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    The Lie Tree
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    The Lie Tree
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    The Lie Tree
    Ebook423 pages7 hours

    The Lie Tree

    By Frances Hardinge

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction.
    An ALA/ALSC Notable Children’s Book and an ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Top Ten selection

    A teenage girl unravels lies and magic to solve her father’s murder in this unforgettable and thought-provoking YA historical fantasy from award-winning novelist Frances Hardinge

    Faith Sunderly leads a double life. To most people, she is modest and well mannered—a proper young lady who knows her place. But inside, Faith is burning with questions and curiosity. She keeps sharp watch of her surroundings and, therefore, knows secrets no one suspects her of knowing—like the real reason her family fed Kent to the close-knit island of Vane. And that her father’s death was no accident.
     
    In pursuit of revenge and justice for the father she idolizes, Faith hunts through his possessions, where she discovers a strange tree. A tree that bears fruit only when she whispers a lie to it.  The fruit, in turn, delivers a hidden truth. The tree might hold the key to her father’s murder. Or, it might lure the murderer directly to Faith herself, for lies—like fires, wild and crackling—quickly take on a life of their own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherABRAMS
    Release dateApr 19, 2016
    ISBN9781613128992
    Unavailable
    The Lie Tree
    Author

    Frances Hardinge

    Frances Hardinge spent a large part of her childhood in a huge old house that inspired her to write strange stories from an early age. She read English at Oxford University, then got a job at a software company. However, a few years later a persistent friend finally managed to bully Frances into sending a few chapters of Fly By Night, her first children's novel, to a publisher. Macmillan made her an immediate offer. The book went on to publish to huge critical acclaim and win the Branford Boase First Novel Award. She has since written many highly acclaimed children's novels including, Fly By Night's sequel, Twilight Robbery, as well as the Carnegie shortlisted Cuckoo Song and the Costa Book of the Year winner, The Lie Tree.

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    Reviews for The Lie Tree

    4/5

    277 ratings35 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Plucky heroine. A real page turner.
    • 5/5
      Marvelous and surprising, and better and better as it went along--a surprising (to me at least) twist near the end, and a turn of events that wrung some unexpected tears from me. My favourite of her books thus far. Terrific, different protagonist, well-wrought secondary characters (I rather want a Miss Hudson sequel), an unusual premise, and even more unusual unfolding of the premise--a girl must lie, and lie big, in order to solve a crime.

      She's rapidly becoming one of my favourite authors--each book unlike its predecessors, and all good so far.

