Frances Hardinge

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is wrong. She is insatiably hungry; she keeps waking up with leaves in her hair, and her sister seems terrified of her. When it all gets too much and she starts to cry, her tears are like cobwebs...

Cuckoo Song

"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. 'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'" When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. 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 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 . . .

Sade A

🖤
Frances Hardinge is so wow. What a clever, amazing author.
The one complaint i always have about Hardinge is her books take a while to cook but unlike in Skinful of Shadows which i read before this, Cuckoo Song was infinitely way more satisfying when everything finally started coming together.

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  "Just because someone tells you you're a monster, it doesn't mean you are"

Cuckoo Song weaves a magical, fantastical story about a world that isn't a world but is. A family shattered by grief that paves the way for a dubious Architect to extract a bargain that can only be broken with severe consequence. A story about a girl who finds it in her to defy an already made out path for her and write her own story... and a sibling, adorable infuriating Pen, who just wants to be loved.

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Hardinge's story held up by her young characters with the adult characters playing secondary roles shines because she does not shield them from consequences of whatever bad decisions they make, while still giving them the liberty to have flaws, opinions, feelings.


  All in all, a truly wonderful story.

Stark Koenig

Aaahhh, I love this book so muuuuuuch! It's a delightfully creepy, superbly imaginative parable about the toll of grief--told all the while with an engaging, thrillingly fantastical narrative that veers away from clichéd metaphor or pat endings. Never has a book dealing with grief given me such joy. I love it! Did I say that already? Indeed I did, but it bears repeating.

Kayleigh Septer

Latitude Tamarind

Anna

Katie Day

Sally

Alice Foster

Sarah Ford

'Everyone should read Frances Hardinge. Everyone. Right now' Patrick NessCuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, the Costa Award-winning author of The Lie Tree, is a fantastically eerie and beautifully written novel, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.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. 'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.' When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.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 . . .

Cuckoo Song

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