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Available
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Publication
Macmillan Children's Books (2009), Hardcover, 512 pages
Description
When a lie is exposed and their tribe turns against them, Hathin must find a way to save her sister Arilou--once considered the tribe's oracle--and herself.
Media reviews
There are wonderful creations here, in characters such as Jimboly, a "crowdwitch" whose speciality is stirring terrifying mobs into action. If the "blissing beetles" - which make a sound so beautiful everyone who hears it dies of pleasure - are a little too Hogwartian, then there is more than
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enough else to engulf young readers, holding them captive for the long haul. Show Less
This dense, imaginative fantasy, involving a tribe of outcasts and a landscape that seems to have a mind of its own, is distinguished, as is all of Hardinge's fiction, by her writerly precision and phrase-making: children picking up a local patois, for instance, bring it home “like mud on their
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shoes”. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member mrripley
Review by Mr Ripley
Frances Hardinge's imaginative use of words and language makes this book stand out.
The author is famous for the novel "Fly By Night" which in 2006 won the prestigious Branford Boase Award.
Frances has set this story in an imaginative fantasy world which has been cleverly
This book gets four out five a great book to buy and read and a must for all fantasy book readers.
Frances Hardinge's imaginative use of words and language makes this book stand out.
The author is famous for the novel "Fly By Night" which in 2006 won the prestigious Branford Boase Award.
Frances has set this story in an imaginative fantasy world which has been cleverly
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constructed; making it sophisticated. With amazing word building and intelligent wordplay it makes this fantasy story stand out. The words run over you like a gentle sea on a calm sunny day, making it a really good read. It has every ingredient to keep you reading - love; treachery; revenge and jealousy. As well as a strong central character all wrapped up in a light energy known as the world of Gullstruck Island.This book gets four out five a great book to buy and read and a must for all fantasy book readers.
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LibraryThing member phoebesmum
One of the best (and best-written) and most original fantasies I've read in a very long time.
LibraryThing member rivkat
Hathin is a member of the Lace, a coastal tribe distrusted by most of the other islanders—many of whom are descended from the foreign conquerors who came hundreds of years ago to dedicate most of the islands to the use of their ancestors. Now, with most of the good farmland reserved for the dead,
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farms are sneaking up the foothills of the volcanoes, but as the Lace know, the volcanoes can easily be angered. Hathin’s more immediate problem, though, is that outsiders are coming to test her sister Arilou’s abilities as one of the Lost—people with the rare ability to send their senses out of their bodies and find out important information. The Lost are the backbone of communication on the island. What no one but Hathin’s village knows is that Arilou isn’t really a Lost at all but rather is unresponsive; Hathin, who communicates for her, has just been making up her answers. When Arilou’s test goes horribly wrong, Hathin is forced onto a quest for vengeance that might involve the death of all the Lace, or worse. I’m just scratching the surface of the plot, which was incredibly engaging. The villains’ motivations ranged from understandable to frightening; the heroes were always just scraping from one risky situation to the next. The book engages with issues of colonialism and forgiveness; the hardest part to believe is that a culture would deliberately give over more and more good farmland to the dead, but then again I’ve read Jared Diamond’s Collapse and real cultures have done more self-destructive things. Very enjoyable. I will be looking for more Hardinge. Show Less
LibraryThing member francescadefreitas
This was entirely original, I've never read anything like it. While the lost have special powers, it is the powers of an entirely unspecial individual that saves her sister, her friends, and her island. Every time I thought this story was going to fall into an established pattern it turned left -
I'd give this to thoughtful fantasy readers.
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it kept me on my toes the whole read through. Solid world building, solid plot, solid character building, all making up for a great read.I'd give this to thoughtful fantasy readers.
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LibraryThing member lquilter
Loved this story of a young girl, burdened by her incomprehensibly gifted-or-confused sister, and a genocidal conspiracy. The descriptions of the sister relationship was emotionally spot-on. Absorbing, intricate world-building, and an imaginative new take on psychic powers (hard to get something
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new there). Show Less
LibraryThing member Jammies
It was with reluctance that I closed this book and left the world of Gullstruck. Ms. Hardinge combined splendid world-building with fascinating character-building. Learning about a society reliant on those of its members who can project their astral selves and what happens when that ability is gone
I hope that sometime in the future Ms. Hardinge will revisit this world--I would love to read more about it.
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was fascinating, but the story of Hathin, the central character, was even more so. Watching Hathin cope with her duties and responsibilities and then with her fears and hopes was a rich and rewarding experience. I hope that sometime in the future Ms. Hardinge will revisit this world--I would love to read more about it.
