Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Lie Tree

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The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

7 reviews

emmasbookshelf22's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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pati2804's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

More of a mystery than I expected but I found the characters enjoyable, the plot surprising and I loved the scientific thinking that's weaved in. Really solid book that I would recommend

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've been tardy with the review for this one because I wrote a long, thoughtful passage, which was then swallowed by the latest Windows update closing all my tabs. *grumble*

When her family is whisked away to a remote island community so that her preacherman and natural scientist father can join an archeological dig, Faith knows that she isn't being told everything. She finds out that her father has been implicated in a scandal over faked fossils, including his greatest find, that is implied to be a winged human.. and then her father is found dead after apparently throwing himself off a cliff.

Refusing to believe that her father ended his own life, Faith's mood takes a dark turn. She contrives to invent a ghost to have her revenge on a maid who was mean to her, and in her thorough investigation of her father's things finds that he has hidden away a biological specimen with some very mysterious properties.. some might say supernatural; as a Rationalist, Faith thinks this needs more scientific investigation.

Being set in the late 1800s this allows a critique of evolution and creationism, and questions whether science is really pitted against the Church. It is also unashamedly Feminist and explores some of the shonky and emergent scientific theories that underpin some of the (misguided) "rational" explanations made to explain why men are better than women.

As in other titles by the author, Hardinge brings her own blend of well researched historical drama, shadowy mystery and darkly cruel supernaturality, to a story including hallucinatory dreams, and this girl who is fascinated by snakes, cat skulls, and rats.

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fe_aye's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This isn’t the sort of book I normally read, it had a rather slow beginning but once it finally picked up the pace I found myself enthralled. It took a while to get there and the narration style certainly put me off because it was way to formal but for this book it works, if you can manage to look past those things this will probably be a very good read for you.

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