Unraveller

Product Information

This wasn’t a perfect story for me. There were one too many side quests, so the plot did get a bit muddled in the middle for me. A more tightly edited story would have made this a 5 star read. Meglio ancora, la Hardinge (non per nulla, pluripremiata) riesce a trasmettere con un linguaggio accessibile e fresco dei messaggi che possono definirsi universali. I think anger’s alright, actually. Lots of you have been treated badly, and most of you never asked for any of this. But… hate’s different. It eats you up and makes everything worse. You’ve all suffered enough already, haven’t you?” I loooved this world where hatred could make certain people develop a form of magic that could curse other people. The way the magic worked, what was done to them (or not), the firm the curses usually took ... it was rather wonderful (in a very dark and twisted way). Especially since it gave a unique perspective on greed, desire, revenge and the twisted forms love can take. Kellen is a young man with an uncanny gift: he can undo (unravel) curses. That's how he met Nettle. She and her siblings had been cursed by their stepmother and Kellen helped ... only Nettle didn't leave his side afterwards and now they are traveling this strange, hate-driven world together.

My hosts started to realize that just because somebody *feels* wronged, that doesn’t mean they are.” Like so many Hardinge characters, Kellen and Nettle are primarily focused on survival; it’s the arrival of Gale, with his marsh horse and mysterious employer, that sets them on a different kind of adventure—one that asks very Hardinge-y questions about freedom and justice and wisdom and rage. Kellen is the title character, but Nettle is his equal, and Hardinge is very clear in how both their skillsets are valued, both their flaws painful and real. He acts and she observes, until a time comes that Nettle, too, has to act—because she’s learned so very much by watching, and by beginning to understand her human self again. I really liked both main characters we’re introduced to. Kellen is a rash, flawed and complex character who finds himself with a gift to unravel the curses that are inflicted from “cursed eggs”, formed from the build up of people’s long buried hatred and spite. I really enjoyed exploring his concept of justice, but his anger issues (one of his biggest flaws) were also really interesting to watch as his “gift” of unravelling can cause everything in his vicinity (garments, furniture, objects) to unravel when he experiences heightened emotions. Most of the narrative revolves around his impulsive tendencies and the result of his rash decisions—most of which do get him into a spot of trouble on more than one occasion. But his journey does involve some self reflection and I enjoyed seeing him learn the importance of having a little patience. The rest aren’t bad people. They’re just desperate and wounded, putting their faith in the first person who told them they weren’t monsters.” L'ho trovata una storia avvincente e suggestiva, ispirata da varie fiabe gotiche (tra tutte, la fiaba dei Cigni Selvatici di Andersen), ma sempre tesa a sviscerare il problema del senso di colpa di chi maledice e la sofferenza di chi subisce e viene guarito. Spesso, le maledizioni traggono origini da motivi futili, da incomprensioni familiari, ed è vero il concetto che il male invocato può ritorcersi contro chi ne ha fatto un uso dissennato.

Introduction

Once again Frances Hardinge has delivered a story that's a little bit different and creepily atmospheric. Set in a world full of disagreeable magic and malicious curses, the plot is complex, multilayered and full of rich imaginings. It introduces us to a whole host of questionable characters. Those who curse, those who are cursed and anything and everything in between - think inventive supernatural creatures. There's an overarching plot having to do with large, shadowy conspiracies (of course; this is Hardinge, after all), but the start of the story feels almost picaresque as Nettle and Kellen travel around unravelling curses. This is a job the impetuous Kellen is quite unsuited for, as a curse cannot be unravelled without identifying the curser and their motivation. That's where the cooler-headed and reserved Nettle comes in. Some of these episodes are fascinating and have the texture of folklore (Pale Mallow the bog-witch!), and many of the cursers are sympathetic - victims themselves who were given, unasked, the power to take revenge. Once upon a time, he lifted a curse from a family of children who’d been turned into birds. One of them refused, remaining a gull. One did something terrible and has not recovered. And one is Nettle, who spent three years as a heron and is now Kellan’s shadow. Her past haunts her, and being human is unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but she is dogged and patient and watchful, and Kellen would not be as good at his work without her. But I also loved the more visual parts of the worldbuilding. From bogs to marshes, from rivers to the metropolis; whether we were in lonely places or ones bursting from the seams with inhabitants - this world was beautiful in every way. Perhaps you will decide that all the stories of the Wilds and the Raddith cursers were invented to entertain tourists. And at night, when you see a many-legged shape scuttle across the ceiling of your bedchamber, you will tell yourself that it is a spider, and only a spider…

Nettle, our other protagonist is the complete antithesis to Kellen, she’s methodical and cautious in her approach to most situations but also caring, which I felt definitely helped to balance out some of Kellen’s chaotic, callous and unpredictable tendencies. She internalises a lot of her problems which does make her seem a little colder/ uncaring to begin with however, we do learn why she’s soo guarded and I genuinely felt emotional over what she had to endure (having been cursed by her stepmother.) It's not the fault of the setting. Hardinge is an audacious worldbuilder, and this one is set in a swampy world full of spiders that bestow the ability (or maybe inevitability) to curse upon people who have enough hatred in them, allowing even the poor and downtrodden to have power over those they hate. Main characters Nettle and Kellen have both been touched by curses: Nettle and her siblings were turned into birds by their stepmother's curse, and Nettle watched as her hawk-brother killed her dove-sister. Kellen was bitten by a spider and given the exceedingly rare gift of being able to unravel curses, including Nettle's.In short and without giving anything away, what takes place is a captivating tale, set deep within a beautifully crafted world that as a reader, we slowly get to explore. The many mysteries in need of untangling, and the numerous twists and turns, make the story all the more enjoyable. My only complaint would be that I found it a *bit* to long - however, there was no way I wasn't finishing!