      (Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
    • 4/5
      I don't read children's books very often, but the fact that this one won the overall Costa prize, backed up by a couple of positive friend reviews here, persuaded to make an exception. The basic premise of a plant that thrives on human lies takes some swallowing, but if you accept that, it is a terrific feminist subversion of the classic adventure story genre, and a very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      A well-written mystery for the 12-14 reader that never talks down or panders to its intended audience. And, if you read much MR, you know how rare that can be.
    • 5/5
      An excellent read, unlike any children's book I have ever read. The author has an fantastic imagination and writes a story that is entertaining but not an easy read. It covers religion, superstition, moral truths, greed, family love and most importantly the understanding that the female of the species is just as intelligent as the male.
    • 4/5
      3.5 After the publishing of The Origin of Species, the natural sciences were very popular. This book is a mixture of Victorian mores, natural sciences, a little fantasy and a mystery. It is told remarkably well, Faith at fourteen wants more than to be a a decorative object for some monied man. She wants to study the sciences and earn recognition in her own right. But, this was not acceptable in those times and Faith soon finds herself acting as a unacceptable Victorian young lady. This is where the mystery and fantasy come in.Not a big fantasy lover, but this had just the right mix. The food, the dress, the delight in scandal and the hypocrisy are all true to this time period. Found out there was apparently such a thing as a training corset, who knew? Anyway I really enjoyed this mixing of genres. Found it entertaining and a welcome detour from what I normally read. It is really well done.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      I was intrigued when I heard that The Lie Tree had won the Costa book award as a young adult book in the general category. I normally don't read children's or young adult lit and I must say that it did bother me here and there. Sometimes things were over-explained, themes were iterated a few times too much for my taste (womens rights). Then again, I was deeply impressed by the overall story telling. The narrative is great, the main characters have depth. The idea of a plant that feeds on lies (the more widely believed, the better), and delivers a fruit that reveals secrets is a brilliant one. I like that it is never completely cleared up if this magic property is real or imagined, but it drives the narrative in an exciting way. Definitely not a predictable plot. There is some Agatha Christy here, some R.L. Stephenson and some Mary Shelley. The time pressure for Faith's puzzle solving reminded me of Eco's Name of the Rose. Definitely recommended.
    • 5/5
      Enthralling YA book, about a curious young girl coming of age. In a family full of secrets and taking the back burner to her brother, the protagonist takes it upon herself to learn the truth. Also love the historical feature of this book.
    • 4/5
      Left me a bit meh.I did want to like this but it just didn't sit right with me. The concept of a tree that has to be kept in darkness and fed lies is intriguing, but the characters didn't ring true to me, it felt in parts like I was being preached to and I dislike that in books.A girl having to deal with the death of her childhood and her father and trying to use the tree to find out the truth about her father while also using mob rule to wreak her revenge, and learning what happens when you sow a seed of a rumour and what can happen afterwards.It is a good story, but I felt that sometimes the story overcame the characters and some of what was said rang badly for me and I just felt uneasy by the end. It's a coming of age story and you can see how it's also a coming of age of science story and of feminism and of a lot of things that came of age in the early 20th century but still haven't reached adulthood. It was also interesting to see the treatment of left-handed children. Post-mortem photography and training corsets also feature.It's not a bad read and parts of it were very interesting but it's not my favourite by this author.
    • 4/5
      This has just won 'Book of the Year' in the Costa Book Awards, the first children's book to win the overall title since The Amber Spyglass won it for Philip Pullman in 2001, so I thought it ought to be worth reading. Especially as I generally prefer the Costa short lists to those for the Booker, more varied and more readable in my experience. Faith Sunderly is fleeing with her family from the unspoken scandal that threatens to engulf them. Her father, an eminent naturalist, has had his reputation torn to shreds by an article in a respected newspaper, and he has accepted an invitation to assist with a scientific excavation on the island of Vane. But news of the scandal follows them, and they are ostracised... Worse is to follow, when the Reverend Sunderly is found dead, and Faith becomes determined to prove that his death was not suicide, and to bring his murderer to justice. Faith is a rewarding character, a girl who longs for something more than the constraints of the limited opportunities available to women in the nineteenth century. Desperate for her father's attention, she is overlooked again and again, in favour of her much younger brother, the much longed for boy. But Faith has an intelligence and passion for natural history that he does not share and she is determined to prove herself ...
    • 3/5
      The premise is intriguing. A young, intelligent girl takes on investigating her father's murder when everyone else thinks he has killed himself due a scandal related to falsification of his scientific discoveries. And the book does toy with the paradox of science versus nature. And while I wanted to love this book I found myself ... drifting at times. This was the kind of book where I would send up reading a few pages and then wonder what I had read because my mind had drifted. I tend to either love or hate a book. This one, while it had an interesting setting and premise, just didn't engage me. If you enjoy historical literature and girl power books, you might feel otherwise.
    • 4/5
      It's an interesting concept, with a clever twist. I wouldn't consider it to be a must-read title, but I thought that it included a lot of very interesting discussion points which readers may appreciate. It also might make more effective use of gender role dynamics than I've seen in a YA novel in quite some time. To that end, right when I thought it to be predictable, it'd straighten itself out and take a whole new turn, leading to a finale that captured me to the very last moment.
    • 2/5
      I thought the cover and the blurb on the inside cover where very misleading. It was probably a good story , but I could not get passed the fact that I felt as if I had been deceived in some way.
    • 4/5
      I was very pleasantly surprised by how many provocative themes this book explored. Far from being merely a teenage read, it examines the illicit component of man's craving for knowledge and what happens to a person when they embark down a soul-darkening path, even for a justified reason. Showcasing redemption kept it far from the depressing path I might have expected. There were many other themes as well: feminism, parent/child relationships, and humanity's place in the world to name a few. The feminism was a bit too loud for my liking, and I thought the ending was a bit rushed with relationships too easily resolved. Nevertheless, this novel was engaging, smart, and really thoughtful. I am quite interested in Frances Hardinge's other books now.

