Cuckoo Song

**Cuckoo Song** is a book written by Frances Hardinge. It is her sixth novel. It was published in 2014, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It also won the 2015 Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel.

## Synopsis

*The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.

'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'*
When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.

Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late...

## Summary (needs editing)

Triss wakes up at her family's holiday home after a supposed fall in a river not remembering what happened. She is insatiably hungry and her younger sister Pen seems scared of her. Pages have been ripped out from her diary.

After a series of events, she finds out that before the accident, a deal was made with a man known as the Architect to get rid of the real Triss. However, a doll in Triss's likeness being made to come alive to replace the real girl wasn't part of the deal. Not-Triss also learns that her existence is not the only tampering done by the Architect in Triss's family.

Things get worse when Not-Triss's status as a changeling is found out. While on the run, she learns about the background behind the Architect's kind, the Besiders, who look up to him as their savior. She also befriends her late elder brother Sebastian's fiancee, Violet.

Not-Triss tries to mend Triss's broken family by defeating the Architect before she returns to her doll state.

## Characters

* Trista/Not-Triss/Triss - The 7 day doll that is created to replace the real Triss and die.
* Triss/Theresa Crescent - The fragile 11-yr-old girl that lives her life whilst often being ill.
* Pen/Penny/Penelope Crescent - The boisterous 9-yr-old sister that hates Triss, is prone to running away.
* Sebastian Crescent - Older brother, died in the first world war, sends letters and exists in a 'stopped' time.
* Celeste Crescent - Mother, prone to stress and tiredness.
* Piers Crescent - Father, the municipal archeitect of Ellchester.
* Violet Parish - Sebastian's former fiancée, rides a motorbike; her stay in one spot for a few hours or more will cause snow to fall.
* Joseph Grace - A tailor, and has a big grievance against Besiders.
* The Architect - Chief Besider, designs safe havens for the remaining Besiders, the orchestrator for the Triss-Trista swap.
* The Shrike - Second powerful Besider, the creator of Trista and other dolls created to impersonate babies, children, and adults.

## Minor Characters

* Doctor - at the Crescent family holiday home
* Margaret - Governess
* Cook - Clara Bassett
* Dr Mallows - family doctor
* The Bird-Thing
* Dot
* Doggerel
* Ben
* The Besiders
* Landlady
* Mrs Waites
* Mrs Perth
* Jack
* Jack's Family
* Charles

## Adaptation

In 2016, Catalyst Global Media optioned to adapt the book into a TV series, shown here. In December 2020, Netflix announced an adaptation of the book to be one of their new upcoming projects, with Catalyst Global Media as one of the production companies involved. The article can be read here.

Unfortunately, in July 2022, Netflix has dropped plans to adapt the book due to creative differences, as reported in this article.