A Skinful of Shadows

Product Information

Twenty-seven months is long enough for a place to seep into your bones. Its colours become the palette of your mind, its sounds your private music. Its cliffs or spires overshadow your dreams, its walls funnel your thoughts… but Makepeace was used to fighting against the slow poison of habit. Her life with Mother had taught her how to keep herself unrooted. This is not your home, she reminded herself again and again and again.” There's no real reason A Skinful of Shadows needed to have an identity crisis. Set during the English civil war, our horror story is the focus, but certainly our characters are affected by the battle events around them. Which was all well and good until our lead gal ends up caught up in a scheme that will benefit one side of the war. While it gets our characters away from certain situations this interlude of smuggling, spies, infantry movements and battlement sieges is just dull. Instead of having an engaging reason to care, and partially because our lead gal doesn't care who wins, I just couldn't bring myself to feel any passion about the war or whose side wins or losses. A Skinful of Shadows was, in short, magical and mesmerizing. This was my first Frances Hardinge book and it absolutely will not be my last. I have been completely taken by her imagination and vivid characters. This is the sort of book that is just as beautiful, if not more so, on the inside as the cover (and just LOOK at that cover!). This was my first Hardinge book. I have more a couple more of hers on my shelf for the future and I'm definitely excited to read them. While I give this a 3.5 stars it's a solid 3.5. Assuming you can push through the dragging war bound middle of the novel then I believe most will enjoy Hardinge's creepy and (mostly) compelling ghost story. What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge | Waterstones

This story takes place during the English Civil War (ca. 1640 – 1643) so it takes place roughly 200 years prior to the first novel I read by this author and thus shows quite a different kind of England. The two books are independent of one another. However, they show that the author is good at any historic setting. Battlefields, alleys in Oxford and old manors come to life equally in this tale of ghosts possessing bodies and a little girl losing her way with only an unlikely companion to help her along the way. The spirit is wild, brutish and strong, and it may be her only defence when she is sent to live with her father's rich and powerful ancestors. There is talk of civil war, and they need people like her to protect their dark and terrible family secret. The story of the 'bear hearted girl' is a thrilling tale involving ghosts, family and betrayal. Makepeace is a girl who doesn't know her real name or even her father. When troubling dreams disturb Makepeace's sleep her mother sends her to a graveyard and this is how the story starts. I believe that the book is very enjoyable. However it contains little historical references which I see as a let down as 'A Skinful of Shadows' has been entered in a history competition. The book can be slightly confusing at the beginning, but you slowly start to feel for the book and its characters. Although the book focuses on a strange, confusing theme the book is definitely worth reading and opens your mind to how we treat animals and each other. In light of this I think that Frances Hardinge has created a beautiful book that should definitely be read and cherished. This is one of the best feel-good books you will ever read and is highly recommended to all fans of books with ghosts. 3) Remember Me by Christopher PikeIf you're hoping for information about the civil war setting this is the absolute wrong book as the majority of the information is fictional. A Skinful of Shadows' is a great book full of mystery, secrets and the supernatural. However I do not think it focuses too much about the time and context, although it does not mean it is not present, but it is not the theme of the story. But it is a very good book that I would recommend to anyone interested In ghosts and the supernatural. And without a doubt Frances Hardinge is a superb writer. She sets excellent scenes and can create a creep factor without being gory or over the top. But...

A Skinful of Shadows - Frances Hardinge A Skinful of Shadows - Frances Hardinge

Makepeace and her mother live in a puritan village in England just prior to the English Civil War. From a young age Makepeace is trained to protect herself in a very strange way: her mother has her sleep in the village graveyard overnight to force her to learn to defend herself against the ghosts that she senses there. The ability that makes her able to see ghosts also makes her the perfect target for possession by them, something that she finds out all about when a traumatic event leaves her possessed by the spirit of a beast. But the beast may be all that can save her when she encounters her father's family, many of whom also have the gift. Winning the Costa Book of the Year for The Lie Tree was one of the most incredible moments of my life, and to be perfectly honest I'm still staggered by it. It did also up the stakes and increase the pressure! This was a bit daunting, and made it harder to write A Skinful of Shadows. What was your inspiration for writing A Skinful of Shadows? The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.Now Eve must stop Nix who has been able to drive all her previous hunters insane and is also capable of doing a lot of damage herself. One of the best books ever written when it comes to non-scary books about ghosts. At least according to me and the legions of fans of Neil Gaiman and his absolute classic The Graveyard Book. I really enjoyed the book because it was not something I was used to reading about. My favourite character in the book is Makepeace as she is very independent and she figures things out using little things around her. She is also very clever, even though she doesn't know how to read, Makepeace is a very creative person and most of the things she solves in the story can be related in real life situations. I thought some of the history in the book was realistic but, most of it wasn't since it is fantasy. Considering the fact that it was set a long time ago, certain people might have actually believed that ghosts entering people's body can actually happen. The book was very interesting and because I already read a book by the author I wanted to read it to see how good the book was. I just wanted to say the book is really weird in a good way but, it's very creative and I loved it. Frances Hardinge was born in Kent. She enjoyed a bookish childhood in an isolated old house on a hilltop in the country. She read English at Oxford then worked as a technical author for a computer software company.