Cuckoo Song

Hardinge, Frances. Cuckoo Song. Amulet. 2015. 416p. ISBN 978-1419714801. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Twelve years old Triss wakes up not recalling the last few hours. Her parents tell her that she fell in the river but she is recovering well. Her younger sister Pen immediately turns hostile upon seeing her, however, and this level of hostility shocks Triss. Since the death of their older brother, Sebastian during the First World War, her architect father and her stay-at-home mother have been distant. And now, Triss feels different, as if she were someone else.

As she begins to discover clues about Pen’s anger towards her and her ravenous hunger, Triss becomes enmeshed in the revenge plans of a mysterious man known as the Architect, who wishes nothing but their destruction. Running on borrowed time with the help of Violet, Sebastian’s fiancee, and Pen, Triss must stop the Architect’s grand vision from coming true before it is too late.

Based in the early 1920s in England, this family has suffered a tragedy and is unable to cope with it. Every character is fleshed out and their motivations are clear, all except for Triss who, appropriately for the story, remains a work in progress as she discovers who, or what, she really is. Hardinge slowly and craftily builds a horrific yet spellbinding narrative that culminates in an unforgettable confrontation. There are only gradations between good and evil in this book, and each character perform acts they later regret. Triss and her family cannot escape the fact that their fate is intertwined. Fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Marina: A Gothic Tale and those who like their horror served with a side of hopeful frightfulness will thoroughly enjoy this book.