Unraveller

Product Information

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. Once again Frances Hardinge has delivered a story that's a little bit different and creepily atmospheric. Set in a world full of disagreeable magic and malicious curses, the plot is complex, multilayered and full of rich imaginings. It introduces us to a whole host of questionable characters. Those who curse, those who are cursed and anything and everything in between - think inventive supernatural creatures.

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.

I expected nothing less from Frances Hardinge… Fairytale unique story, loveable characters, crazy imagination but also felt so interesting and addictive, those are all I got in “The Unraveller” In a world where anyone can create life-destroying curses, only one person has the power to unravel them. Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but uses it to help those who have been cursed, including his ally and closest friend, Nettle. But Kellen himself is cursed, and unless he and Nettle can release him, he is in danger of unravelling everything - and everyone - around him.

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 . . . Unraveller ’s first third or so is taken up with a quest that Kellen and Nettle have almost no choice but to accept. Someone is freeing cursers, and a man named Gale and his terrifying marsh horse enlist Kellen for his skills. Where he goes, Nettle goes. But this is only half the story. Who is freeing cursers is not the right question. Why is much more important. The action is only a symptom, an indication that something is not right in Raddith. Even if you didn’t dwell on the past, however, sometimes the past dwelt on you. Sometimes it remembered you and came after you for revenge.” 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.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. You have of course heard that some people in Raddith are able to curse their enemies. It sounded so picturesque when you were reading about it at home, like a fairytale.