Cuckoo Song | 
pickI took this spooky, atmospheric read on my recent trip to NOLA. It was perfect! Just the right level of creepiness mixed with gorgeous writing. While this book is written for the middle grade/young adult segment, it will appeal to all ages. This was my first book by Frances Hardinge. I‘ll be sure to read her other stories, too.
pickA complicated relationship between sisters, questionable parenting, magical folk making tricky bargains, dolls coming to life, and a changeling. Frances Hardinge can be counted upon for dark stories that appeal to a wide age range. This deliciously creepy fantasy set in post World War 1 England is suitable for ages 9 to adult; consider it for your next family road trip. #Audiobook narrated by Katherine Press.
Vile things, scissors. They‘re only made for one purpose: to divide cleanly and falsely. Snip, snip. Everything on one side or the other. Nothing in the middle.
Every time she closed her eyes she could sense dreams waiting at the mousehole of her mind‘s edge, ready to catch her up in their soft cat mouth and carry her off somewhere she did not want to go.
young adult 10/21/19-11/2/19 408pgs
recommended by a friend
Write a brief summary of the novel;
The main character Triss Crescent wakes up in the hospital after drowning in a pond. She wakes up to her family and loved ones around her. After the accident, a lot of peculiar things start happening around her. Throughout the book, many twist and big surprises occur. Was it really the real Triss who they rescued in the pond that day of the accident?
pickIf you like fantasy blended with history and slow-building, blink-and-you‘ll-miss-it creepiness, then chances are good you will enjoy this book. In post-World War I England, Triss wakes up to discover she is very ill, little sister Pen hates her, and her parents tiptoe around her. It gets stranger: scissors attack her and dolls watch her every move. A beautifully written twist on the fairy changeling story with strong female characters. 🖤🧚♀️
Started this tonight!
Started Reading: September 18, 2019
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Paranormal Fiction
pickThis book was odd but intriguing to say the least. The conflict in the book was completely unexpected for me. Even though it was ..different, it still kept me interested. It gets a 7.8/10.
pickEveryone, read this book! It is a fast-paced, suspenseful, slightly eerie, fantastical story and I simply loved it. So yes, just read it. 😁
pickJust finished this. It's actually a middle grade (maybe younger) horror novel and I'd gone n thinking YA so it took me a minute to get into it but I enjoyed it. It hit the right note between dark changeling fairy tale and scary story for a kid that age -- not the kids reading Stephen King mind you but ones like how I was, too scared to watch Are You Afraid of the Dark and creeped out by the Sweet Valley 'Too Scared to Sleep' horror quartet 😂.
#currentlyreading My all sff by women challenge for March is winding down but there's so much I still want to read, I'm still going to focus strongly (if not exclusively) on it! I'm going to start the second Farseer book very soon after I get further in these two. I didn't read Cuckoo for days but it's a decent horror novel for its intended age target (middle school-ish at my guess) if not very scary for adults.
Next in the continuing saga of my March marathon of all sff by women because I realized I wasn't reading very much horror... This is either YA or MG and I'm guessing a sort of dark changeling story (only 35 pages in)
so-soCuckoo Song starts out sloowww. It felt like a book for middle school for the first 1/4 and I almost bailed on it. Then it started changing. Nothing that was happening was making any sense at all and that feeling grew and exploded as you got more deep into the story.
Who/what is Triss? Who is the Architect? What happened to Sebastian? The two sisters work together to find out what is going on.
..I've never read a book like this.
#horrorstory
I‘ve read and liked one of her books, The Lie Tree and I‘m intrigued by this one. Somewhere in the story, there are dolls that come alive...
#readingresolutions #dolls
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really liked this book. It was a nice "change" ? from other scary type fantasy books I've read. I would say I would have given it 5 ⭐️s if the ending was different, but it was a nice clean ending. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes folk lore.
Started reading this since I came an hour and 30 minutes early to school. 🤷🏽♀️
My Book Outlet order arrived! And of course the book with the creepiest cover is right on top.
I loved the Lie Tree, which I read earlier this year, but I am yet to read Cuckoo Song. Just reading the blurb it sounds brilliant, I look forward to reading it next year!
I spotted this at the library and all I could think, looking at that cover, was about how perfect it would be for Halloween bookstagram 😂 and I'm such a horror wimp that I don't actually have any intention of reading it 🙈 ... but it looks awesome for an October read, right?
I'm also dying at my building block warning and how Yoda it sounds. 😂 oops... (Read this book, I will not. Weak with this one, the force is.)
#bookstagram #horror
Love finding the spot in a book when it's obscure title is tied to the story.
"Because cities are beautiful... chaos. They're not like villages, where everybody knows each other and the ruts run deep. They mix hundreds of people and ideas like chemicals in a flask, till things go bang! You can get lost in cities. The walls rise high and swallow all the landmarks, and you're nearly always surrounded by strangers."
A pretty good summary of why I'm glad I live in the country.
I love the imagery Hardinge creates in this book. Such beautiful use of language.
"It felt like being coddled inside a horse-chestnut shell, protected by its inward downy softness, while all the spikes pointed outward."
I love the imagery that Hardinge creates. Such beautiful use of language.
pickThis is the perfect book for this time of year. Beautifully written and gloriously creepy - but full of sympathy for the 'monster', Triss, who wakes up after an accident aware that something isn't quite right about her. She's hungry all the time and her sister is acting extremely strangely. I loved the #historical setting and the exploration of sibling relationships. #paranormal #MG #YA #UKYA #British #fantasy #fairytale #litsyforandroid
"The night was thistle-sharp, spiderweb-tense. Triss was part of its secrecy and danger now, but she sensed that she was not the most secretive or dangerous thing abroad. The night had no favorites." Frances Hardinge's books KILL ME.
so-soThe story itself was fairly interesting, but seemed extremely slow to me. I started losing interest a little more than halfway through, but managed to finish reading. Maybe another read down the road will change my opinion.
Finally getting to this one! This will be my first fantasy novel in quite a while, so I hope it's a good one!
pickThis was a weird book. So much is going on it becomes overwhelming. It was not at all what I expected from reading the blurb on the back. There is some great imagery in the book and a wonderful world emerges parallel to the "real" England. The introduction of the Besiders was really fantastic.
pickThis was so good. ? If you take this book at face value, it is just a dark, trippy fairy tale. Except it's not that at all. It's a complex, carefully woven, beautifully written examination of relationships. Its about love, war, progress, and what makes someone/something "real". ????
A million books in the queue and I tell hubby "I have no idea what to read!" (Heavy sigh.) Hubby rolls his eyes and pulls this one out of my TBR leaning towers of books. Creepy mystery / fairy tale? ✔️ Freaky cover that will give me nightmares? ✔️
