Mysterious, Dark, Vengeful: The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

TRUTH: If you feed the Lie Tree with lies, its fruit will reveal secret truths.

 

 LIE: ‘My father’s ghost walks, seeking revenge on those who wronged him.’ (Faith Sunderly, The Lie Tree, by Frances Hardinge)

 

TRUTH: Faith uses the Lie Tree to spread lies around the community to force her father’s murderer into the open.

 

The Avengers Teen Reading group met on 7th June 2016 to discuss 'The Lie Tree' by Frances Hardinge. Everyone said that the book was different to anything they had ever read as it was set in the Victorian era with a 14 year old female protagonist who defies Victorian conventions about women's role in society. The group was able to empathise with this young girl, Faith Sunderly, who aspires to become a natural scientist when she grows up. They were all impressed with Faith's strong character, intelligence as well as her determination to find her father's killers and prove to her community that her father did not commit suicide. Most of the group members did not rate the book highly because it was slow to begin with and there were elements of the plot that was unnecessarily complicated. All of the group members enjoyed the supernatural element of the Lie Tree: the plant survived in a dark, damp environment and if you fed the tree with lies then it would produce fruits, which, when eaten would divulge truths through halucinations. One person said they found this element of the book creepy and someone else said that they would be more spooked if the book was turned into a film.

 

The Avengers Teen Reading Group members produced their review of 'The Lie Tree' by Frances Hardinge, which are displayed in the Young Adult section of the library. They also enjoyed making a model of the Lie Tree by using elements of the natural environment: branches, twigs and pebbles with each leaf scripted with a 'truth' or 'lie' from the book.