(SFF Bingo): Unraveller, by Frances Hardinge

J had lots of good things to say about this one and cahn gave it a thumbs-up too, and I wasn't running across much YA on my own, so onto the bingo list it goes.

"Unraveller" is set in the realm of Raddith, where humans live alongside creatures of "the Wilds." There's a lot of "be very careful with the exact language of your bargains" when dealing with nonhuman beings, and this principle has carried over into the foundation of their government system--the most important power isn't monarchy or democracy, but precise contracts and treaties. Some humans have been granted the power to curse others, and curses often result in shapeshifting/change of forms, which leads to bizarre situations such as "During his year as a boat, he had witnessed a host of other rules infringements."

Fortunately, our hero, Kellen, has the gift of "unravelling"--he can break curses, given access to enough particulars about the curser's means and motivations. The other protagonist, Nettle, and her siblings were cursed by their evil stepmother and turned into birds; Kellen unravelled the curse, and Nettle is now human again, but her brother, Yannick, has chosen to stay a gull. When Yannick and Nettle are close, they can communicate telepathically. The details of shapeshifting, like Nettle having to get used to walking again, and Yannick's reluctance to leave the sky together with his utility as a scout/mail carrier/secret weapon (he complains about it but he deeply appreciates staying close to Nettle), were all reminiscent of the nothlits from Animorphs--and if you know how much I love Animorphs, you know that's very high praise.

Kellen got his gifts by being bitten by a "Little Brother," a magical spider-like creature that passed his powers to him as it died. Yes, he was exposed to a magic spider and gained powers. It's fantasy Luddite Spider-Man. (If you have a spider squick, you probably want to avoid this one, there are lots of descriptions of spiders.)

When I say fantasy Luddites, by the way, I don't just mean "people who dislike technology"--Kellen's family and hometown are literally trying to destroy the looms that undercut individual weavers' trades. Similarly, the existence of "bicycle rickshaws, cycle sedans, pedal-coaches, and tandems" on bridge roads built above the magical forests was a neat depiction of the tech level and mix of technology and magic that exist here.

Unfortunately, while Kellen has superpowers, he is also a fifteen-year-old boy with a temper, so he often spends time getting on the authorities' bad side and needing to be bailed out. The plot is a bit episodic in terms of "go to point A, deal with miniquest 1, find clue that leads you to point B, deal with miniquest 2," and so on; it's also one of those plots that could be elided somewhat if the characters just communicated better with each other (although, again, they are all dealing with their own trauma and/or underdeveloped frontal lobes). But I enjoyed the mystery and puzzle-solving aspects; in terms of being able to reason though "okay, realistically there are only so many viable suspects in this scene, who can it be," I found it satisfying (but maybe because it's "only" YA so I don't have to be "really perceptive" to make the right deductions, idk). And the twist of why a small village is surprisingly chill about the bog witch that's been haunting the woods for thirty years was impressive!

The Deep Wilds follow some of the same rules for human-nonhuman communication as the realm of the Finn in Wheel of Time: "Don’t carry iron. Don’t harm the trees or break the soil without their permission. And bring a gift, in case you’re asked for one." Magical beings hate technology like iron! There's also a "market" reminiscent of the one in Neverwhere, which has similar rules:

I beg your pardon. Kellen had always thought of it as an apology, but it was actually a request. The man had asked for Kellen’s pardon—his forgiveness—and Kellen had almost given it without thinking. What would have happened if he had? Would this man have taken his forgiveness away, leaving Kellen unable to forgive ever again?

The ending felt a little cheap, in particular, there's a part that relies on the villain making a Humperdinck-level blunder of rushing to "say man and wife!" without waiting for Buttercup to say "I do," rather than anything the heroes do succeeding.

Also, one of the points the narrative is trying to make is that "people who have been through abusive/traumatic experiences need more than healing/rescuing in the moment, they need long term support to recover and shouldn't expect their trajectory to be perfectly linear. There will be bumps in the road and you shouldn't compare yourself to others because you don't know what they're going through." All true. I don't agree that this support needs to come from the same person who provides the initial healing/rescuing in the moment. The story seems to be saying "Kellen's unravelling power isn't enough, he also has to have all these social skills too," and like...if you ask me, his anger issues aren't because he needs to be the #1 empathetic counselor, maybe he has anger issues because he's a fifteen-year-old boy with an underdeveloped frontal lobe.

Bingo: I picked it up looking for Young Adult; it also fits for Title with a Title. Another Coastal setting, with lots of marshes and seafaring (specifically in the second half of the book, the first half is more inland forests and highlands). The descriptions of trees growing out of the wetlands called to mind "Where the Crawdads Sing," which had lovely scenery but was not a good film. Also, queernorm: there's a married m/m couple, one of whom saves his husband's life in an extremely tropey but adorable way.