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LibraryThing member IAmChrysanthemum
Foolishly, when I was around 17 years old, I mused out loud to my friend, “I don’t know why it’s so difficult to be a successful artist. All you have to do is create something entirely new.”
Entirely new. I said this like it was as simple as tying a shoe or picking a flower. Of course,
But in The Lost Conspiracy, Hardinge fulfills my age 17 requirements for membership to the successful artist club because the story, characters, and world she creates are familiar but ultimately unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Gullstruck Island is a place where volcanoes fall in love; where certain people can detach their five senses from their bodies in order to witness events on the north of the island with their eyes while hearing a whisper on the south of the island with their ears; where individuals love their ancestors so much, they’ll gladly sacrifice arable land to expansive tombs instead. It’s also a place suffering from the effects of colonialism, a place full of internment camps for hated and distrusted tribes, a place where mass murder of a disliked tribe is acceptable. This wonderful, dark island becomes a breathing landmass with Hardinge’s fantastical prose.
When people talk in clichés about reading, they often say something like, “I read because it allows me to explore other worlds.” I agree with this statement, but The Lost Conspiracy reminded me that those worlds need not reflect our own. It reminded me that, in fact, it is better to escape to a world completely zany, entirely backwards, and not quite sane.
To accompany Frances Hardinge on more of her imaginative acid trips, I will be picking up her backlist shortly. She seems like the perfect author for a reader desiring beautiful prose, wacky plots, strong heroines, and original settings.
Entirely new. I said this like it was as simple as tying a shoe or picking a flower. Of course,
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it’s not that simple; it’s immensely difficult to be original. Just ask Nicholas Sparks and every Tom Cruise movie ever. Hey, even ask Shakespeare! But in The Lost Conspiracy, Hardinge fulfills my age 17 requirements for membership to the successful artist club because the story, characters, and world she creates are familiar but ultimately unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Gullstruck Island is a place where volcanoes fall in love; where certain people can detach their five senses from their bodies in order to witness events on the north of the island with their eyes while hearing a whisper on the south of the island with their ears; where individuals love their ancestors so much, they’ll gladly sacrifice arable land to expansive tombs instead. It’s also a place suffering from the effects of colonialism, a place full of internment camps for hated and distrusted tribes, a place where mass murder of a disliked tribe is acceptable. This wonderful, dark island becomes a breathing landmass with Hardinge’s fantastical prose.
When people talk in clichés about reading, they often say something like, “I read because it allows me to explore other worlds.” I agree with this statement, but The Lost Conspiracy reminded me that those worlds need not reflect our own. It reminded me that, in fact, it is better to escape to a world completely zany, entirely backwards, and not quite sane.
To accompany Frances Hardinge on more of her imaginative acid trips, I will be picking up her backlist shortly. She seems like the perfect author for a reader desiring beautiful prose, wacky plots, strong heroines, and original settings.
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LibraryThing member MyopicBookworm
What can I say? I was expecting a fantasy novel, not a gripping exploration of the mechanics of genocide. This is an exhilarating and excoriating tale of rivalry and revenge, treachery and faithfulness, in a context of colonialism and inter-ethnic violence. It is the nearest thing have ever
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encountered to an imaginative match for Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, placing believable if exotic characters into a setting of baroque and byzantine complexity. It probes the reasonableness and irrationality of evil, the subtle truths and untruths of myth and unquestioned tradition, in a subtropical and volcanic world whose splintered facets seem to reflect a nightmare vision of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The book is stunning. MB 13-viii-2021 Show Less
LibraryThing member edspicer
Hardinge, Frances. (2009). The Lost Conspiracy. New York: HarperCollins/Harper. 568 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-088041-5 (Hardcover); $16.99.
