After being imprisoned for mouthing off to some pompous idiot merchant, Kellen is rescued by a marsh horse and her rider on behest of their female patron - she has a job for the unraveller. It sounds very critical and don’t get me wrong, there’s so much creativity and enjoyment here. But it just never came together and I never cared about any of the characters. And then that overcomplicated ending just happened and I was already losing patience by that point. I doubt I’ll remember much of this story in a few months. Regrettably, this one joins the other forgettable books, like Skinful of Shadows, Verdigris deep and Deeplight. Frances Hardinge’s Unraveller is a beautifully written and richly imagined fantasy with a deliciously twisted, dark fairytale-esque aesthetic I couldn’t get enough of! Così la trama prosegue su due filoni: le indagini dei ragazzi per sciogliere le maledizioni locali che incontrano, e la ricerca, più generale, per capire chi sono i veri nemici e i membri di Salvezza.

For fans of Natalie Haynes, Kiran Millwood-Hargrave and Neil Gaiman comes Frances Hardinge's spectacular novel Unraveller. Called her 'best yet' by the Guardian, and 'sheer perfection' and 'a masterpiece' by reviewers, Hardinge expertly weaves together mythology and mystery in a meticulously-detailed world besieged by curses.

The book features a depth of themes including but not limited to: victims, survivors, anger and hatred, trauma, therapy, cults, betrayal, domestic abuse, all under the guise of a stunning fantasy world with curses and the riveting and mysterious Wilds. Perhaps you will decide that all the stories of the Wilds and the Raddith cursers were invented to entertain tourists. And at night, when you see a many-legged shape scuttle across the ceiling of your bedchamber, you will tell yourself that it is a spider, and only a spider . . . Written in 2 POVs: Kellen and Nettle, they live in The Wilds… where anyone can create a “Life Destroying Curse” people can turn into animal, grow strange things on their bodies, even turn into things. Kellen has the ability to “unravel” curse… he can cure the cursed people tho not everyone happy about it and some even want to capture him because of this special ability. The rest aren’t bad people. They’re just desperate and wounded, putting their faith in the first person who told them they weren’t monsters.”

It’s “middle grade” literature, which is ridiculous. Hardinge writes more than suitably for adults, but these are also stories that you can hand to a young reader without cringy embarrassment for your book tastes. Young age of her characters does not detract from the high level of clever complexity, but does - thank all the literary deities - end up romance-proof, which at least to me is a welcome reprieve of the easy storytelling trends that lets us because they sell. This book is carried on the strength of its story, not on the whiff of hormones, and it’s wonderful. There's an overarching plot having to do with large, shadowy conspiracies (of course; this is Hardinge, after all), but the start of the story feels almost picaresque as Nettle and Kellen travel around unravelling curses. This is a job the impetuous Kellen is quite unsuited for, as a curse cannot be unravelled without identifying the curser and their motivation. That's where the cooler-headed and reserved Nettle comes in. Some of these episodes are fascinating and have the texture of folklore (Pale Mallow the bog-witch!), and many of the cursers are sympathetic - victims themselves who were given, unasked, the power to take revenge.

Introduction

Meglio ancora, la Hardinge (non per nulla, pluripremiata) riesce a trasmettere con un linguaggio accessibile e fresco dei messaggi che possono definirsi universali. My hosts started to realize that just because somebody *feels* wronged, that doesn’t mean they are.” Another creative well-written young adult fantasy from the master of the atmosphere and whimsy. Even though this felt so unlike all the other books I’ve read penned by her. If you’ve been following Hardinge’s career so far, you know she’s into whimsical, often surreal stories written in ornate language. This was different. This was .. overstuffed, crowded.

