Early Review – Unraveller by Frances Hardinge (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Amulet Books
Release Date: January 10, 2023
ASIN: B09S6GYYJW
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley for review from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“In a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them.
Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but helps those transformed maliciously—including Nettle. Recovered from entrapment in bird form, she is now his constant companion and closest ally.
But Kellen has also been cursed, and unless he and Nettle can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything—and everyone—around him . . .”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: I liked the idea behind this book but found the story to be a bit slow and didn’t engage with the characters very well. This story follows Kellen and Nettle. Kellen can break curses, a unique and useful talent in a land where people can accidentally or maliciously curse each other. Nettle is one of the people Kellen has un-cursed but she is struggling to adjust from when she lived life as a heron (when was cursed into a bird) to now living as a person.
Now, Kellen has been cursed and not only are curses are unraveling around him but everything else too. Him and Nettle get wrapped up in a plot against some rebellious cursers and are desperately trying to do what they can to help track down these elusive cursers and also break Kellen’s curse.
I really enjoyed the idea of curse eggs and people developing these curse eggs because of intense emotion. I enjoyed the world built here and the idea of the Wilds. This is an excellent concept novel, like so many of Hardinge’s novels are.
However, I struggled a bit with the characters and the story. The characters are very much held at a distance here and I didn’t really engage with them or care about what happened to them. The plot seems slow at points and gets a bit repetitive with the characters confronting one cursed person after another and trying to solve the mystery of the curse. The book ended fine.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this wasn’t my favorite Hardinge book but I liked some of the concepts here and the world-building. I enjoyed her books “Deeplight” and “A Face Like Glass” a lot more than this book. I struggled some with the plot and characters here but I still think it was worth reading because of the way cursing and the Wilds were dealt with. I would tentatively recommend it to those who enjoy a good concept-based fantasy.
