SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge: https://t.co/QeAYC7D6am Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 20, 2018

Short Review(cont): This YA novel features a young woman named Makepeace discovering during the English Civil War that her family can be possessed by ghosts....and that she needs to escape their sinister plans for her own abilities. Really fun different setting & characters(2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 20, 2018

A Skinful of Shadows is another novel nominated for this year's (Not-A-)Hugo Award for Best SciFi/Fantasy Young Adult Novel of 2017.  I hadn't heard of the book until it's nomination for the award, but it was included in full in the Hugo Packet.  That said, it's a pretty good novel, well worthy of the nomination I'd think.  In terms of how it fits as YA, A Skinful of Shadows is aimed at a slightly older age group than Summer in Orcus, but only slight - and definitely not aimed at more mature readers as other nominees such as The Art of Starving or In Other Lands (the book contains no sexual activity or even hint of the same, so it's not a book that would be inappropriate necessarily for young readers).

More after the Jump:


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Makepeace grew up only knowing her mother, who lived with her in an attic of the house owned by one of their cousins.  Together they lived in 17th Century England, which is rife with unrest as supporters of Parliament and supporters of the Crown begin to be set at odds.  But Makepeace has bigger concerns - namely nightmares where spirits seem to be trying to get into her head.  And when Makepeace tells her mother about these nightmares, her mother forces her to sleep in a graveyard to learn to keep the spirits out.

But when Makepeace's mother dies when caught up in an anti-monarchist riot, Makepeace finds herself taken to the house of her father's family, the powerful and rich Fellmotte family.  But the Fellmottes are not an ordinary family of aristocrats - they, like Makepeace, possess the ability to both see and be possessed by ghosts.  And the Fellmottes do not have the best of Makepeace's interests at heart....or at least not her mind's interests, and Makepeace is not one to give up her own mind without a fight.

But in a Country torn apart by Civil War, with members of the Fellmotte family on both sides, where exactly can she turn?
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I've kept the plot summary above as vague as possible - while a reader with no prior knowledge will still see some of the twists coming, I was pretty frequently surprised by where the book was going at times, in a pleasant way.  It probably helps that the book uses an uncommon plot setting for me - I admit to not having read any books I can think of set during the English Civil War.  So while I had some general idea how the setting was to play out, the uncertainty made the world very interesting to read through.

And the worldbuilding in this book is very good - the war is vivid and understandable, as Makepeace finds herself alongside characters on both sides of the conflict, the Fellmotte mansion is appropriately creepy, as are the Fellmotte's themselves, and their ghost-possessing abilities make for a fascinating story.  This is not the first book I've read involving communication between living people and ghosts as a foundation for the plot (for a very different story involving such a thing, see Mary Robinette Kowal's "Ghost Talkers"), but the book's use of people who can willing be possessed by ghosts is done in a very different way than I've seen before, and it results in an interesting plot, especially as with how it's done by both our main character and our antagonists.  In a way, this book is kind of a horror story, which is not usually my cup of tea, but the use of such possession by ghosts is very different than what I've seen before and makes it an effective story of that genre.

It helps that Makepeace is an excellent character, and several of the side characters are great as well.  Makepeace is great in her own right - a determined young teenage girl not to let others choose for her who improvises fantastically in a way to fight off the horrors that chase her.  The group that accompanies Makepeace through the second half of the book are a bit more hit or miss - the doctor Makepeace first finds to accompany her is a pretty great character - cocky and overconfident and more than a bit smarmy/selfish but trying to help at times.  And while he never actually has lines, the bear that accompanies Makepeace from near the very beginning of the book is a surprisingly interesting character in how he interacts with everyone else.  And one of the more explored antagonist Fellmotte's (not spoiling which one) is a very interesting twist upon how someone with the family power can really be evil.

Not everyone works - a religious soldier Makepeace meets up with is kind of eh, and Makepeace's best friend, her half-brother James, is kind of bland and more of a plot device.  And Makepeace's resolution to her biggest concern does come maybe a bit too easily.

Still, I liked A Skinful of Shadows a good bit, and am glad it got nominated for the award or I might have missed it.  It won't be my pick for the award, but it's well deserving of the nomination and worth your read, and it's definitely a solid book for anyone middle school and up to pick up.