Moreover, every person we meet was so unique. Some were infuriatingly self-righteous, some were true villains, others were victims of circumstances, there were unteachable idiots and cunning conspirators. In the middle of this varied group of people, we had two marvelously wonderful kids that had to grow up way to fast and are now trying to navigate heartbreak and danger without losing themselves in the middle of it all. It’s wonderful that in a story about unravelling - curses, yes, but also the tangled webs of resentment and hate and pain - Frances Hardinge instead weaves a very complex and deeply nuanced tale with a whole onion-worth of layers. In short and without giving anything away, what takes place is a captivating tale, set deep within a beautifully crafted world that as a reader, we slowly get to explore. The many mysteries in need of untangling, and the numerous twists and turns, make the story all the more enjoyable. My only complaint would be that I found it a *bit* to long - however, there was no way I wasn't finishing! I like sinking into a Hardinge book knowing absolutely nothing. Not even reading the flap copy. It makes for a uniquely rewarding experience. And, to my delight, I discovered that this particular book was attempting something wholly original. At its heart, this is a detective novel. You have our two heroes, one the detective who can unravel each case they come across and other the moral compass that keeps him pointed north. You have evil on both a governmental level (always a topic Hardinge enjoys) and on a smaller more cult-like level. But through it all our two heroes are interviewing suspects, solving crimes, and trying to keep from getting gutted along the way. So much of the fun comes from watching Kellen gather the clues together to find the connecting (forgive me) thread. It’s not Agatha Christie but it ain’t half bad. Sometimes you catch on to what Kellen’s after before Nettle does, but most of the time you’re with her, floundering along in his wake. L'ho trovata una storia avvincente e suggestiva, ispirata da varie fiabe gotiche (tra tutte, la fiaba dei Cigni Selvatici di Andersen), ma sempre tesa a sviscerare il problema del senso di colpa di chi maledice e la sofferenza di chi subisce e viene guarito. Spesso, le maledizioni traggono origini da motivi futili, da incomprensioni familiari, ed è vero il concetto che il male invocato può ritorcersi contro chi ne ha fatto un uso dissennato.Discovering the flaws in one’s society (large or small, country or village) is a huge and important part of growing up, and one that Hardinge explores and pokes at with questions and ideas. If anyone can do something wrong, or feel something wrong, and wind up an outcast, then what? What grace can the world learn to offer to the rejected and outcast and othered? What can be learned from anger, and what are its limitations? How do you know when anger is righteous and useful, and when it’s merely cruel? Can power that comes from anger and pain be used for good? Unraveller is a story with so much plot that never lulls and yet never feels rushed. It’s rooted in the ideas of strong friendship and responsibility, the subtle but extremely important distinctions between anger and hate, and recognition that there are at least two sides to every story, and what you believe isn’t always true. It is about the importance of thinking for yourself and asking questions, even when painful and uncomfortable, and questioning assumptions, and thinking about the consequences. It’s a story about learning to deal with your pain, and not in the easy way. And it’s a story about the power of understanding and empathy, and the heavy weight of guilt. But I will be thinking about this story for a long time. It had so many unique and endearing characters, the setting of the Wilds was exceptionally magical and I loved Nettle and Kellen’s growth throughout the novel. Mentre si guadagna da vivere con il suo talento, aiutato da Nettle (ragazza salvata a sua volta da una maledizione che ha colpito in modo doloroso lei e i fratelli) si ritrova invischiato in una sorta di grande complotto, che potrebbe colpire direttamente anche lui. The Wilds, which run along the coast of Raddith, are a place of mystery and magic and legend, home to beings like marsh horses and Dancing Stars and, most importantly, Little Brothers, which are kind of like spiders, except not really. They weave and they have many legs, but they can also give people the power to curse others. “The curse then nestles in the host’s soul like an unhatched egg, growing in power, until the curser is ready to unleash it upon an enemy.”

Perhaps you will decide that all the stories of the Wilds and the Raddith cursers were invented to entertain tourists. And at night, when you see a many-legged shape scuttle across the ceiling of your bedchamber, you will tell yourself that it is a spider, and only a spider… Moss hung in great, green-grey swathes from the branches. Everywhere there was the cold, lush smell of the woods with its undercurrent of rot, its fierce green freshness and the scent of a thousand marsh flowers gaping their fat silken petals in the summer dark. Like so many Hardinge characters, Kellen and Nettle are primarily focused on survival; it’s the arrival of Gale, with his marsh horse and mysterious employer, that sets them on a different kind of adventure—one that asks very Hardinge-y questions about freedom and justice and wisdom and rage. Kellen is the title character, but Nettle is his equal, and Hardinge is very clear in how both their skillsets are valued, both their flaws painful and real. He acts and she observes, until a time comes that Nettle, too, has to act—because she’s learned so very much by watching, and by beginning to understand her human self again.

New in Series

This is a story for which it’s hard to give an “elevator pitch”, a deft distillation of ideas and themes in a few pithy sentences. It’s too complex for it, and its characters are layered and messy and difficult, and full of wonderful contradictions and sharp corners. And the brilliantly fantastic worlds of Hardinge’s imagination resist the soothing simplicity of stark binary contrasts, instead showing (always showing, never telling) the lived-in ambiguity of reality, however fantastic it might be. I think anger’s alright, actually. Lots of you have been treated badly, and most of you never asked for any of this. But… hate’s different. It eats you up and makes everything worse. You’ve all suffered enough already, haven’t you?” I’m happy to say that Unraveller did indeed have all the magic I expected! Reading this aloud with my kids, I was again swept up in a story full of wonder and joy. But it also discussed the power of pain and anger and forgiveness, the consequences of keeping your anger and resentment close until it turns into something you’re unable to control.