The Lost Conspiracy

I fell in love with middle school and recently purchased it to see if I could still enjoy it as an adult. Boy howdy does it hold up. I am so astounded by the depth and breadth of Frances Hardinge's worldbuilding. Each person has their own detailed background and motivations that come together into a masterwork. Every single detail is a relevant clue later. I have no idea how she synthesized so many ideas together so well.

Hardinge is a gifted writer. I get insanely jealous when I read her books because I love them, can't put them down, and want to poke through her brain to see how she comes up with the ideas for her stories. That being said, this one started out a little slow for me, but it was intriguing and kept me going. In this latest work, Hardinge takes us to Gullstruck Island (the published title of this book in the UK - and can I just say that I HATE that the publishers keep changing her titles and covers for the US editions), home of the Lost (a gifted people who can leave their bodies and take their senses of sight and hearing other places), the Lace (a people who have odd ideas of dentistry, and who say a lot with few words), the Ashwalkers (hired assassins who kill for the ash of their prey so they can dye their skin blue) and more. Intrigued? I hope so because I am not doing these cultures of people justice. There are multiple layers throughout this story, and once you think you know what the outcome will be, something else happens to take your thoughts somewhere else. Hardinge has created a world that is barely getting along, but when one misunderstanding between tribes leads to another, and a mass killing, something has to be done. Unfortunately, the survival of the island is left to two young girls: Arilou and Hathin. Arilou is supposedly a Lost, but those in her village never talk about the fact that she may just be not quite right. Her sister, Hathin, is her caretaker. The girls have a bond that can surpass time, distance and even a serious lack of communication. Both girls are strong characters, but Arilou's strength is gradually revealed, while readers will be rooting for Hathin every second throughout her trials. When I mentioned that this book had layers upon layers I wasn't kidding. There's almost always more than meets the eye in every single chapter. Hardinge gently pulls you into her story and her world and soon you won't be able to think of anything else. I could go on about how much I loved it, but it would soon become redundant and at this point you're either interested or you're not. I hope you're interested, because you're in for quite the ride with this one! Notes on the Cover: I love the eerily blue/green shades throughout the cover. I also love the picture of Hathin with Ritterbit in the jungle on Lord Crackgem (he's a mountain, and there is also Sorrow and Lord Spearhead). I love that the cover artist read the book (or at least a part of it!) because he depicts Hathin in a setting I can understand (once I finished the book anyways!).

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.

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 :)

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

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'