While this book is not eligible for the Newbery medal because the author is not a U.S. citizen or resident, it should be eligible! Originally published by Macmillan
While this book is not eligible for the Newbery medal because the author is not a U.S. citizen or resident, it should be eligible! Originally published by Macmillan
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Children’s Books in England (as Gullstruck Island) in 2009, it comes to us in the United States in the same year, which indicates to me that Harper believes this book is too good for Americans to wait for the typical year or more for U.S. editions to be published. They are correct and it is too bad that the Newbery requirements cannot find a way to include books like this one. While this book is not eligible to win the Newbery, it is eligible for the Printz award. While accessible to younger readers, The Lost Conspiracy is equally for older readers and will certainly be in that core group of books from which the Printz committee selects its winners. When Arilou is to be tested to determine whether or not she is one of the Lost, Hathin must discover a way to protect their island’s secret, lest they all be destroyed. The Lost are a select group of people who have the ability to travel outside of their bodies, which they do to discover information vital to the security of the community. Gullstruck Island, on which these two sisters live, is home to the Lace, a people characterized by their sharp teeth and perpetual smiles. The inspector who will test Arilou to see whether she is able to travel outside her body is murdered, along with all of the other Lost except Arilou, who becomes the chief suspect. She also becomes a target for those who would abuse her skills for their own selfish purposes. The sisters are on a mission to protect their secret: Arilou does not seem to have the traditional skills of the Lost. Gullstruck Island is both protected by Arilou’s “Lost” status and a target for possibly possessing those very same skills. This novel is filled with layer upon layer of well-written fantasy. It has direct applications to historical and current social/political issues, including an excellent examination of colonialism that asks questions that would be equally appropriate to ask of our own government as we seek to find solutions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story, however, remains supreme and readers simply looking for adventure will turn page after burning page. Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
It took me a long time, a very long time indeed to get into the start of this book, but when I did I was quite happy with the story. In the village of the Hollow Beasts there are two sisters, Arilou the Lost and Hathin her helper. In this world there are people who can leave their bodies and look
When suddenly all the lost are dead, except Arilou, she's now on a race to save her life, or rather Hathin is, Arilou doesn't have a very strong hold on reality!
It's interesting but somehow didn't quite catch my attention, if it had been the first Frances Hardinge book I had read I'm not sure I'd have looked for others.
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elsewhere and they are called the Lost.When suddenly all the lost are dead, except Arilou, she's now on a race to save her life, or rather Hathin is, Arilou doesn't have a very strong hold on reality!
It's interesting but somehow didn't quite catch my attention, if it had been the first Frances Hardinge book I had read I'm not sure I'd have looked for others.
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LibraryThing member sgranier
Booktalk: In this fantasy novel, sisters Arilou and Haithin are bound together in a unique symbiotic relationship; they need one another. You see, Arilou is a Lost, meaning one that is capable of sending her senses, (sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell) away from her body. Arilou's ability to
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send her sight out to sea or over the land to see any danger coming toward their village is quite valuable to the villagers. But since she only speaks gibberish, Haithin is needed as her translator. When two Lost elders come to Arilou's village to test her powers, one mysteriously dies and the other is caught in a storm on the sea and presumed drowned. In retribution for those deaths, Haithin's village is destroyed along with most of the residents, although Haithin and Arilou escape. Because Arilou is considered responsible for the deaths of the Lost elders, Haithin must protect her seemingly mentally disabled Arilou on their clandestine and urgent journey to the capital to discover the real culprits of The Lost Conspiracy. Show Less
LibraryThing member bunwat
I really enjoyed this. The world building was terrific, and I liked the protagonist. The prose was lovely too. When I was reading the afterword the author said someting about how the germ of the book came from an encounter with a young girl on a forest path in Cambodia, and I was temporarily
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overcome by jealousy that the author got to travel through Cambodia, but I'm not going to hold it against the book, which was great fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member alyson
This would make a great book for an adult book club. Great story but also so much to think about, discuss...Definitely one of those YA books that should be pushed to adults also. Listen to Melissa D and READ THIS BOOK!
LibraryThing member atreic
So, three books in and I'm still addicted to Francis Hardinge. There is definitely an overarching theme - complex female characters have Adventures and learn about themselves - but they all feel very fresh and different too.
The main thing that is different about this one is how dark it is. The
I mean, it was riveting and I couldn't put it down, but it wasn't exactly cheerful. And I like my fiction pretty dark. Luckily this is a book where by the end, forgiveness is shown to be better than revenge, the bad guys are defeated and the good guys win. But oh, it's a rocky road, including forced labour camps and volcanic eruptions, to get there.
The story of Arilou is told so skilfully. I was constantly torn trying to work out if she was Lost or an imbicile, and oh, Hathin's love and devotion but painful frustration throughout is spot on. When they reach the village of the Sours, and Hathin realises that for all the years she's been tending on Arilou, Arilou has been here loving these people instead, and they don't even know who she is, it's heartrending.
It's a book about oppressed people, about colonial settlers coming in and taking over an island with their ways and their rules and their traditions. It's a book about the evils of letting fear of people different to you grow so easily into hideous crimes against them. But it's also a book about the evils of just wanting to sort things out, tidy things up and make them better growing so easily into hideous crimes.
It's a fine balance, between writing a book that is good, because it focusses on other races and cultures and isn't just about white people doing white people things, and writing a book with problems of 'look at the funny foreign people', with all the exoticising and orientalism. I'm not the right person to judge, but it is written with a lot of sympathy.
