(no subject)

[skygiants]

I'm currently in that state of post-new-Frances-Hardinge depression when I have to face the glum fact that it will likely be YEARS before I see another new Frances Hardinge novel.

Cuckoo Song, though! So good! Has anyone else read it yet? I want to flail my hands around and say all the things I loved about it, but most of them are somewhat spoilery!

The book begins when eleven-year-old Triss -- an isolated, over-protected girl who's always ill -- comes back home after an accident. Her memories are foggy, her 'difficult' little sister seems to hate her more than ever, and there's some kind of awful hole in her stomach; she eats and eats and eats until her parents are terrified, but nothing fills her up ...

That's the beginning, and for the first quarter of the story it's pure psychological horror, classic female-focused psychological horror -- complete with creepy dolls and callbacks to The Yellow Wallpaper and the looming threat of being committed to an asylum -- as Triss navigates the double bind of what's wrong with her now and what was wrong with her and her family before.

Then the first set of mysteries gets solved, and it becomes clear that you're looking at a thoroughly familiar story from a completely different angle, and it's GREAT.

And at the same time it's looking at the aftermath of WWI, and grief and recovery, and shifting cultural gender roles, and what it means to be a monster, and what it means to be family, and the three main characters are Triss and her awful, difficult, angry little sister and AN EMOTIONALLY CONSTIPATED MOTORCYCLE-RIDING FLAPPER WHO DANCES ALL NIGHT IN JAZZ CLUBS, and and and!

And now I have that problem where I have to find something else to read and not spend all my time resenting it for not being a Frances Hardinge book.

Comments

[buymeaclue]

::grabby hands::

[skygiants]

So good! EARNEST LITTLE GIRLS WITH SHARP TEETH.

[zulu]

Sounds like she's really good! I've put Cuckoo Song on hold. Are there any others by her that you'd particularly recommend?

[skygiants]

EVERYTHING haha no sorry OK (BUT IT'S TRUE.) OK, my personal favorite is Fly By Night, which is also her first novel -- it's got another angry, terrible little girl at its center, who forms an uneasy partnership with a con artist and then stumbles into the middle of a revolution. But I think her actual BEST book is probably The Lost Conspiracy -- also published as Gullstruck Island depending on where you are -- which is about institutionalized oppression and revenge and family and a love triangle between three deific volcanoes.

[zulu]

Yay, thanks for the recs!

[lacewood]

I WANT THIS but it doesn't seem to have hit Singapore yet ;;;_________;;;

[skygiants]

Even in the US it's only available on Kindle! I could have waited until it came out in the library, but ... no, who am I kidding, I totally couldn't have.

[qian]

She told me she had a deadline in a couple of months' time for a new book she's working on right now! So it will not be YEARS. It will only feel like YEARS. :D

[skygiants]

IT ALWAYS FEELS LIKE YEARS ;_____;

[sexybee.livejournal.com]

I made myself draw it out so it would last a few days. I just love her stuff so much. Everyone is so complicated and interesting and she's so good at creepiness. Like, the scene with the dolls and the thing with Mr. Grace! And what a great twist on a story trope we know so well! Also, ugh, the family stuff (good and bad) hit me right in the feels. I feel like they all need a lot of hugs. And adventures. Hugging adventures.

[skygiants]

HUGGING ADVENTURES FOR EVERYONE. I just want them all to go on lots of long camping trips. Trista and Original Flavor Triss and Pen and Violet, and it's super awkward at first but then someone falls in the lake and there's no time to be awkward anymore.