A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge (review)

As an illegitimate child of the Fellmotte family, twelve-year-old Makepeace has inherited their ability to share minds and bodies with ghosts. Generations of Fellmottes have been kept "alive" this way, as one ancestor dies and pours their spirit—and the other spirits they might be holding—into one of the younger family members. Makepeace is expected to do her duty as the spare vessel when an Elder, holding seven spirits, dies, but she refuses, and Bear, the spirit of an animal that she inadvertently "collected," manages to thwart the ghostly interlopers before they crush Makepeace's mind. Soon she's fleeing across an English countryside battered by the English Civil War and trying to escape the Fellmottes, all while learning to control her ability and actively selecting the ghosts she allows to take residence in her mind. The book starts on an intensely creepy note, with Makepeace violently haunted by spirits that want to enter her, but the horrors are all in service of a more coming-of-age character arc, as Makepeace grapples with her gift/curse and what it means for her place in the world and her future. The ghosts that eventually inhabit Makepeace's mind (by her choice) make a superb secondary cast: Bear serves as the warm protector Makepeace never had; the doctor is wickedly funny; the soldier brings to the forefront the emotional toil war brings; and finally, a shadowy spirit forces her to reckon with her mother's death. The setting allows for plenty of action and intrigue, as Makepeace manipulates the Fellmottes and their Royalist leanings to her advantage. It all ends on a strange and bittersweet note, but Hardinge fans will be accustomed to that by now and will not be disappointed here. KQG