First of all thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF'd at 50%

This was unfortunate for me as I do not usually spend so much time with a book before DNFing. The writing style of the book was beautiful and I loved the description of the Wilds and the monsters within. I also really liked the premise of the book.

However, what I wasn't keen on was getting 50% through the book to have a lot happen and not a lot happen at the same time. I didn't particularly care for any of the characters.

Pretty sure at this point that Frances Hardinge can do no wrong when it comes to worldbuilding and unique fantasy stories. It's whimsy, unique, weird, sad, funny, and generally unexpected. There's a fairytale quality that this story has, with the bird characters and the nature of the curses and cursers and cursed that I really enjoyed.

This book is maybe the least chaotic one that she's written up to this point, but I don't know what that says about it or her writing, other than it's a different book...but all of her books are so different from each other while still being so good and making you wonder how on earth she even came up with one concept in one book, let alone all the other books.

I also like that her characters are not always completely likeable, and are even sometimes frustrating. They're real, and their feelings are real, and even if sometimes it's annoying that a character won't do what you think would make their life easier, there is always a good reason for it, even if it's just that character's reason.

Good story but needed a bit more editing. I just felt it was too long and I lost interest a few times. It took me way too much time to get through which is an indicator that it may be better with trimming.

2.5 stars.
This book is simply too long, has too many characters and tries to do too much and therefore nothing quite *sticks.* I had heard such good things about Frances Hardinge so was excited to pick up this with a dark magical market where emotions and magic are bartered for, bought and sold but instead I felt like I had been turned around and round until I was dizzy and didn't know which direction I was heading much like the cast of characters in this.
HOWEVER, I'm not put off reading from Frances again, the backlist seems very well loved so I will try again

This was a beautifully written novel. I love the imagination and care Frances Hardinge put into this book. My biggest critique is that it is too long.

This was my first Frances Hardinge book, but I have always heard such positive things about this author. And I must say, they did not disappoint. The writing style, the world building, the relationship between the sisters, everything about this book drew me in and kept me here. I will definitely be coming back for more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

Every time I read a book by Frances Hardinge I sigh and say to myself "This is her best book so far". But the truth of the matter, at least for me, is that they are equally wonderful. Hardinge creates a world each time that pulls you in right from the first page and keeps you there right to The End. Unraveller is no different. In the land of Raddith, a curse egg can form within a person who is filled with hate and anger. This curse egg can then be used against anyone the curser want to hurt and destroying their lives. Bad-tempered and rude, Kellen is the only person who can unravel a curse much the way I unravel my knitting yarn after my kitty has played with it, and free the cursed person. He and Nettle, a cursed girl he had once freed, now wander around unravelling curses. But when Kellen finds himself the victim of a curse, he must find out who and why it happened before he can unravel himself and before he unravel everything around him. And as if being physically cursed weren't enough, Hardinge adds to the psychological terror of curses by making dreams and memories also vulnerable to them.

One of the things I like about Hardinge's world is that I don't feel like I'm just reading a book, on the outside looking in. I really feel like I'm right there - but isn't that what reading should do? Take you on adventures of all kinds? Well, this is one adventure you don't want to miss.

The relationship between the sisters really drove this story for me, but I also appreciated the action and developing adventure.

What I love and respect so much about Frances Hardinge is that she technically writes middle grade and YA novels, but her complexity is so well-suited for any age. She's one of those rare authors who writes for all of us. She's also one of the authors I'll put down anything and read for as soon as I possibly can. I love her work. I love all of it.

Unraveller is a story about a young man who is the only one able to unravel the curses that anyone else can place on another person. The curses, built from hatred, lead to great mysteries throughout the novel as Kellen works to unravel curses one at a time. He works/travels alongside his best friend Nettle as they try to solve mysteries and unravel these curses.

This is a book, and I have found this to be the case with some of Frances's other recent books, that is very difficult to describe. Her worldbuilding is unmatched, and her complex characters feel so real. They are motivated and inspired by tangible things. I admire her so much for the way she is able to create these worlds, these characters, and their relationships. I also really loved the mystery aspect of this book.

