Cuckoo Song

By Frances Hardinge

Published May 8th, 2014 by Pan MacMillan

Author Information:

Website: http://www.franceshardinge.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/FrancesHardinge

Literary Awards for Cuckoo Song

British Science Fiction Association Award Nominee
for
Best Novel 2014

Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee
(2016)

British Fantasy Award for Robert Holdstock Award
(best fantasy novel) (2015)

Carnegie Medal Nominee (2015)

James Herbert Award Nominee (2015)

The Magnolia Award for 9-12 (2017)

Cuckoo Song description from Goodreads

I checked out this book from Missouri Libraries 2 Go through my membership at the Barry
Lawrence County Regional Library.

Once again, Frances Hardinge has captured my undivided attention. I have had the

privilege of reading two other books by this outstanding author: The Lie Tree and

A Skinful of Shadows. Both books are ones I continually recommend to my middle
school students. The Cuckoo Song will now be among those titles I recommend.  

I was hooked in the first chapter of the book.  It immediately starts with a mystery that
grabs you

and will not let go until the last page of the book.  As I was reading this book, I kept

thinking, “AHHHH, I have this figured out,” but no.  Don’t get me wrong; I did solve several

of the mysteries, but Hardinge would throw in another twist and another and another and

another until I twisted all the way around and the book makes perfect sense. It is masterfully

written that way. Frances’ writing reminds me of her character The Architect. You think you

are seeing one thing but the angles and light distort it into something else. I also love

Hardinge’s style where everything is connected.  She is the Seinfeld of YA Books.

Everything circles back around to complete the story.

The characters in this book are another reason it is so hard to put down.  All through the

book, you want to slap, pinch, and scream at little sister, Pen. Celeste and Piers will also

make you want to pull out your hair.  Triss, the main character, is so well written.  She

has several layers that are perfectly revealed when the time is right. Many of these layers

caught me by surprise. Triss is a character that you don’t really know how you feel about

her and her actions until the end of the book.  The Architect, The Shrike, Mr. Grace and the

Besiders complete this wonderful cast of characters.

The setting is in England, a few years after the Great War.  The sub-settings are so

imaginative and spellbinding. You will be transported to places far beyond your own

imagination. They are places where you feel like you would like to hang around but at the

same time, you want to run screaming into reality. I wish they played a bigger part in the book.  

The plot includes treachery, secrets, betrayal, rescue plans, henchmen, magical powers,

and pages full of action. There were times when I was reading so quickly because I couldn’t

wait to see what was happening next.  The Cuckoo Song walks a fine line between horror

/creepy and fantasy. I prefer the creepy/horror but with The Architect, The Shrike,

Mr. Grace and the Besiders there is a sense of fantasy.  The horror/creepy would not workwithout the fantasy, and the fantasy would not work without the horror/creepy.

It wasn’t until close to the end of the book that I understood the connection between the title

and the book.  Ingeniously done, Francis!

I would love to use this book in my classroom. It is packed with similes, metaphors and
beautifullywritten personification.  I also think it would be a very interesting character study to

analyze how Triss/Not-Triss changes throughout the book.  I also think the sub-settings

would be great to use as the inspiration for an art project. I would love to see middle schoolers

interrupt Hardinge’s descriptions.  This book would also be a great book club read.

It will appeal to all different kinds of readers.