Customer Reviews

The Lost Conspiracy

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I think that as adult reviewers of books for children and teens we have a duty to separate ourselves from our material and give our books an impartial eye, one and all. As a reviewer, I don't know how wise it is for me to get as excited as a ten-year-old when the newest book from a favorite children's author comes out. If I adopt a fangirl mindset then how impartial a reviewer can I be? I have a requirement, nay, a duty to not enjoy a book too much when I read it. I must remain calm and cool and collected at all times, no matter how thrilling the story or intriguing the characters.

Dost thou think the children's book reviewer doth protest too much?

She doth.

She doth indeed because at 576 pages I had just one thought upon finishing Frances Hardinge's The Lost Conspiracy: It's already ended? As I see it, 576 pages somehow manages, in spite of all the odds, to be too short. You couldn't cut a scene, a character, or a word in this book for the 10 and up set without upsetting the flow. Filled with sentient volcanoes, gem-studded teeth, villains, heroes, revenge, love, and the world's most frightening dentist, this is a book to rival The Princess Bride in scope, adventure, and excitement. It's Hardinge's magnum opus. One that I dearly hope both kids and adults enjoy in equal measure.

Gullstruck Island. Colonized by the Cavalcaste more than two centuries ago. Populated by various tribes, amongst them the always smiling Lace. Home of humans known as "the Lost" who are capable of allowing their senses to leave their bodies "like a hook on a fishing line", which gives them the ability to roam the island as messengers and spies. Now, for the first time, a Lost has been discovered amongst the Lace, and not the Cavalcaste. But when a Lost inspector and his aide come to test her, it starts a chain reaction no one could anticipate. The Lost inspector dies while there, and his aide disappears. So Hathin, a girl born and raised to be the invisible helper to her impossible sister, finds the weight of the world resting on his slim shoulders. Someone has it in for the Lace, and it's up to Hathin to find help, escape and outwit her enemies, appease the island's volcanoes, and uncover a conspiracy before everything and everyone she loves is gone.

I've delayed writing this review for a time because I have been hoping that the words to describe this book would march faithfully from my brain into my typing fingertips without hemming and hawing much. This has not happened. So I'm forced to try to explain to you what's going on here, but the only way to do it is to lump it all together in one big run-on sentence. Deep breath now. Hardinge has written the ultimate metaphor for colonization, taking into account the prejudices and miscommunications inherent in the minds of both the colonizers and the colonized, the "savagery", the abuse of natives, and even the rebel factions of native people and their need for revenge against various oppressions. Phew! But wait. There's more. All this is honed into a narrative that is subtle with its messages. You aren't thumped over the head with the didactic stick with this book. Instead the story seems to seep into your skin, undetected and by this strange osmosis you get the point.

The colonization aspects of the story are meticulously worked out. You get the impression that you could ask Hardinge anything about this island and she would have an answer for you right at hand. It's the kind of feeling I only get once in a while. J.K. Rowling could do it. So could Tolkien. D.M. Cornish could do it with his Monster Blood Tattoo) titles. And now Hardinge has that ability as well. She's able to discuss an island where the settlers' original homeland is used to dealing with ice and snow, so their laws have no bearing on the problems faced in this tropical isle. "Port Suddenwind's edicts could cope with thieves who stole sledges or furs but not those who ran off with jade or coconut rum. They could cope with murderers who tricked victims onto thin ice but not those who boiled jellyfish pulp to make poisons." Hardinge also deals eloquently with prejudices. At one point a Cavalcaste makes a joke about little Hathin carrying one of them away as a sacrifice. "It was a joke, but centuries of distrust and fear lay behind it."

The language here was the real draw for me. I've always been a sucker for a well-turned Hardinge verse. In this book you encounter lines like "As Hathin ran forward, she could feel the stares crystallize on her skin like salt." Or how about, "And then Therrot flung himself backward on the slope and howled at the hills, for true joy like true pain does not care how it looks or sounds." Hardinge also describes this world thoroughly. So potent was the landscape in my mind that I kept flipping to the front of the book, convinced that I'd find a map there. I must have done this about four times, forgetting after each glance that there was no such map to be found. Something about the writing convinced me that I could actually see the island. But when I went back to check, there was never anything there.