Her writing style is incredible, and though the book is long, you fly through the pages until you're finished with it, and still want more. I love recommending her books to my teens, and their parents, and their teachers. And even to my friends. She is a wonderful, wonderful writer. I cannot recommend her highly enough, and I already can't wait to see what she's got in store for us next!

Great premise, great cover, but I just couldn't get into it before it was time for me to review. I may potentially pick it up again.

It took me a little while to get into this, but I'm glad I stuck with it! Kellen can unravel curses, a gift from the Little Brothers - who also cause the curses. Nettle is his companion, formerly cursed, who helps to work out what has happened. But there's a wider conspiracy at work and Kellen and Nettle are in more trouble than they realise.

It was a little confusing to work out how the world worked at first, but that didn't really matter as it all became clear. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it - although the younger end of the age range may struggle with it a little.

I gave this a two out of five stars. I didn’t care for this book. I didn’t really care what happened to the characters. So it was hard to get through and hard to enjoy.

I'm seesawing on this one. It took awhile to get going. The short stories read more like an anthology, and without much background context + the sweeping in and out of numerous characters, it was hard to ground myself (ie care).

Eventually though, the story found its legs and I raced through the last 20-30% of the book. Kellan and Nettle are a unique pair. Their ages are kind of ambiguous and that makes the story a little hard to follow. Yannick added in a good sibling relationship, but a lack of love story, or parental figure, or comedy left the overall story a bit dry.

It was, however, a unique premise. Curses, pulling threads, and red herrings kept this off my DNF, and I'm glad I stuck it out!

Overall: 3.5/5 stars

I'll tell my students about: language, trauma, murder, blood/gore, physical violence, emotional abuse,

**Thank you to NetGalley and ABRAMS Kids, Amulet Books for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

“… one cannot throw away everything that is touched by pain.”

This simple truth is the undercurrent that drives Unraveller. This is a dark YA fantasy novel that touches on profound themes, about forgiving yourself, forgiving others, and being willing to change. It doesn’t gloss over the hard work that entails. And while I know some people will chafe at the idea of kids saving the world yet again, sometimes we need the kids to save the world. Because adults are set in their ways and have accepted the way things are, and aren’t always able to see the way things could be.

If I was going to dock this book for anything, it would be the prologue. That felt like a slog. Sometimes prologues work great. For me, this one didn’t. Maybe it was the second person POV, maybe it was the tell nature of the prologue, trying to get us up to speed on the essentials about this world we’re stepping into. Either way, I don’t feel it was essential, and if you skip it, you’ll be fine.

Hardinge uses an immersive writing style. We’re thrown in head first. The benefit of this approach is that we spend more time getting to know the characters through their actions than their thoughts. Yes, there is narrative, but never at the expense of plot, and Unraveller has a way of continuously raising the stakes. Hardinge also has a knack for hiding things in plain sight, and that leads to some brilliant revelations later in the story.

This is definitely a book where you don’t want to give too much away. The pace is relentless, the plot unfolds with precision but never feels predictable, and there are plenty of characters whose motives aren’t always clear. In fact, who you can trust and how to determine who to trust are recurring issues throughout, and highlight another critical truth. People aren’t always what they seem. And learning to really look and understand can make all the difference.

While this book holds a lot of truths, it never feels preachy. In its simplest form, it’s about two lost teens trying to find their way in a world that both needs them and rejects them in equal measure. And it’s about them coming to terms with their trauma and their identities.

The book description on Amazon and Goodreads doesn’t do it justice. It’s my first 5 star read of 2023. The worldbuilding is exceptional, the character arcs are compelling, and the subplots and plots are all satisfying. Highly recommended.

TW: abandonment, abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, blood, body horror, child abuse, death, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, forced institutionalization, gore, grief, kidnapping, mental illness, violence.

This is another one of those books I feel kind of conflicted about.

