soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2015-05-26 09:32 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-05-26 09:32 pm
Fly By Night, by Frances Hardinge
HOLY CRAP what a good book. I mean I had been warned how good it is! But it is REALLY REALLY GOOD. Also kind of surprisingly serious and deep? I was not expecting these kinds of happenings in a kid's book. MURDER and POLITICAL PLOTS and REBELLIONS and VIOLENT RELIGIOUS DISAGREEMENTS, and it is pretty clear that the last number of decades in this country have been kind of traumatic ones. And yet the book starts off with a relatively light tone, with a girl and her goose running away from home!
Throughout the book the combination of weighty matters and lighter things is deftly handled, and I was into all of it.
I loved all the stuff about revolution and politics and religion, and all the interesting worldbuilding, and I loved loved loved our main character Mosca. SHE IS THE GREATEST. I love how she is very clearly not a paragon; she has lots of flaws and makes some poor choices and yet she is SO DEEPLY ENDEARED TO THE READER. She's just so - I don't know if I've ever met a character like her before. She's great.
And actually ALL the characters are great; there's a really interesting assortment and all of them individual and strongly characterized and great. Including plenty of really great female characters!
And the quality of the writing itself was SO GOOD.
And I just - I don't know how to sum up this book the way it deserves.
IN CONCLUSION I NEED TO READ EVERYTHING ELSE HARDINGE HAS EVER WRITTEN.
Throughout the book the combination of weighty matters and lighter things is deftly handled, and I was into all of it.
I loved all the stuff about revolution and politics and religion, and all the interesting worldbuilding, and I loved loved loved our main character Mosca. SHE IS THE GREATEST. I love how she is very clearly not a paragon; she has lots of flaws and makes some poor choices and yet she is SO DEEPLY ENDEARED TO THE READER. She's just so - I don't know if I've ever met a character like her before. She's great.
And actually ALL the characters are great; there's a really interesting assortment and all of them individual and strongly characterized and great. Including plenty of really great female characters!
And the quality of the writing itself was SO GOOD.
And I just - I don't know how to sum up this book the way it deserves.
IN CONCLUSION I NEED TO READ EVERYTHING ELSE HARDINGE HAS EVER WRITTEN.
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Also I love that me making this post is getting me nothing but responses of gleeful agreement as to how good Frances Hardinge is.
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VERY FAVORITE: A tie between Gullstruck Island (aka The Lost Conspiracy) and The Lie Tree, I think.
REALLY AWESOME BUT NOT MY VERY FAVORITE: Cuckoo Song, followed by a tie between Fly By Night and Face Like Glass.
I MEAN IT'S STILL GOOD BUT LOWEST ON MY LIST: Verdigris Deep (aka Well Wished), which is probably the most DWJish of hers and the only one set in the modern day (but with magic still).
I DUNNO BECAUSE I HAVEN'T READ IT YET: Fly Trap (aka Twilight Robbery), which is the sequel to Fly By Night.
...Also all her books have really dark undercurrents, so, uh, let me know if you want specific warnings for any of them! Fly By Night is nowhere near the darkest, for all the murder and child neglect. (I would say the darkest is Gullstruck Island, which involves literal genocide. Twice. But oh my god it's so GOOD.)
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