Hardinge strikes a delicate balance, crafting an off-center world through the eyes of a character who doesn’t know what to believe, or what memories she can trust. But certain stories have been told so many times, it’s difficult to find a new spin.Ĭuckoo Song tackles two such classic tropes, the creepy doll story and the changeling story, but manages to upend expectations in the most delicious way. There’s a reason certain plot elements, visual cues or character traits have become tropes. As authors, we strive to include enough familiar elements to draw readers in and put them at ease, while still adding a twist. Publisher’s description of Cuckoo SongĮvery story combines certain percentages of the familiar and the strange. From master storyteller Frances Hardinge comes the unnerving tale of one girl’s struggle to confront her darkest fears in order to triumph over a world where nothing is as it seems. There she encounters strange creatures whose grand schemes could forever alter the fates of her family. Is she going mad? Or did her accident trigger a nightmarish chain of events? In her quest to learn the truth, Triss ventures from the shelter of her parents’ protective wings into the city’s underbelly. Her memories are muddled, her sister despises her, and when she brushes her hair, out come crumbled fragments of leaves.

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.Following a mysterious accident that leaves her sopping wet, Triss awakens to a world that’s eerily off-kilter. 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. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. She is insatiably hungry her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.' '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. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss' face. The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes.

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, the Costa Award-winning author of The Lie Tree, is a fantastically eerie and beautifully written novel and was short-listed for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

Cuckoo song by frances hardinge