Hardinge, Frances - Verdigris Deep and The Lie Tree

[oyceter]

I feel like I have been hearing about Frances Hardinge from my dwircle for quite some time now, and I've finally gotten around to reading her after a reading binge that I blame on skygiants' posts on the Fionavar Tapestry. (I started with The Fionavar Tapestry last weekend and then.. kept reading things! It was great! I think I read more books this past week than I have all year to date!)

Verdigris Deep

Ryan, Chelle and Josh are desperate for bus money one night, and Josh ends up sneaking down a well to grab some of the wishing coins. But then each of them begin developing strange powers (I am still viscerally creeped out by Ryan's), and they find that they have to start granting the wishes tied to the coins they took. And since granting wishes never goes well, things slowly start to go very, very wrong.

I've seen many comparisons of Hardinge with Diana Wynne Jones, and this book in particular feels very much like DWJ--the oddball kids, the way some unlikable characters grow likable and others turn bad, the slowly growing sense of dread and uneasiness. This book was very creepy in that damp fingers down your spine kind of way, which was not what I had been expecting. There's a lot here about what you wish for on the surface and what you actually want, and how you can be trapped in wishes you've outgrown. I also liked that even though Ryan, Chelle and Josh band together because both Ryan and Chelle would have been picked on at school if not for Josh, Hardinge takes time to show what bits are being friends just because there's no one else and how you can kind of be friends with someone and only get to know them better later.

The Lie Tree

So, I thought Verdigris Deep was creepy. The Lie Tree is SO MUCH CREEPIER O_o.

Faith's father is a discredited paleontologist who has taken his family and a secret project to an island to avoid the public eye, but growing a tree that feeds on lies that you spread never turns out well. This is set in the late 19th century, and it manages to make the time period feel just as alien as a built-from-scratch fantasy world. Hardinge makes fossils and the radical idea of evolution feel terrifying and world- and faith-shaking in a way I haven't really encountered before, and there's a matter-of-factness to the Victorian focus on morbidity that makes the entire worldview feel foreign. I went and looked up tons of details on Victorian photography and mourning rituals after this.

I loved Faith, who is clever and angry and not particularly nice, how she despises her mother and desperately wants her father's acknowledgement even though he is a terrible human being. I love that Hardinge doesn't try to file off her edges (or anyone else's, for that matter), and although it's not particularly new to talk about just how circumscribed women's roles were, it's rare to get that visceral feeling of being slowly stifled. Also, bonus points for not magically making Faith believe in evolution and other things we now know are scientifically correct; one of my favorite exchanges consists of one person arguing that something is caused by animal magnetism only to be pooh-poohed for being unscientific, as obviously it is spiritual energy instead.

This is a very, very good book, and I've been deliberately holding off on binging on more of Hardinge so I don't get through all her back catalog too quickly.

Links:

• skygiants' reviews of Verdigris Deep and The Lie Tree


• coffeeandink on Verdigris Deep


• rushthatspeaks on Verdigris Deep


• starlady on The Lie Tree

Link me to other write ups! I'm sad I missed the conversations!

Comments

[commodorified]

May I commend The Lions of Al-Rassan, if you haven't devoured it already?

I love Guy Kay in general, sometimes more, sometimes less, but that one is a Book Of My Heart.

[oyceter]

I've actually read it, but so long ago that I don't remember much of it at all. I feel sad because despite its complete Tolkien derivativeness, I still like his first works better than all the latter ones I've read...

[starlady]

Verdigris Deep is the one I haven't read yet! But my will to resist is slowly slipping away…

[oyceter]

It is good! Not one of my favs (I just read three more this weekend, so much for restraint!), but still a very solid book.

[skygiants]

yesssssssss \o/

I said in my review that I didn't think Lie Tree was my favorite of her books but I don't even know if that's true anymore, I've completely lost my ability to assign ranks, I love them all too much!

[oyceter]

Right now I am liking Lie Tree, Face Like Glass, and Fly by Night best, I think because I love the worldbuilding bits. Well, Lie to Me is pretty much set in our world with an extra demon tree, but it feels so foreign, in a way Vertigris Deep and Cuckoo Song don't quite for me.

[skygiants]

For ages Fly By Night was my favorite that I defended against all comers because it was my first and Mosca is exactly my favorite type of character, but then Cuckoo Song came out and suddenly there was a challenger, and then Lie Tree came out and now I don't even know! Her worldbuilding is SO GOOD though. Like, you get to the point at which any other author would stop and be like, "ok, that's enough worldbuilding," and she goes on and adds five more incredibly creative things just for fun.

[cofax7]

I just read The Lie Tree, and yes, SO CREEPY. It was excellent and I must read more!

[oyceter]

Isn't it creepy?! I had to go look up even more about Victorian death photography after that.

[musesfool]

Verdigris Deep was so much creepier than I expected but in a good way.

I've been saving The Lie Tree, but I seriously recommend both A Face Like Glass and Gullstruck Island. The latter is absolutely stunning.

[oyceter]

I loved Face Like Glass and am trying too resist Gullstruck Island for now, though my willpower is pretty pathetic now ;).

[intothespin]

My absolute FAVORITE is Cuckoo Song.

[hebethen]

Same! Then I think I'd put Verdigris Deep after that, then... things get murky. Face Like Glass, maybe?

[oyceter]

I think I like her secondary world ones better so far, though I love the sisters in Cuckoo Song.