What’s it all about?:
Faith Sunderly leads a double life. To most people, she is reliable, dull, trustworthy – a proper young lady who knows her place as inferior to men. But inside, Faith is full of questions and curiosity, and she cannot resist mysteries: an unattended envelope, an unlocked door. She knows secrets no one suspects her of knowing. She knows that her family moved to the close-knit island of Vane because her famous scientist father was fleeing a reputation-destroying scandal. And she knows, when her father is discovered dead shortly thereafter, that he was murdered.
In pursuit of justice and revenge, Faith hunts through her father’s possessions and discovers a strange tree. The tree bears fruit only when she whispers a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, delivers a hidden truth. The tree might hold the key to her father’s murder – or it may lure the murderer directly to Faith herself.
What did I think?:
The Lie Tree has been on my radar for the longest time, ever since it won the Costa Book Award back in 2015 and I was delighted when the lovely booksellers at Mr B’s Emporium Of Reading Delights in Bath recommended it as one of the books I simply had to read on a reading spa I went to with my sister Chrissi Reads. Now, they picked some outstanding books perfectly tailored for my reading tastes but this book was one of their more intuitive choices and one that had me jumping up and down about it within just a few pages. I think I was merely twenty pages through when I had the urge to tweet gushing all about it and I had barely begun! You know when you start reading a book and everything slots into place? The lyrical writing, the atmospheric setting, the mystery of the characters, the magical elements? They were all spectacular and I knew it was a book destined to make it to my all-time favourites book shelf.
This is the story of Faith and her family who are fleeing England after a scandal involving her father’s work as a natural scientist. They encamp themselves upon a small island where they believe at first the rumours haven’t followed them and the Reverend can continue his rather secretive work in relative peace. Faith is an intelligent, determined girl who takes great interest in her father’s studies although the fact that she is a woman in 19th century England does not bode well for her future intellectual development i.e. she is not expected to pursue anything else other than marrying well. However, when her father meets an untimely end under suspicious circumstances, Faith is desperate to peruse his current research, in search for answers about his mysterious death, his very strange behavior and his often rattled demeanour in order to uncover the secrets behind a very special plant, The Lie Tree. It is only when she discovers what The Lie Tree can potentially provide that Faith begins to realize she may have opened a bigger can of worms than she ever could have expected.
This gorgeous novel was so much more than I anticipated and I thank Frances Hardinge from the bottom of my heart for every word of it. The language used is sumptuous and glorious and I loved the combination of the historical setting with the fantastical element of the Lie Tree mixed with subtle hints of feminist undertones. Each character and their intricate relationships was developed so beautifully that they felt completely authentic, especially with the addition of flaws that only served to increase my belief in each one of them. I have to talk briefly about Faith’s relationship with both her parents, which broke my heart at times. I clocked her mother, Myrtle immediately as being disinterested, two-faced and not in the slightest maternal but it was Faith’s relationship with her father that really floored me and at one point, almost had me in tears.
There’s a particular scene with Faith and the Reverend just prior to his death where he tells her exactly what he and the rest of the world expects of her as a female and it’s just a horrific, passionate exchange that was upsetting yet very illuminating to read. Faith is herself as I alluded to, flawed and becomes enamoured with the power provided to her by The Lie Tree. She makes some really terrible decisions, suffers for her bravery and hurts a few people in the process but at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but admire her for her tenacity and dogged determination to ensure that her father’s death was avenged. Basically, I can’t gush enough about the magnificent nature of this novel, it is a very worthy Costa Award winner and for me, proof that a book can still capture my heart within twenty pages.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge was the sixteenth book in my quest to conquer Mount Everest in the Mount TBR Challenge 2018!
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