It felt to me that one of the themes of the book was that the settler's superstitions, using up good farmland and time and energy on the tombs of the dead, was shown as a thing they had to grow out of. On the other hand, the Lace superstitions around the volcanoes were shown to be important things that people ignored at their peril. It's ambiguously written, but I think the easiest reading is that the volcanoes' power (as personified gods) is real in this world, with the gift to Sorrow and Crackgem saving them. Anyway, odd to get both stories around each other - almost 'powerful white men, stop wasting your time on stupid superstitions, but be much more respectful of other people's superstitions'
Anyway, it's an awesome story, with people who can fly their minds wherever they want to, exploding volcanoes, murder, a club of tattooed revengers, riots, escapes from forced work camps, underwater caves, and a fabulous heroine. Still addicted to Francis Hardinge!
The main thing that is different about this one is how dark it is. The
Show More
start of the story finds the village of our hero, Hathin, engaged in a village wide fraud to pass off Hathin's sister Arilou as one of the islands skilled leaders, the Lost, who can send their mind far from their bodies, when in fact she is just muttering nonsense words and Hathin is making up the translations. They are in a precarious situation, and Hathin is a young girl who is doing what she's told, but the premise is ikky and deceitful, and they are prepared to kill to keep their secrets. This is dark enough, but then all the Lost die, the entire village is massacred, and Hathin finds herself joining the Revengers.I mean, it was riveting and I couldn't put it down, but it wasn't exactly cheerful. And I like my fiction pretty dark. Luckily this is a book where by the end, forgiveness is shown to be better than revenge, the bad guys are defeated and the good guys win. But oh, it's a rocky road, including forced labour camps and volcanic eruptions, to get there.
The story of Arilou is told so skilfully. I was constantly torn trying to work out if she was Lost or an imbicile, and oh, Hathin's love and devotion but painful frustration throughout is spot on. When they reach the village of the Sours, and Hathin realises that for all the years she's been tending on Arilou, Arilou has been here loving these people instead, and they don't even know who she is, it's heartrending.
It's a book about oppressed people, about colonial settlers coming in and taking over an island with their ways and their rules and their traditions. It's a book about the evils of letting fear of people different to you grow so easily into hideous crimes against them. But it's also a book about the evils of just wanting to sort things out, tidy things up and make them better growing so easily into hideous crimes.
It's a fine balance, between writing a book that is good, because it focusses on other races and cultures and isn't just about white people doing white people things, and writing a book with problems of 'look at the funny foreign people', with all the exoticising and orientalism. I'm not the right person to judge, but it is written with a lot of sympathy.
It felt to me that one of the themes of the book was that the settler's superstitions, using up good farmland and time and energy on the tombs of the dead, was shown as a thing they had to grow out of. On the other hand, the Lace superstitions around the volcanoes were shown to be important things that people ignored at their peril. It's ambiguously written, but I think the easiest reading is that the volcanoes' power (as personified gods) is real in this world, with the gift to Sorrow and Crackgem saving them. Anyway, odd to get both stories around each other - almost 'powerful white men, stop wasting your time on stupid superstitions, but be much more respectful of other people's superstitions'
Anyway, it's an awesome story, with people who can fly their minds wherever they want to, exploding volcanoes, murder, a club of tattooed revengers, riots, escapes from forced work camps, underwater caves, and a fabulous heroine. Still addicted to Francis Hardinge!
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LibraryThing member Ilirwen
This book was fantastic. Again, like the first book I read by Frances Hardinge - Well Witched/Verdigris Deep - I felt it was very dark, for a children's book. The world is different than anything I could have imagined. Generally, I'd say this kind of world isn't really my thing, but in this case,
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it worked out great. The language was absolutely amazing. Extremely well written. The characters are all excepionally well depicted, especially the main character Hathin. I loved this book and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes well written books with strong likeable characters. Show Less
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Young Adult Literature — 2009)
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (2009)
Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing (Nominee — 2010)
Locus Recommended Reading (Young Adult Book — 2009)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2010)
Language
Original publication date
2009
Physical description
512 p.; 7.87 inches
ISBN
1405055383 / 9781405055383
Local notes
On Gullstruck Island the volcanoes quarrel, beetles sing danger and occasionally a Lost is born. Arilou is a Lost - a child with the power to depart her body and mind-fly with the winds - and her sister Hathin is her helper. Together they hide a dangerous secret.
Also published as The Lost Conspiracy.
Signed by the author, lined, and doodled with a dancing gull. Numbered 1 of 1.
Also published as The Lost Conspiracy.
Signed by the author, lined, and doodled with a dancing gull. Numbered 1 of 1.