Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher – Review

Published: April 26, 2022

Publisher: Tor Books

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 256 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter—has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.

Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra’s family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

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OMG, the beginning of this book knocked my socks off! It was the absolute perfect blend of dark fantastical elements and struck me breathless with its intro to the world. We begin with our main character sitting in a pit full of discarded bones in a cursed land full of cursed people who resorted to cannibalism, where she is slowly but desperately assembling a dog from various bones. She was given this impossible task by a dust-wife, which is basically a witch with death magic, and our dear MC really needs someone to die.

Marra is the third princess in the small, yet strategically important Harbor Kingdom. She’s not really cut out for the cutthroat politics the way her mother and sisters are and since she seems to be the spare, she’s sent off to a convent. This is a relief to Marra – now she can sit and work on her textiles to her heart’s content. Eventually,  over the course of years she notices that her sister married to the prince of the Northern Kingdom is pregnant an awful lot and her sister manages to tell Marra that he’s an abusive monster. So Marra takes the only course of action she can think of and goes off to find a dust-wife of immense power to kill the prince. And thus the opening chapter ties into the story, which doesn’t stop there by a long shot. There’s still a prince to murder after all! 

I have to admit, one of the biggest selling points of this novel was the demon possessed chicken. Having not met many chickens, I can’t say if this is an accurate interpretation of the feathery fiends but I love the idea. With that being said, Marra is a wonderful main character and I wouldn’t trade her for the demonic chicken. She’s sort of in her own little world, but when her sister needs help she goes to the ends of the world (and completes 3 impossible tasks!) to save her, even if Marra does chastise herself for not acting sooner. As with many of Kingfisher’s main characters, Marra isn’t a young sword wielding ass-kicker like so many female protagonists. She has quiet strength and courage and is a bit clumsy, but darn can she wield an embroidery needle like no other!

I think this might be one of my favorites of the year because it just hit all the right notes for me. I like that it turns some standard fairytale tropes on their heads – skeletal creatures and old witchy type characters aren’t always the bad guys! Sometimes (perhaps more often than not) the wealthy, powerful princes are. I loved the darker elements and the quirky oddness that I find are T. Kingfisher’s signature style when it comes to fantasy. I’ll definitely be checking out some of her horror in the near future and I have a few more of her fantasy books on the TBR as well!