On the one hand, it was unique and had such an interesting premise/magic system. But on the other, I felt terribly disconnected from everything that happened for most of the book and I think that was majorly due to the pacing.

This book was kind of like if "Once Upon a Time" met "Supernatural" in a fantasy world where magical spiders gift "curse eggs" to people that have been wronged in some way and clearly, this causes a lot of problems. It also caused the pacing of the book to feel kind of disjointed due to the... episodic nature of the story.

There was definitely an over-arching plot and recurring themes, but most of the book was us following Kellen from village to village as he unraveled different curses. These scenes were interesting, but they also started to feel very repetitive, very fast.

I'd recommend this book for the emotional aspect, over anything else. If you're looking for a story that discusses different kinds of trauma (topically) and focuses on justified anger vs. hatred in a fantastical setting, then I really think you'd enjoy this.

As for me, I didn't not enjoy it and by the end, I could definitely feel myself starting to care about the story, but it's not one I'll revisit ever.

A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and NetGalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
My God. Didn't expect this to rob me of breath. But I'm kinda glad it did.

Frances Hardinge's books never cease to impress—she writes immersive, imaginative, darkly fantastical books, for middle grade readers, though that disguises their depth. While the setting and plots are varied and wondrous, the true focus of her stories is always on the relationships between people, and how the things we do to each other can make all kinds of situations into something beautiful, or something terrible. Unraveller is her best novel since The Lie Tree.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I liked the idea behind this book but found the story to be a bit slow and didn't engage with the characters very well. This story follows Kellen and Nettle. Kellen can break curses, a unique and useful talent in a land where people can accidentally or maliciously curse each other. Nettle is one of the people Kellen has un-cursed but she is struggling to adjust from when she lived life as a heron (when was cursed into a bird) to now living as a person.

Now, Kellen has been cursed and not only are curses are unraveling around him but everything else too. Him and Nettle get wrapped up in a plot against some rebellious cursers and are desperately trying to do what they can to help track down these elusive cursers and also break Kellen's curse.

I really enjoyed the idea of curse eggs and people developing these curse eggs because of intense emotion. I enjoyed the world built here and the idea of the Wilds. This is an excellent concept novel, like so many of Hardinge's novels are.

However, I struggled a bit with the characters and the story. The characters are very much held at a distance here and I didn't really engage with them or care about what happened to them. The plot seems slow at points and gets a bit repetitive with the characters confronting one cursed person after another and trying to solve the mystery of the curse. The book ended fine.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this wasn't my favorite Hardinge book but I liked some of the concepts here and the world-building. I enjoyed her books "Deeplight" and "A Face Like Glass" a lot more than this book. I struggled some with the plot and characters here but I still think it was worth reading because of the way cursing and the Wilds were dealt with. I would tentatively recommend it to those who enjoy a good concept-based fantasy.

In a country with an uneasy truce between the magical and unmagical, there is one sinister crossover: the powerless, filled with rage, are given the ability to curse others. Scruffy fifteen-year-old Kellen is the only one with the ability to pull apart those life-destroying spells and restore the victims to some form of humanity. But when he and his friend Nettle are drawn into a dangerous plan to uncover a hidden league of cursers, their adventures become truly perilous. Hardinge’s prose is elegant, economical, precise, and richly imagined. Both the primary and secondary characters have astonishing depth and complexity.
The friendship and connection between Nettle and Kellen is deep and intriguing, and the world-building is on a level with Tolkien or J.K. Rowling. Readers are able to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves completely. And yet, the author leaves room for the reader’s imagination to shape the story. One can enjoy the book for its inventive, action-packed plot or be drawn to reflect on the deeper thematic issues. Like our contemporary world, the impact of inequality, bitterness, self-doubt and rage is often disastrous and far-reaching.
It is never made explicit whether Kellen or Nettle have any defined sexual orientation, making this a great choice for readers who welcome fantasy without romance. A handful of descriptors - pale, greyish, tobacco-stained - indicate at least some characters are white.
. Thank you to NetGalley and Amulet for an Advance Reader's copy.