A Skinful of Shadows

By: Frances Hardinge

Narrated by: Hallie Ricardo

A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. Makepeace is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Reluctant to accept her appointed destiny as vessel for a coterie of her ancestors, she escapes. As she flees the pursuing Fellmottes across war-torn England, she accumulates a motley crew of her own allies, including outcasts, misfits, criminals, and one extremely angry dead bear.

From Costa Book of the Year winner Frances Hardinge comes a new dark historical fantasy that's sure to satisfy her leagues of fans who are eager for more.

©2017 Frances Hardinge (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Why not an Englishwoman?

It irks me that this is an English book, written by an English woman, that takes place in England but to narrator is an American putting on a mediocre English accent. Makes no sense and really takes away from the story.

Trouble with American narrator

The narrator gives it a solid effort, but her English accents just aren’t very good :( She narrates the overall story in an American accent, then tries to do the characters in varying English accents (some better than others, but none are great.) The overall effect is extremely off-putting and distracting. The publisher absolutely should have hired an English narrator. I love Frances Hardinge and own all of her books. I may need to return this audiobook and buy the ebook instead as getting through this once (with this narrator) was hard enough.

couldn't get through it

At first I thought maybe it was just the lackluster narration that was making me believe this book was no good, but the more I listened the more I realized it is just poorly written. I hope this is the author's first novel because that's what it feels like. There might've been a good story in here somewhere, but I'll never know because it was so hard to listen to. Get this author a better editor and beta readers.