      *I received a digital ARC from Netgalley*
    • 4/5
      Hardinge writes excellent gothic fantasies featuring teenage girls. I think I enjoyed The Lie Tree even more than her previous Norton nominee, Cuckoo Song. It's a dark murder mystery set on a remote island, as Faith manipulates islanders to create a harvest on her father's Lie Tree as she tries to solve his murder.
    • 3/5
      Intriguing concept, obtaining a truth by spreading a lie. Set in what I assume is Victorian times when natural science was popular. Faith is a teenage girl who has taken up an interest in science just like her father. However she is in an era where females were considered inferior to men. This theme is carried throughout the story, such as the doctor who measures the size of skulls to prove that female brains are smaller. When Faith's father dies in mysterious circumstances, Faith determines to uncover the truth. Keeps you guessing to the end. A good read.
    • 4/5
      Faith is the protagonist in this blend of historical mystery and horror. She's smart in a time when women are intimidated for thinking and her superficial mother hardly cares about her except as someone to berate, or use as a nanny for her other child. When the family moves to a remote island, supposedly to allow her minister father to participate in a fossil dig, she soon realizes the scandal following him has a lot to do with it. Add in her father's murder, a strange plant he brought to the island, and a cast of adult characters who are not who they seem and you have a dark and decidedly satisfying read.
    • 5/5
      Fourteen year old Faith Sunderly resolves to avenge her father’s death using the very thing that got him killed. A tree that lives for lies then rewards you with the fruits of truth. The writing is bold and poetic. The story is brilliant and packed with suspense and drama. The characters are fascinating. A magnificent read! Bravo!
    • 3/5
      Holy literary fiction disguised as teen lit, batman!

      I mean, not like teens can't read literary fiction. One assumes that, given the immense popularity of literary fiction, there must be budding literary aficionados among the teens even now. I wasn't expecting it, however, and felt caught off-guard. But I digress.

