#FridayFiveChallenge ~ Buy or Pass ~ The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge @rosieamber1

Rosie Amber’s Friday Five Challenge, involves taking only five minutes to choose a book cover which appeals instantly. So take a few minutes, grab yourself a coffee…..and have a browse.

This fun feature is a mini workshop. We look at book covers just from their thumbnail pictures at online selling book sites and make quick fire buying decisions. We look from a READERS Point of View and this exercise is very EYE OPENING.

From the book cover we will browse the book description, price and some of the reviews BUT we only have 5 MINUTES.

WE PLAY POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Join in and see where it leads.

Grab a coffee and spend 5 Minutes on this exercise.

Here’s the challenge

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision) blog about it, tweet it with #FridayFiveChallenge @rosieamber1 and I’ll help share.

Just as I was wondering whether to search the most anticipated releases for this weeks challenge I noticed a banner at the top of the page.. Announcing the Costa Book Award 2015 Winner.. I hadn’t noticed that before and wasn’t aware Costa did book awards. Anyway, it was worth a look and the winning book cover made an immediate impression…

Amazon UK Amazon US 

The book description reads

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 . . .

The kindle edition is £3.59/$5.18. It has 49 reviews with an average of 4.5* on the UK site and 12 reviews coming in at 4.4* in the US. It’s a young adult novel described by quite a lot of reviewers as a dark Victorian thriller, unusual, different. The one 3* review says it’s ‘good but confusing’

A 5* reviewer says…Although aimed at teens, I think this novel has a lot to offer adult readers too. The story can be interpreted on several levels. First as a Gothic fantasy adventure of a young girl caught up in her father’s quest for truth via the ‘mendacity tree’. Secondly, as commentary on the mores of male- dominated Victorian society. Thirdly, as a novel about power and it’s associated conflicts men v. women; Church v. science; good v. evil etc. etc.
Thoroughly good read no matter what your age.

I googled The Costa Book Awards, which used to be the Whitbread Literary Awards and was launched in 1971. It’s open to UK and Irish authors. There are five categories and The Lie Tree is this year’s overall winner. Frances Hardinge has several books to her credit, and from what I can see none of them have less than an overall 4*.

So, will I BUY or PASS? I’m going to PASS, although I think I’ll check out some of this authors other books.

If you’d like to enter next week’s challenge, and the more the merrier, check out Rosie’s blog to read about the Friday Five Challenge.

More Friday Five Challenge choices.

Rosie searched for Spring and found a cookery book

Barb has the results of last weeks poll 

Shelley finds a mystery in the Kindle monthly deals

Liz searched genealogical mysteries and found murder and family secrets