Look, Frances Hardinge has a top notch brain that is apparently brimming with ideas, and we're lucky that she lets us partake. This latest Lodestar Award finalist is no exception in that it is set in one hell of a cool and original world, filled with the best complex characters you could hope for in a YA novel, and telling a damn good story to boot. Can you tell I loved it?
UNRAVELLER
by Frances Hardinge
Published: Macmillan Children's Books, 2022/2023
Ebook: 496 pages
Standalone
My rating: 7/10
Opening line: If you must travel to the country of Raddith, then be prepared.
A dark YA fantasy about learning to use your power and finding peace, from award-winning author Frances Hardinge
In a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them.
Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but helps those transformed maliciously—including Nettle. Recovered from entrapment in bird form, she is now his constant companion and closest ally.
But Kellen has also been cursed, and unless he and Nettle can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything—and everyone—around him . . .
Frances Hardinge knows how to bait me. With a delicious little prologue written in second person (no worries, the rest of the book is written in third person), directed at us, a tourist coming to visit the Wilds, this magical slice of land where the Little Brothers live, where curses come from, where magic roams free and mythical creatures run wild. If you manage to catch sight of one. I was immediately drawn into this world and wanted to learn everything there is to know about the Wilds and how curses work.
Thankfully, we meet Kellen and Nettle. The first is a brash and overly confident, but also very likeable unraveller of curses. Yes, the book's title is to be taken quite literally. Even more so because Kellen doesn't just have an uncanny gift for uncovering and resolving curses, he also unravels fabric, so you'd better keep your woven blankes and coats away from him. The metal lining in his own clothing only goes so far to keep his talent in check.
He is accompanied by one of the people he saved (or maybe not?), Nettle, who was cursed into the shape of a heron and is now back in the body of a 15-year-old girl. The relationship between these two was one of the most intriguing aspects of the book for me right away, because while they are clearly something like friends, Nettle does resent Kellen's unravelling of her curse a bit. She also has to be the voice of reason on far more occasions than can possibly be fun, and Kellen still manages to get them into trouble. Sometimes that trouble can even take the form of prison...
The novel really kicks off when they are freed from just that prison by a marsh horseman, a one-eyed man riding a terrifying horse-like creature (kelpie, anyone?) that has far more teeth than seems advisable. He is in need of an unraveller and thus recruits (but also kind of kidnaps) Kellen and Nettle and brings them along on his journey. They take a stop here and there, unravel this curse or that, we see parts of the world of Raddith and even venture into the Shallow Wilds for a bit. The story will eventually take our heroes into the Deep Wilds as well, but that part has to be earned.
As much as I adored the setting and the character conflicts of this novel, there was something missing that I had felt with other Hardinge books. That spark that makes me think about the book nonstop, that makes me want to go back to it desperately. With Unraveller, I was always perfectly happy to continue reading, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make time to read it, if you know what I mean. It's the difference between adoring a book and merely liking it a lot, although subtler than that. Because on the surface, I have nothing whatsoever to say against this novel. It is well written, throws beautiful lines at you randomly and hitting you in the feels with them all the more for being so unexpected, it takes place in a world that feels real, although or maybe because it is so permeated with magic, and the magic feels wild and free and disregarding of any rules.
Kellen and Nettle were great protagonists, although I think Kellen paled a bit in comparison to his female companion. Nettle's inner life was as interesting as the crazy adventures they go on, and not only because of her past as a heron. Kellen seems so sure of himself for a large part of the novel that maybe I also saw him that way. Until the edges started to fray and we got glimpses of another Kellen, one more believable and vulnerable.
A large chunk of this book was episodic, like vignettes glued together at the seams. There is a red threat to follow and things come together at the end in a very nice and satisfying way, but to be honest, getting there felt a bit like meandering through a labyrinth without any sense of direction. I was quite happy to follow Kellen and Nettle as they meet creepy people, unravel curses, discover that maybe not all cursers are the same, figure out things about themselves and their friendship, learn about the Wilds, and in the end manage to resolve some huge problems in their country. But it was only at the 60% mark that I truly fell into the story and finally felt that urge to keep the pages turning, regardless of what time it was.
All of this may be due to my mood or some other outside influence, because for the life of me, I cannot truly find fault with this book. Every nit I could pick is so miniscule that it feels silly even mentioning, and looking back at the story, having read it in its entirety, I am happy to have experienced it. If, like me, you worry about the spider on the cover, rest assured: They aren't really spiders, they just look like them (not really helpful to me, personally). They are Little Brothers and they are the creatures that can create curse eggs. These eggs then grow inside a person who has a lot of hatred brewing in them, until the egg bursts and the person curses someone. I don't really want to give away any of the curses found in this book, but they were highly original and, at times, quite disturbing! There's a vast variety of terribleness when it comes to the curses Kellen and Nettle encounter, and being turned into a bird is one of the mildest ones.
I loved the ending of this book for being mostly happy, but acknowledging that there are no quick and easy solutions to year-long, deep running problems, that people will have to work hard and long if they want to make the world a better place. I also quite loved where we left off the various relationships. Nettle and Kellen first and foremost, yes, but also side characters like the marsh horsman Gall and his husband, as well as some very minor characters whose fate I nonetheless found myself caring about. I guess I didn't notice while I read it, always feeling a bit distant from the people in this book, but at the end, I got quite emotional, so the author must have done something right. 🙂
As far as the Lodestar finalists go, it currently sits at the top of my ballot, and with only two more finalists to read, it will at least remain in the top three for certain. It wasn't my favorite Frances Hardinge book so far (Deeplight was just so perfect!), but it was pretty damn good and my favorite of the nominees this year.
MY RATING: 7/10 - Very good
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