      A dark, brooding, historical fiction bildungsroman, with a clever and sly young woman protagonist who desires to become a naturalist. Well written, hypnotic, and strange. Not really likeable, per say, but certainly engrossing.
    • 5/5
      Excellent writing. Middle school appeal, but I enjoyed it as an adult. Thought-provoking. Set in Victorian England, the women's history aspect was well covered, from corset-wearing to women's place and only source of agency.
    • 4/5
      “Listen, Faith. A girl cannot be brave, or clever, or skilled as a boy can. If she is not good, she is nothing. Do you understand?” This is what her father tells our main character in [The Lie Tree], and that attitude, along with the apparent foolishness of her mother, made this a hard read at the beginning. Bright, perceptive Faith is either ignored or squashed in much of the early book. She dotes on her natural scientist father, and wants to be the same, but appears to have zero chance to do so. We're in Victorian times, post-[Origin of the Species], and her ambitions outstrip a woman's possibilities. A craniometrist points out women's brains are smaller than men's, and should not be overloaded.As you can tell, author [[Frances Hardinge]] explores a woman's place in that society, and we come to see that Faith's mother is not so foolish, and that clever women find ways to subvert the system. The story begins with Faith's support being taken from under her, as her worshipped father is first vilified for fraud and then apparently kills himself on the island they've retreated to. Faith stashes his scientific papers, and hopes to clear his name and solve the mystery of his death.This Costa Award winner was a worthwhile and entertaining read. [[Hardinge]] is a clever writer, and provides provocative and persuasive detail about the time period - Faith's brother is being trained not be left-handed, for example, and reverends try to reconcile Darwin's theories and the fossil record with the Bible.The one aspect I found a bit odd was the title character, the Lie Tree. Found by Faith's father on one of his sojourns, it feeds on lies it's told, SPOILER: that are spread in the community. It then provides vision-inducing fruits, that seem to provide answers to difficult questions. Faith whispers lies to it, and spreads them, using its fruits to help unravel the mystery. END SPOILER It is a bizarre premise, but it does allow the author to examine the nature and effects of lying. This is an entertaining book that also is thought-provoking.
    • 4/5
      Faith Sunderly, 14, narrates this novel for young adults about her family’s rapid departure in 1865 from London to Vane Island off the south coast of England, allegedly for an archeological excavation. She hasn’t been told why they had to leave so fast, but quickly learns through eavesdropping that her father, Reverend Erasmus Sunderly, a renowned natural scientist, has just been exposed in the newspapers as “a fraud and a cheat.”Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species had only been published for nine years, but “the world had shuddered, like a boat running aground.” Yet Faith’s father claimed to have found the fossilized bones of one of the ancient Nephilim (half-angels who were were offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" before the flood according to Genesis 6:4). But it was subsequently discovered that these bones had been carefully fabricated.Reverend Sunderly doesn’t seem concerned about the breaking scandal; instead, he is totally obsessed with a certain plant specimen that he hides in an old tower on the property of their new house on Vane. He forbids anyone to enter the tower. But Faith, our intrepid nosy Nancy Drew, sneaks in and finds a bizarre plant that shrinks from the light.When her father asks her to help him in a clandestine operation, taking the specimen and hiding it in a nearby cave, Faith jumps at the chance. Later that night, however, the Reverend Sunderly is found dead, an apparent suicide. Faith is convinced he was murdered, and sets out to prove it. First she examines his papers, and finds background about his mysterious plant specimen, the so-called Mendacity Tree. According to her father’s notes, the tree was a symbiote - “a species that survives by cooperating with another species.” If you “feed” the tree a lie, and then circulate the lie successfully, the tree will bear fruit. If you then eat of this fruit, you will gain the most secret knowledge that no one else knows, that could “unpeel the mysteries of the world.” The temptation posed by this is surely as great as that presented to Adam and Eve. (Apparently Reverend Sunderly forgot the lesson of that particular biblical story.)Faith figures that she can use the power of the tree to find out who killed her father, and starts spreading lies, taking into consideration the notation in her father’s diary that the best lies are those “that others wish to believe.”Faith’s interference unleashes a veritable Pandora’s box of troubles, and the pace of the action picks up enormously. After Faith's enlistment of the help of a local boy, there are some Tom Sawyer/Becky Thatcher moments, as well as wild chase scenes, gun fights, and more attempted murders. Although Faith’s life is at risk, she is fearless and resourceful.But what of the tree and the secrets it has shown?Discussion: Faith is mostly unnoticed not only by the world-at-large but even by her family. Her father is cruel and asks only that she be “dutiful.” He even told Faith:"You will never be anything but a burden, and a drain on my purse. Even when you marry, your dowry will gouge a hole in the family coffers.”Nevertheless, Faith idolizes her father and craves his attention and recognition.Her mother provides no succor at all; rather, she is obsessed with appearances, using Faith to take care of Faith’s six-year-old brother Howard, while she flirts with other men to soften the effect of her husband’s icy demeanor. Faith struggles with accepting the world’s definition of her as unworthy because of her “mousey” looks and her gender, and it has worn her down:"She no longer fought to be praised or taken seriously. Now she was humbled, desperate to be permitted any part in interesting conversations. Even so, each time she pretended ignorance, she hated herself and her own desperation.”The ongoing theme of the underappreciation of the female gender, the strictures imposed