Gullstruck Island
Oct. 25th, 2022 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearBrains are weird things. If someone had asked me a week ago whether I'd read any books by Frances Hardinge, I would have said I'd tried The Lie Tree (which I've actually apparently never read) and didn't like it, and that someone had given me Fly By Night as a present and that I didn't really like that either (but my review from the time says I loved it).
So, I'm not sure why I picked up Gullstruck Island on a recent trip to a charity shop - but I'm really glad I did, because it's awesome!
It's a fantasy book about a remote island where various tribes of people live in isolated communities, held together by the Lost, who can send their senses out of their bodies, to watch for storms, carry messages and monitor bandit and volcano activity.
The protagonist is Hathin, whose main purpose in life is to serve as close attendant to her sister, Arilou, who may or may not have Lost abilities.
There's a lot of exposition at the start and throughout, as well as quite a bit of monologuing towards the end - but then there's a lot of very intricate world-building and plot twists to convey. It's all gorgeously put together and beautifully written, with lots of examples of very lyrical and poetic language.
But it's the emotion that takes it to another level. I felt every part of Hathin's story intensely and was incredibly invested in what happened to her - as well as all the rest of the vast array of fantastic characters, including the bad guys!
Multiple times, I thought I knew what the book was going to be about, or what might happen later on, and everything shifted underneath me on several occasions - but in a really good way.
Really wonderful stuff - and I've put more of Hardinge's books on my wish list! Hopefully, I won't forget in the interim that I do actually want to read them...
So, I'm not sure why I picked up Gullstruck Island on a recent trip to a charity shop - but I'm really glad I did, because it's awesome!
It's a fantasy book about a remote island where various tribes of people live in isolated communities, held together by the Lost, who can send their senses out of their bodies, to watch for storms, carry messages and monitor bandit and volcano activity.
The protagonist is Hathin, whose main purpose in life is to serve as close attendant to her sister, Arilou, who may or may not have Lost abilities.
There's a lot of exposition at the start and throughout, as well as quite a bit of monologuing towards the end - but then there's a lot of very intricate world-building and plot twists to convey. It's all gorgeously put together and beautifully written, with lots of examples of very lyrical and poetic language.
But it's the emotion that takes it to another level. I felt every part of Hathin's story intensely and was incredibly invested in what happened to her - as well as all the rest of the vast array of fantastic characters, including the bad guys!
Multiple times, I thought I knew what the book was going to be about, or what might happen later on, and everything shifted underneath me on several occasions - but in a really good way.
Really wonderful stuff - and I've put more of Hardinge's books on my wish list! Hopefully, I won't forget in the interim that I do actually want to read them...
