Unraveller

The first thing I noticed about Frances Hardinge’s 'Unraveller', is that the cover is gorgeous! Various shades of blue, the white heron, and the metallic font and detailing make this book incredibly visually appealing. The prologue, written like a travel guide for Raddith and the Wilds (where the book is set), helps set the scene, drawing you in to the story before it has even begun.

I loved that this book has male and female protagonists who build a strong platonic relationship. Characters show personal growth; reflect; offer understanding and forgiveness; acknowledge their own short-comings and engage in difficult conversations with others in order to become better people themselves, and help others move on with their lives.

Hardinge has done a wonderful job creating a fantasy world in the Wilds where humans live in swampy marshland alongside creatures of varying dangers and forms. Her use of poetic language brings the characters and setting to life, “He could already feel his leash snap, his temper bounding forward like a big black dog.”

'Unraveller' is marketed as young adult fiction and I think it is well placed there. However, due to its clean content (no sex, swearing, or gratuitous violence), if there are younger students who are wanting and able to read it, I wouldn’t have an issue with that. I suspect that some of the themes might go over the head of a younger reader, but there’s nothing content-wise that they wouldn’t have already been exposed to through other middle-grade fiction.

Content warnings: There are a couple of mentions of domestic violence, but it’s hinted at rather than described (“My husband… he was a brute.”). There is a reference to suicide, but, once again, this is not expressly said and is likely to be missed by some readers (“No, the merchant didn’t need to know about the sad little note or the body in the river.”)