The Lie Tree
#6573.84 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2015 Reading commitment Low Frances Hardinge Last reviewed 2026-09-28
Overview
Frances Hardinge's 2015 Victorian-era historical fantasy, winner of the Costa Book of the Year, follows fourteen-year-old Faith Sunderly, outwardly a proper young lady and inwardly consumed by curiosity, whose naturalist father moves the family to the remote island of Vane to escape a scandal and is soon found dead. Certain he was murdered, Faith discovers the strange tree he kept hidden, which bears fruit only when fed a lie and whose fruit reveals hidden truths, and begins to use it to hunt his killer. A separate story from Hardinge's other universes in this canon.
Historical fantasy, Dark fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Lie Tree (2015) core · 3.84 (28,125 ratings); Victorian-era historical fantasy on the fictional island of Vane. A separate world from Hardinge's Cuckoo Song and Fly By Night; no shared setting or characters.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Lie Tree? The Lie Tree's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Lie Tree finished? Complete (2015).
- How much reading does The Lie Tree take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~413 pages).
- How is The Lie Tree ranked? #657 in this site's official ranking, based on 28,125 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #657?
Ranked #657 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.84 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (28,125 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #656, Solomon Kane (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 1 book · Complete · 28k ratings · Ranks #657 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment historical fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Costa Book Awards (Book of the Year), 2015: won: The Lie Tree
- Costa Book Awards (Children's Book Award), 2015: won: The Lie Tree
- Carnegie Medal, 2016: finalist: The Lie Tree; Shortlisted.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what The Lie Tree and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Cuckoo Song Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.96
- Krabat Mythic fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.91
- Plain Kate Dark fantasy / Historical fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.76
- Gallant Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.70
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.84 across 28,125 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: The Lie Tree (Frances Hardinge) accepted 2026-09-28
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-09-28
Rule: Core Canon = The Lie Tree (2015) only, standalone.