on them, and the unsavory options for advancement left open to them - especially in the 19th Century - has many interesting aspects that will occasion discussion. I love Faith’s characterization of her mother in light of their situation:"My mother is not evil. . . . She is just a perfectly sensible snake, protecting her eggs and making her way in the world as best she can.”But Faith herself quietly rebels against all of this. She is determined that she is going to be different, and that maybe someday, it can be different for all girls.I also liked Faith’s thoughtful interpretation of the processes by which the Mendacity Tree worked. While there is a bit of magical realism in this story, Faith the scientist-in-the-making comes up with counter-narratives that go a long way to explain not only what happens in the story, but how the world works generally. Evaluation: This book was the 2015 Costa Book of the Year. (The Costa Book Awards honor the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.) I thought it was very thought-provoking and well-written, but for me the first two-thirds of the book dragged. Nevertheless, I suspect this book will be well-loved by reviewers and book clubs for its challenge to gender roles, societal mores, and double standards, and for the dedication to scientific discovery, that has, over the years, repeatedly changed what everyone thought was known.
    • 4/5
      A bit of a plodding novel, The Lie Tree, is a murder mystery.Faith and her family arrive in Vane so that her can help with the local excavation, as he is the pre-eminent expert on the subject. Faith’s father, Erasmus, is a distant and harsh man, not loving, but Faith almost worships him for his intelligence. One day Faith would like to be a natural scientist, but women are not to have professional careers. A woman’s place is in the home, raising a family, running a house, and being invisible. Her father treats her this way, so Faith studies his books to learn. She, however, is confused on why they are moving. With a little snooping Faith discovers some secrets about her father.On Vane, Faith and her family have a contrary welcome, from friendly to hostile. Only when her father dies suddenly and his death is presumed to be suicide does Faith decide to investigate. She’ll do whatever she must do--be mean, experiment on herself, question people ruthlessly. The author is very clever. There are clues throughout the book, but you’ll never catch them all and will be surprised at the ending. To be honest, it’s a well-written book, but it’s slow. The book is all clues, so you have to be patient. I was not patient, so it took me forever to read. I liked the ending.
    • 4/5
      Okay, if that synopsis and the awesome cover (gush) aren’t pulling enough, then probably nothing is. Because this book is definitely a pulling enthrallment that can make your hair stand up.The Lie Tree is a wonderfully alluring read. It’s a book full of mystery secrets, with dark atmosphere and gripping adventures. Faith, our protagonist, is at that moment in time where she is “clumsily rocking between childhood and adulthood”. Faith’s inner thoughts were constantly at war, torn between what she supposed to do and not to, how she should act and think. Frances Hardinge created a fascinating personality for Faith, and I greatly enjoy spending those time of curling up on the couch, experience what she is “experiencing”.“It could be kindness. Faith felt hollow at the thought. She had needed kindness before, and had received none. Now it was too late, and she did not know what to do with it.”The story is absolutely captivating, with many twists and turns that can bring anyone on the edge of their chairs. The writing is sharp and pure enchanting, and the character developments are weaved into the story in such a faultlessly way. This is one of those books that play with your mind and make you second guess yourself, and finished it give me an amazing feeling of satisfaction. This is the book that would tell you, “Trust me, I’m lying.”“I want to be a bad example.”Although being placed under Children Fiction, this book can definitely tempt people of all ages. It’s an amazing page-turner and a deeply-touched lesson of childhood. I highly recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Great fantasy with a young female protagonist is set in Victorian England when fossils are being discovered. Faith chafes at the life she is expected to lead—that of playing second fiddle to males. Her father and mother seem to look at her as a babysitter for her younger brother, and yet her mind is sharp. She wants to be a scientist. When her father, a minister who is looked at as an expert in fossils, is sent to a remote island because some of his findings are hoaxes, Faith discovers lots more to the story including a tree that grows stronger when told lies. How she survives others looking for this same tree and in the process, finds out the best lies allow for those hearing the lie to embellish the facts themselves, makes for gripping reading.
    • 4/5
      I loved this. Reached the ‘can’t put it down, I’ll just read 4 more pages and _then_ go back to what I need to be doing’ stage, absolutely whizzed through it. It’s the story of Faith, an upper class Victorian girl whose father is an eminent natural scientist. It’s a lot of stories – the story of her relationship with her father, and how she stops lying to herself about the asymmetry of their feelings for each other, the story of women’s place in Victorian England, and how to play the game with the cards you are dealt, the story of Faith’s relationship with her mother, and how she grows to see and respect her from a more adult perspective. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a creepy magical realism story about a tree that lives in the dark and is fed by lies. It’s a morality story about how the people you overlook in the margins are real people too. A story about discovering your parents are both more fallible and much stronger than you knew. A story about the consequences of lying, and about doing the right thing to make amends even when it is hard and not in your own best interests. It’s a ‘science is awesome and let’s grow up and learn All The Things’ story. A story about finding friends in unlikely places and having to make the jump of trusting people. It is hugely richly peopled, and everyone is sympathetically and three dimensionally drawn. Everyone is flawed, and yet you can see why they do the things they do, and there is a surprising amount of good in all of them. Also, so much gently drawn detail in the corners, including a lovely pair of awesome stealth lesbians who save the day. Also, snakes, rat fights, row boats on the wild sea near rocks, guns, skulls, cliff top struggles and explosions.
