book cover

Unraveller

by Frances Hardinge

Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 9 to 11

Published by Macmillan Children’s Books, 2022

  • Adventure
  • Fantasy

About this book

Kellen is an Unraveller. He can unravel curses, bringing those who’ve been maliciously transformed back to human form. He helped Nettle change back from a heron after her stepmother cursed her. Now Nettle and Kellen travel together through the Shallow Wilds, helping cursed people by seeking out their cursers and unravelling the magic.

When a one-eyed horseman and his terrifying marsh horse employ them to follow a thread of cursers who’ve gone missing, Kellen and Nettle find themselves entangled in a web of deceit. Forced to journey into the Deep Wilds, full of menacing spirits and unknown enemies, they discover that Kellen himself has been cursed. He has not transformed, but his powers are changing. Can they remove his curse before he unravels everything – and everyone – around him?

Beautifully written, this world of sinister magical creatures, spiteful curses and all-too-human cursers is vividly evoked. Hardinge explores emotions such as envy and spite with great sensitivity, showing how people’s lives can be twisted out of recognition if they allow these feelings to take over – and how they can affect others.   

Full of action and tension, this is perfect for lovers of immersive, richly imagined fantasy, and for anyone looking for a truly compelling adventure.

About the author

Frances Hardinge spent a large part of her childhood in a huge old house that inspired her to write strange stories from an early age. She read English at Oxford University, then got a job at a software company. However, a few years later a persistent friend finally managed to bully Frances into sending a few chapters of Fly by Night, her first children's novel, to a publisher. Macmillan made her an immediate offer. The book went on to publish to huge critical acclaim and win the Branford Boase First Novel Award. She has been nominated for, and won several other awards, being shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for Cuckoo Song. She recently won the coveted Costa Book of the Year Award for The Lie Tree.

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