My favourite part of the book was when the main character becomes bonded to the ghost of the bear and they become friends. With time, Hardinge’s books have become darker, more serious and more atmospheric. She takes on societal prejudices, opinion echo chambers, shifting loyalties, and the need for periodic well-aimed subversion. She excels at difficult emotions and situations - betrayal, fear, loss, longing, pain. Even supposedly happy endings are bittersweet ( Everyone but Bear has either betrayed Makepeace or misjudged her, and even her love for her brother James seemed to be really borne out of loneliness) — but that’s what makes them feel real and earned, as opposed to cotton candy-like sweetness some writers choose to please the readers. Me, I’ll take Hardinge’s darker and greyer shades of ambiguity any day. Here is the story of a girl whose mind can be inhabited by ghosts - a family characteristic of the aristocratic Fellmottes, and one highly prized in both its heirs and bastards (who are not so much expendable as...harvestable). One of the latter, Makepeace grows up unaware of her connection to the family, knowing only that she suffers from nightmares, that she senses bad things in cemeteries, that her mother has secrets.

A Skinful of Shadows - Wikipedia

It starts as a horror story, a haunted story, and transforms into historical fantastical mystery/intrigue, with ghosts and spies and war and cruelty and conspiracies. It’s not the supernatural that’s the most terrifying and bleak, but the realistic aspects - war, poverty, subjugation, classism. The world is grey and full of shadows and nuances, and scaffolded on power structures that sometimes need to be shifted a bit.He’s no better than the other Fellmottes. Another rich man bent on what he thinks the world owes him, and willing to pay any price, as long as it’s in the blood of others.”

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge - Pan Macmillan Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge - Pan Macmillan

This book was so enjoyable and gripping! I felt as though I was living in the story, everything felt so real! It was set during the civil war in the 1640s. this was a period I had learnt about in school but the story entwined perfectly. It was interesting how people's jobs were affected by their gender and that people who changed sides in the war could be called a traitor. This is probably one of the best novels I have read! I fell in love with the language and the story. I would love a sequel to come out. (Score: 5/5) 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 equivalent of Tana French: stories filled with a foreboding atmosphere, enough struggle to make one despair, and characters one would rather avoid. This goes deep into the character in other ways too: does she deserve a second chance? She doesn’t know but she knows she wants to live. That principle, the urge to live, shapes other characters’ motivations too and the cost can be high. To some is death. To other, losing something far more precious. The allure of power to those who don’t usually have it is looked at with down-to-earth lenses and over and over, Makepeace decides to trust people and to believe them.Now Eve must stop Nix who has been able to drive all her previous hunters insane and is also capable of doing a lot of damage herself. This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge We are given an intriguing balancing act of well-researched historical detail surrounding the English civil war and a whimsical, sometimes dark, ghost story. It was such an earthy, autumnal read and getting to experience this book while the leaves were falling outside my window was so incredibly cozy and nostalgic. A Skinful of Shadows' is a great book full of mystery, secrets and the supernatural. However I do not think it focuses too much about the time and context, although it does not mean it is not present, but it is not the theme of the story. But it is a very good book that I would recommend to anyone interested In ghosts and the supernatural.

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge review – darkly

And then, of course, there’s the bear. Out of all of Makepeace’s relationships, the one she has with her ghostly beast passenger was by far my favorite—and not just because it’s so strange and wonderful. Having the spirit of a wild animal in your head is as scary as it sounds, but eventually a deep rapport forms between the two of them, with Makepeace trusting the bear’s instincts and “forest wisdom” to guide her. For a companion who isn’t even human, and mainly only communicates with our protagonist through sens On that note, I also loved the protagonist Makepeace, who exhibits uncommon bravery in the face of the unknown. All her life, she has been surrounded by lies, even from her own mother, who was admittedly just trying to protect her. Still, by withholding the truth, Margaret has only managed to make her daughter more defiant, and like most confused adolescents, Makepeace occasionally lets her temper get the better of her. Still, instead of turning me off, the protagonist’s little acts of defiance only endeared her even more to me, because it made her feel genuine and easily relatable. A Skinful of Shadows is yet another beautiful, multi-layered novel by one of the brightest stars in the YA sky. Highly, highly recommended. Frances Hardinge’s last novel, The Lie Tree, won the overall Costa book award in 2015; the only other children’s book to have done so is Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, in 2001. Hardinge is at the forefront of children’s fiction, with a rich, unusual taste for language, an eye for the striking and apt image and stories that reveal a staunch defence of the weak and the oppressed. What is more, she combines a subtle, intellectual approach with plots that swoop and soar. Frances Hardinge’s 2015 novel The Lie Tree became the first children’s book to win the Costa book of the year award since Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, introducing her distinctive voice to a new audience. Hardinge’s latest book is a deliciously strange and uncompromising mystery set in the English civil war. Makepeace is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family and shares their supernatural hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Unbeknown to them, the wild, brutish spirit of a bear already resides in Makepeace, and may be her only defence against the Fellmottes’ terrible plans for her. She escapes into a countryside divided by war in a complex tangle of plots, spies and intrigue.However, things always don’t turn out that way and it is tough to convince a spirit to move on once they have been murdered or their death are a complete mystery. A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge is a historical fiction book set during the English Civil War. Sometimes when a person dies, their spirit goes looking for somewhere to hide. Sone people have space within them, where these spirits can hide. Twelve-year-old Makepeace has learned he defend herself from the ghosts that haunt her in the night. However, one day a dreadful event causes her to drop her defence. Now a spirit is inside of her and it might be her only defence when she is sent to live with her father’s rich and powerful ancestors. A civil war is imminent between the King and Parliament and Makepeace must decide what she wants to do with her life. And then, of course, there’s the bear. Out of all of Makepeace’s relationships, the one she has with her ghostly beast passenger was by far my favorite—and not just because it’s so strange and wonderful. Having the spirit of a wild animal in your head is as scary as it sounds, but eventually a deep rapport forms between the two of them, with Makepeace trusting the bear’s instincts and “forest wisdom” to guide her. For a companion who isn’t even human, and mainly only communicates with our protagonist through senses and emotions, bear was a surprisingly deep and heartfelt character. Author Frances Hardinge followed up her Costa Book of the Year 2015 Award with A Skinful of Shadows published in October 2017.