In the past I've liked also Hardinge's characters. I've been intrigued by their tales and I've enjoyed watching them learn and grow. But for the first time this author has created people that I not just believed in, but wanted desperately to succeed. Hathin was born to be invisible in every possible way. Yet in the course of her struggle she shows uncommon strength and ends up a highly visible human being, not to mention one I wouldn't want to tangle with. It's the ultimate fantasy for every bookish girl who picks up this novel. From existing in the shadow of your more important sister, to legend. But it wasn't just Hathin. I really cared about most of the characters in this book. I liked the roving dentist Jimboly until her true psychosis came to light (and how much more creepy is it to have a bad guy with a good sense of humor and a fine laugh?). I particularly liked the Cavalcaste character of Prox. I liked him so much that when he disappeared in the narrative at one point I found myself desperately paging through future parts of the book to find him again. I won't tell you if I succeeded.

There's a lot of action as well. I guess that's sort of a given when a fair number of your characters are volcanoes. Still, between the Lost flying, villages getting slaughtered, the fights, the chaos, and the greed, you never really know what Hardinge is going to pull next. One villain in the tale is an otherworldly Ashwalker, a man who turns his victims into ashes so that he can take their souls and turn them into his protective clothes. The escape scenes from him are nail biting, edge-of-the-seat sequences. Probably my favorite, and weirdest, moment in the book is straight out of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It involves one character holding a knife to a girl's throat, while another character threatens a bird, and a third is close to smashing a . . . lobster. It's ridiculous, but it works. You'll see.

To be fair, I enjoyed Hardinge's previous novels published here in America, Fly by Night and Well Witched very much. But I could see how kids wouldn't always go for them. Fly By Night was a strange little creature, creating its own perfect little world within a kind of timeslip pseudo-Dickensian setting. It was steampunk without the punk. An acquired taste. Well Witched was geared to be a little more mainstream, but even so it felt like Hardinge was holding herself back. Holding herself back for what? For this epic storyline, it seems. I have no qualms about saying that The Lost Conspiracy is this woman's best book yet. Somehow, by letting her freak flag fly, Hardinge has gone beyond her other two books and created something that will actually be more accessible than either the previous volumes were. She's at her best when she's in the grips of her own particular form of madness. Sure, kids will have to clarify early on who the colonizers are and who the colonized be, but that's explained clearly enough. What they will find when they read this is that this is a world like nothing they've ever encountered before and that they'll never want to leave. Beloved.

On the remote island of Gullstruck, a rare phenomenon occurs to just a few of its residents. These individuals are the Lost, and they have the ability to separate their senses from their bodies. The Lost can send sight, smell, touch, etc. to the next room or to the other side of the island to gather information, exchange messages and locate lost goats or missing children, all while their bodies wait in a sleep-like state for their senses to return. Everyone on the island respects the Lost, holding them as the highest of Gullstruck's citizens. Thirteen-year-old Arilou is a Lost. Then again, maybe she isn't.

Arilou was born in a Lace community, a race of people struggling to survive on the coast of Gullstruck. The Lace have long been degraded to a lower class of people, but when Arilou started showing signs of being a Lost, their status began to rise just a bit. Arilou kept the village from starving many times with the gifts and food given them. Even Hathin, Arilou's younger sister, can thank Arilou for her own existence; Hathin was born for the sole purpose of caring for Arilou, which is a big job as Arilou rarely returns to her body. Hathin has to watch her constantly, feed her, bathe her, dress her, even interpret her slurred words. She doesn't have much of a life of her own and feels almost invisible. Another big part of Hathin's responsibilities is keeping a huge secret with the rest of the village --- a secret so important that everyone's lives depend on it. Maybe, just maybe, Arilou isn't a Lost after all; perhaps she is just physically and mentally handicapped.

One day, a Lost inspector shows up to test Arilou of her abilities. The village bands together to cheat Arilou's way through the tests. But right in the middle of the evaluation, the inspector and every Lost on the island (except for Arilou) are killed. As Arilou and Hathin become the number one suspects in this mysterious mass murder, Hathin drags Arilou into the forests to escape the angry mobs hunting for them. Running for their lives, they join up with a few renegades who agree to help them find out what really happened that fateful night. Along the way, Hathin begins to discover how special she really is, apart from her legendary sister.

