The human relationships are complex, rife with tension and, as such, believable. She creates profound connections to the natural world without sentimentality. Makepeace’s poignant alliance with Bear, a case in point; as is the mouse in the graveyard. This book, like her others, stirs the emotions and challenges you to think. All these elements are seamlessly weaved into a great, exciting adventure—there’s no dearth of action. Makepeace is a scrappy, resilient heroine who has the wit to see what needs to be done and the gumption to do it, even when it terrifies her. You’re rooting for her all the way..This is beautifully written, classic fiction. Not just for YA, but for those of us who have left our YA years far behind.