But as she plans her escape and heads out into a country torn apart by war, Makepeace must decide which is worse: possession – or death.

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge | Goodreads

While interesting and original this young adult horror story had a bit of an identity crisis as it tried to marry its horror story with historical war. I had a REALLY strong horror vibe in the first part of this book. Great atmosphere, vivid emotional impact, and I felt like I had no control. Beautiful. Hardinge is really great at this. :) Our MC's life stalls in the household of her biological family after she loses her mom who escaped from the horrors there, but she eventually escapes using her wits and ghosts and has an adventure across England. This wasn't so much horror at this point but it sure was fun. The rest is about survival, intrigue, and being hunted by a cadre of ancient ghosts. And what she learns is just as important as the adventure.A Skinful of Shadows is the story of a girl. The story of a country in the throes of Civil War. The way these two stories intersect and diverge from one another. It’s a story about a brother and a sister, a mother and a daughter, a girl who needs to grow up. It has a unique found family, one bear, female spies, ghosts and terrible villains. It is above all, a story about trust and having faith in people. 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. However, it only takes one fateful night for her to let her guard down and end up with an unknown spirit inside of her.

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

The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak. Her first fantasy novel for children, Fly By Night (2005), set in an alternative 17 th century, won the Branford Boase Award for outstanding debut novel. Its more comical sequel, Twilight Robbery (2011), again with lead characters teenage runaway Mosca Mye and charlatan poet Eponymous Clent, was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. For Paranormal Romance fans who love a good ghost story, there is First Grave on the Right by author Darynda Jones. The book gives us castles, hungry soldiers, plagues, and suspicious townsfolk. Did I mention it also gives us ghosts? Oh yes, a number of ghosts. One of the great aspects of the story is that we the reader learn, grow, and gain knowledgeable life lessons along with our POV character, the young Makepeace, who learns early in the narrative she is being groomed to be the receptacle of centuries old ghosts aka souls. Like all primary characters in YA narratives, Makepeace is rebellious and strong willed, so wants a say in the proceedings.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. With considerable pressure after the incredible success and critical acclaim for The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge managed to once again mesmerize readers with her unique and imaginative style of storytelling with her latest book A Skinful of Shadows. I really enjoyed the book because it was not something I was used to reading about. My favourite character in the book is Makepeace as she is very independent and she figures things out using little things around her. She is also very clever, even though she doesn't know how to read, Makepeace is a very creative person and most of the things she solves in the story can be related in real life situations. I thought some of the history in the book was realistic but, most of it wasn't since it is fantasy. Considering the fact that it was set a long time ago, certain people might have actually believed that ghosts entering people's body can actually happen. The book was very interesting and because I already read a book by the author I wanted to read it to see how good the book was. I just wanted to say the book is really weird in a good way but, it's very creative and I loved it. This is a really interesting book with Shari understanding that she had been murdered. Now she has to investigate and solve her own murder while uncovering other mysteries surrounding her circumstances. 4) First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson Series) by Darynda Jones Her first rescue, to which she becomes host, is a mistreated circus bear. Makepeace discovers just how difficult it is to trust people, a good life lesson. This becomes more and more important as she wanders through the countryside searching for safety.

A Skinful of Shadows / Young Quills Awards 2018 – Winners and A Skinful of Shadows / Young Quills Awards 2018 – Winners and

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. And Trust was like mould. It accumulated over time in unattended areas. Trusting her was convenient; distrusting her would have been inconvenient and tiresome. Over the years, Makepeace had become encrusted with other people's inattentive trust. Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest to find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family – before it's too late . . .There is a good use of adventurous language and normally when I read a book I can imagine the surroundings and make up what I think it would look like but with this book nothing is left the the imagination because everything is described so well I feel like I'm there. My favourite part of the book was when the main character becomes bonded to the ghost of the bear and they become friends.