Frances Hardinge has a unique writing style that overflows with grace and elegance, meaning and insight. Her imagination soars with the colorfully detailed descriptions of this distinctive island, the ingenious plot twists and the intensely memorable characters. She digs into the themes of racism and self-esteem with a careful and sensitive hand. Some readers may be challenged a bit with the longer length of the book, the larger words, and the author's look into the different cultures of her unique island. But this is a worthwhile challenge. THE LOST CONSPIRACY is a special story to be treasured, shared, and read again and again.

--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman

Once you start reading this book you will not want to put it down! This is not a novel for the lazy reader; it is complex & creative and requires your full attention.

Give The Lost Conspiracy to the kid who made it through ALL of the Harry Potter books & is looking for an imaginative storyline. Or give it to yourself because everyone deserves a good read :)

While I could try to summarize the plot, as other have, you can see it takes paragraphs. Suffice it to say, this book is the MOST original fantasy I've read in a very long time, for kids or for adults. As a Children's Librarian, I spend a lot of time reading fantasy, both for personal interest and to better serve the kids at my library. This is nothing like what I've read as far as the genre goes. Hardinge's enormous creativity in world creation, character development, plotting, and pacing made this a fascinating, heart-pounding read. Normally, I breeze through books in order to quickly grasp the plot and it's potential audiences. I forced myself to continually slow down, to soak in the language, the story's intricacies. You could view this as a commentary on Western colonialization, societal racial tension, environmentalism, or folklore origins. Because it contains all of that, but wrapped up in an intriguing, inventive narrative you won't soon forget. I read it three weeks ago and still can't stop talking about it. Hathin (and her creator) are that impressive.

While a bit slow to start off, this book is worth finishing. Frances Hardinge creates a fascinating and complex world full of interesting characters.
I'm not a big fan of her particular writing style (descriptions seemed a little abstract for me) but the story itself more than makes up for it.
I definately recommend this book.

This review was originally written for the British edition of this book, which was entitled "Gullstruck Island" (for some reason the names of all Hardinge's books are changed when they are published in the U.S.):

Exhilarating, Harrowing, Astonishing . . . Those are only a few of the appropriate adjectives for Francis Hardinge's novel, "Gullstruck Island." It seems presumptuous to comment on such an achievement. The characters--quiet, determined Hathin; the irresponsible seer Arilou; the Superior, buried beneath the weight of his ancestry; sly Jimboly; monumental Dance; and many, many others--stay in one's mind after reading. The themes--from the way we respond to overwhelming loss and the pitfalls of intercultural communication to scapegoating and the nature of attraction--are innumerable and interlinking, and the plot shows some facets easily while surprising with others.

One wants to linger in reading in the knowledge that it will be a long time before another novel of this calibre is encountered, but dash through to alleviate the almost overwhelming suspense. But it is the beauty of the prose that is most noticeable. Emily Dickinson wrote something like, "If I feel that the top of my head is taken off, I know that is poetry," and there are more moments of that sheer, hair-raising astonishment at the deadly perfection of a turn of phrase and thought in this novel than any other in recent years.

Many novels, including Hardinge's first, "Fly By Night," deserve 5 stars, but this is one of the rarities that is in an entirely different category altogether, requiring six or more stars. I only wish my review could capture some of the beauty and terror that fills this work.

What a wonderful heroine! I bought this to pre-screen for my high school age budding writer niece. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too juvenile. The story line is intricate and brings in many issues about indigenous minority populations without becoming preachy. The story reigns. But the issues sneak up on you. The writing is excellent. The voice I liked very much and it made me want to read more by this author. The mystery was not resolved until the end and surprising heroes emerged from seeming capitulators. The story is dark enough to be interesting - nothing syrupy. I would recommend for middle school and up. I am a fan of young adult literature and although in my 50's would read it again!

This is a book, and an author, for anyone and everyone who loves to read. I had to use much restraint in not finishing this in one siting (or rather, in one school day as I tried to keep it out of my lap during classes. I failed at this) I am definately a book person. I love this author.
Frances Hardinge must have an incredible imagination. In each if her books, she creates an entirely new world for you to explore, full of different cultures and people. One of my favorite parts of ths book was reading about each group's eleifs and ways of life.
There was an entire history to the island where the book akes pace, with it's yths crossing over to reality. The Lost will intrigue anyone who shares my personality. Supstitions rule in this book and it is fantastic. Long but never boring. It is one of the only books I can read again and again and never be bored by it.
I loved to learn about the lace, how they name themselves, how the ae sperate. I loved to read about the Indigo Men, the volcanos, the Sours. In short, pick up this book.

