Fly By Night, by Frances Hardinge

[sophia_sol]

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.

Comments

[sholio]

Ahhhhhh I love this book SO MUCH! This was the first of her books I read (well, the only book of hers that was out at that point) and it turned her into one of my must-read-every-book-as-it-comes-out authors. I think Fly by Night (and its sequel) are still my favorites of the things she's written, but it's all good.

And isn't Mosca wonderful? She reminded me somewhat of Lyra from His Dark Materials, not in a derivative way but just a sort of vague similarity of character, but she was so solid and relatable and real. I love how, despite all of her anger and prickliness, she's got this underlying sweetness and willingness to believe the best of people even when they let her down.

I need to read this book again. :D

[skygiants]

MOSCA MYE IS ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE FICTIONAL PEOPLE

my tiny angry terrible too-suspicious too-trusting con artist child

and the Mosca-Clent partnership is one of my very favorite fictional partnerships

and I am very much looking forward to you discovering the rest of the wonderful world of Frances Hardinge because everything she writes is this good.

[genarti]

YOU REALLY REALLY DO NEED TO READ EVERYTHING ELSE HARDINGE HAS EVER WRITTEN.

Fly By Night is not even my favorite of hers!* But it's so so so GOOD. There's just so much going on, so many plot threads and theme threads, and Hardinge interweaves it all so well.

*Edit: I say this not to criticize, but just to highlight that everything she writes is so good. My favorite ones are not so much objectively better books as just ones that hit closer to my id and my favorite kinds of book and main character.

[soupytwist]

I love Mosca SO MUCH!! Mosca is basically the heroine I wish I'd got to read about when I was ten. She's so great.