    • 4/5
      Reverend Erasmus Sunderly, a renowned natural scientist, takes his family to a small island off the south coast of England to assist in an excavation, and to escape a scandal about to break on the mainland. When the news finally reaches Vane Island the inhabitants regard the family with suspicion and distrust, but the Reverend’s teenage daughter Faith, cursed with her father’s inquisitiveness and curiosity, slowly discovers what her family is running from, and is determined to help him. One day she finds her father’s body near the foot of the cliffs, and the general opinion is that he has committed suicide to escape the shame rather than see his reputation and honour, as well as his good family name, torn to shreds. But Faith does not believe in suicide or accident, and decides to get to the truth of the matter with the help of her father’s Lie Tree, which he had kept secret, and which lives on a diet of secrets and lies and gives those who eat its fruit visions of truth.This is an intelligent and thought-provoking example of YA literature, exploring Victorian virtues, manners and morals and society’s attitude towards women in particular, such as female propriety, and the resulting double standards. Set in the 1860s, a few years after Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species, it also touches on issues of faith, with a worldview based entirely on scripture, and natural science, with an approach resting on rational thought and methodology, and therefore entirely unsuitable for a female. From the start, the tensions within the Sunderly family itself, between the Sunderly household and the servants, and the Sunderlys and the inhabitants on the island in general are palpable, and the reader learns of several secrets the islanders are trying to hide. While fascinating to a degree to watch the destruction of Victorian values, the first glimpse of the Lie Tree itself only occurs nearly one-third of the way in, even though Faith discovers its peculiar nature through her father’s papers and journal some time earlier.The descriptions of the tree are atmospheric and creepy, making it appear monstrous and unnatural, and certain comparisons with the Fall in the Bible are easily drawn. As such it only appears on a handful of occasions, but the actions of Faith’s father and then Faith herself are always influenced by the tree and are in turn affecting it, their lies literally bearing fruit. Frances Hardinge does not shy away from making her main character Faith appear unsympathetic at times by letting her act in ways that will seem wrong to the reader, even though she does so in the interests of discovering the truth about her father’s death, therefore setting up ways to identify and relate to her through playing “What if?” scenarios in one’s mind. The author’s prose is full of imaginative imagery, and she manages to nail a person’s character with a simple phrase. The reason I can’t give it five stars is that I remain not entirely convinced by the deeper reason Reverend Sunderly and his family arrive on the island, even though it does have a beautiful symmetry to it.I’m sure this book will find an eager reception among a readership of 12+.(This review was written for Amazon's Vine programm.)
    • 4/5
      Faith is the ignored daughter of a curate/natural scientist working in Darwin’s wake and a mother she despises for her embrace of feminine wiles. A scandal sends the family to an isolated island, where Faith learns that almost everything she believes about her family only scratches the surface of the truth. Investigating a tree that feeds on lies, Faith learns of her own dangerous ability to spread lies and has to choose how to use it. Not my favorite of Hardinge’s books, but very good nonetheless.
    • 5/5
      when i acquired this book a long time ago, i thought it was a YA fantasy with a tantalizing premise and book cover. I was wrong about the YA fantasy bit, and usually this sets up a wrong expectation that spoils the reading experience for me. this was thankfully not the case here.the author's prose is beautiful. i kept drawing comparisons with the movie 'pan's labyrinth' and the book 'the binding', but i feel this was better. i loved the characters, but specially Faith, a precocious 14-year old girl living in times when women were looked down on, and young women have it even harsher. it really made me want to see Faith prove her courage and cleverness. On top of this, the narration of the audiobook by Emilia Fox was absolutely sublime! Her performance really pulled me into the book and characters. it was better than watching a movie (although i would not mind a movie adaptation of this book).i loved this quote too:“Faith had always told herself that she was not like other ladies. But neither, it seemed, were other ladies.”
    • 5/5
      With the feel of a fairy tale, this is one of those books that seems to straddle middle grade and YA territory, but be stronger for it. The protagonist, Faith, is someone who a reader can't help but fall in love with (particularly if they love natural science and snakes, like I do), and the writer's attention to historical detail, historical customs, and details of natural science and archaeology bring what is a sort of fantastical mystery to another level of intrigue and magic. For animal lovers, I feel like I do have to mention that there's a quick scene related to the game of a dog catching rats, and as much as I'm not a fan of rats particularly, it was graphic enough that it was hard for me to read it. In fact, I'd planned on finishing a chapter and going to bed, but ended up deciding there was no way I could stop or go to sleep on that scene. I know that, if I'd read that as a child, it would have bothered me a lot more, which is why I mention it--if you're a parent considering this book for your child, and they're an animal lover, it's worth considering.That said, this was a quick bad moment in a book that's otherwise smart, magical, and absolutely worth falling into. I'm sure I'll read more of Hardinge's work in the future.