The only reason I picked this book off the shelf at the library was because it was thick and had a pretty cover, I admit it. But when I saw that it was by the same author as "Fly By Night," I knew it would be good. And I was right.

This plot is definitely more complex than Fly By Night; probably a little too advanced for kids who can't read at a fifth grade level or so. Also, it's not as light and funny. But all the mystery is still there, and this time around there is a heroine who does more than run around with her goose and get into trouble; Hathin must save an entire island society.

Hathin was always the unnoticed younger sister of Lady Lost Arilou; everyone's mistake was thinking that because she was quiet she wasn't strong.

Have I said I love my job? Besides working for and amongst the love and hobby of my life right now - books - I'm surrounded by coworkers that are also avid book readers. What this also means is that I have the privilege of hearing about excellent books that I never would've otherwise. So when the children's librarian claims a book to be the best she's read all year (and she's read a lot of good ones), you better listen. Because The Lost Conspiracy is just one of those under-the-radar books that deserves any hype and shout outs it can get.

The Lost are special, rare people who are born with the ability to send their senses away from their body, like dust carried by the wind. They essentially control Gullstruck; bringing tributes to towns and acting as the communication network for the volcano-laden island.

The Lace are the native brown-skinned islanders of Gullstruck. Decades ago when the Calvalcaste invaded the island, claimed it as a sanctuary for the ashes of their dead, and built cities on top of their sacred temples, the Lace fought back by human-sacrificing the colonizers. As punishment they were banished to the Coast and the Caves of the Hollow Beasts where food was scarce and shelter from the daily jungle rains was negligible.

Twelve-year-old Hathin is the invisible attendant to her sister, the Lady Lost Arilou. Though Arilou is the only Lace Lost and is responsible for supplying much-needed food and provisions to Hollow Beasts village, she is not the prophetess and oracle a Lost is supposed to be. She seems to speak only gibberish and requires Hathin to attend to her every physical need as well as act as her "translator". What is not known is how much Hathin actually understands and how much Arilou can comprehend. When the Lost Inspector Skein and his assistant Minchard Prox show up for Arilou's Lost testing, Hathin couldn't feel more helpless. How will Arilou pass the tests if she cannot speak coherently? With the life of her village at stake Hathin must find a way to keep the fraud a secret. But even as Hathin's plan unfolds, she's unknowingly caught up in a murderous island-wide conspiracy which points to her and her people. On the run and with no one to turn to, Hathin must find the determination to go over volcano and mountain and do absolutely anything and everything to protect Arilou.

I still can't get over what an odd but inventive fantasy The Lost Conspiracy is. Not only that but the writing is singularly poetic and deeply-laden with meaning it's difficult to find many YA novels that compare. It takes more than a few pages to find your bearings in this fully-lit world and metaphoric-heavy writing (I had to use my 100-page rule) but once you do it sweeps you off your feet and rather than getting lost in the complex world of peoples, languages, and politics; an entire personified physical world; the changing third-person narrative; and the sometimes distractingly poetic language with which it's written it has swept you off your feet and 576 pages feels like nothing. This doesn't represent the book justly as a whole but here's a small taste of what I mean:

"The winds shifted again, the ashen clouds puckered and plummeted, and everyone glimpsed something enormous plunging through the valley and the town below: sleek, gray-brown, and muscular like an enormous serpent, its back strewn with timber and trees that it did not notice. Not fire but water, a dragon of scalding, murky, terrible water. As they watched, chunks of slope below them vanished as though bitten away by a vast, invisible maw. Bite after bite, working its way up the slope..."

See what I mean? Frances Hardinge is both intimidatingly brilliant and limitlessly imaginative. This book is not capable of being hated. You'll either love it or it will simply not be your cup of tea. I adored it, not only for what I already mentioned but because of the characterizations. Hathin grows so much and learns how to make her life what she wants it to be. Sorrow, the white volcano; the King of Fans, her tall neighboring mountain; Lord Spearhead and other topical features also become dear characters that have a larger role to play in the story. I even came to enjoy the confusing dialects (such as Doorsy) and the many tribes and people such as the Sours. The absolutely frightening bounty hunters called Ashwalkers - who literally gain power from wearing their victim's ashes - were again, pure brilliance. Loved, loved, loved this book! These images will stay with me for a long time.