The Lie Tree

By Frances Hardinge

Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2015.

The Lie Tree is a wonderfully evocative and atmospheric novel by Frances Hardinge, award-winning author of Cuckoo Song and Fly By Night.

Faith's father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father's murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: May 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781447264118

Frances Hardinge

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 since written many highly acclaimed children's novels including, Fly By Night's sequel, Twilight Robbery, as well as the Carnegie shortlisted Cuckoo Song and the Costa Book of the Year winner, The Lie Tree.

Reviews for The Lie Tree

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Genuinely suspenseful gothic thriller with a fantastic feminist heroine battling to save her father's reputation and to carve her own path in a world unwelcoming to women. The only time the book really betrays its intentions as a young person's novel is in the neatly wrapped up ending. It's an easily forgiven flaw when there is so much good stuff to offer.

[bodachliath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't read children's books very often, but the fact that this one won the overall Costa prize, backed up by a couple of positive friend reviews here, persuaded to make an exception. The basic premise of a plant that thrives on human lies takes some swallowing, but if you accept that, it is a terrific feminist subversion of the classic adventure story genre, and a very enjoyable read.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this novel but it is hard to define what it is - fantasy? family drama? I enjoyed it a lot though.

[fromthecomfychair · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent writing. Middle school appeal, but I enjoyed it as an adult. Thought-provoking. Set in Victorian England, the women's history aspect was well covered, from corset-wearing to women's place and only source of agency.

[brittanylyn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Enthralling YA book, about a curious young girl coming of age. In a family full of secrets and taking the back burner to her brother, the protagonist takes it upon herself to learn the truth. Also love the historical feature of this book.

[kimpiddington · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Plucky heroine. A real page turner.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hardinge writes excellent gothic fantasies featuring teenage girls. I think I enjoyed The Lie Tree even more than her previous Norton nominee, Cuckoo Song. It's a dark murder mystery set on a remote island, as Faith manipulates islanders to create a harvest on her father's Lie Tree as she tries to solve his murder.

[cat3lib · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent read, unlike any children's book I have ever read. The author has an fantastic imagination and writes a story that is entertaining but not an easy read. It covers religion, superstition, moral truths, greed, family love and most importantly the understanding that the female of the species is just as intelligent as the male.

[tiffanyak_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's an interesting concept, with a clever twist. I wouldn't consider it to be a must-read title, but I thought that it included a lot of very interesting discussion points which readers may appreciate. It also might make more effective use of gender role dynamics than I've seen in a YA novel in quite some time. To that end, right when I thought it to be predictable, it'd straighten itself out and take a whole new turn, leading to a finale that captured me to the very last moment.

[scatlett-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set during the age of Darwin when Christianity's fundamental belief in the origins of man began to crumble in the minds of many scientists. I detested the way the main character loved her abusive father. Rev. Sunderly was awful and yes I understand that the tree was supposed to have twisted him, but at his core he was just mean spirited. However, Frances Hardinge has written a book that I won't forget and the plot turns were absolutely marvelous and unexpected.

[asomers_8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought the cover and the blurb on the inside cover where very misleading. It was probably a good story , but I could not get passed the fact that I felt as if I had been deceived in some way.

[billiebook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well-written mystery for the 12-14 reader that never talks down or panders to its intended audience. And, if you read much MR, you know how rare that can be.

[sennebec · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Faith is the protagonist in this blend of historical mystery and horror. She's smart in a time when women are intimidated for thinking and her superficial mother hardly cares about her except as someone to berate, or use as a nanny for her other child. When the family moves to a remote island, supposedly to allow her minister father to participate in a fossil dig, she soon realizes the scandal following him has a lot to do with it. Add in her father's murder, a strange plant he brought to the island, and a cast of adult characters who are not who they seem and you have a dark and decidedly satisfying read.