Recommended for fans of Hardinge Read October 2021 ★ ★ ★ 1/2 "They had found the edges of each other's temper, like jagged rocks under a placid skin of water."
Frances Hardinge is an amazing writer. She is one of my favorites when it comes to word-smithing; never purple, but frequently vivid and full of emotional shading. Unfortunately, she tends to be the fantasy of Tana French, with stories filled with an atmosphere, enough struggle to make one despair, and characters one would rather avoid.
I didn't know what to expect with Skinful, which perhaps made my creeping realization of being in the wrong story all the more uncomfortable. Makepeace is a young girl who, along with her mother, found a temporary home in a village of Puritans. One day Mother starts leaving her in the local cemetery so she can learn to use her skills.
"Mother was like this sometimes. Conversations became riddles with traps in them, and your answers had consequences."
I was curious to see where this would go, with the scratching, scrabbling little cemetery ghosts, when it ended up taking an unexpected turn as Makepeace and her Mother get caught up in London riots against the King. Quickly we move from a semi-fantastical plot to a realistic and volatile setting, around the 1640s when England was in the midst of a civil war. After a couple of terrible experiences, Makepeace ends up Grizehayes, an oppressive and foreboding manor controlled by the Fellmotte family.
"Twenty-seven months is long enough for a place to seep into your bones. Its colours become the palette of your mind, its sounds your private music. Its cliffs or spires overshadow your dreams, its walls funnel your thoughts… but Makepeace was used to fighting against the slow poison of habit. Her life with Mother had taught her how to keep herself unrooted. This is not your home, she reminded herself again and again and again."
I had a hard time with this one. The story was certainly readable while I was in it. However, I lacked the impetus to continue; I felt like every page turn was bringing some new betrayal into Makepeace's life. There was no joy and little humor in these pages, only--eventually--a sense of satisfaction at taking control of one's situation. Even the act of learning to read, which is usually an easy place to handhold readers into a book is described in a forbidding manner:
"But when she stared at the letters, they stared back, insect-splats of bulges and splayed legs."
In that way, I appreciate the story, but can't say that I loved it. It was too dark and grim for me. Fly By Night was far preferable in terms of mood and humor, although I can see many of the seeds that grew into a nettle-patch here.
WordPress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment