Review: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

A dark and compelling fantasy about sisterhood, impossible tasks and the price of power, from award-winning author T. Kingfisher

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.

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for a while waiting for me to finally pick it up to read and oh how I regret not reading it right away when I bought it. Why is this always the case? But anyways, I’m really glad to have finally read it because I had such a great time with it and only read it in a couple of hours. I couldn’t put it down, I was so hooked!

This was my second T. Kingfisher book. The first one was What Moves the Dead (a retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher) which I ended up really liking but I must say that I enjoyed Nettle and Bone even more. I loved the fairy tale espect of the story and though it was often dark there was also a certain lightness to the story too with some hilarious antics happening. It was perfectly balanced in that way.

Princess Marra is on a mission to save her sister who’s married to an abusive and awful prince. On her journey she’s joined by the dust-wife who is a gravewitch that can talk to the death. Fenris, a handsome former knight that Marra and the dust-wife rescued and last but not least Agnes, a fairy godmother who might be more skilled in cursed than blessings. What can go wrong, right? Oh and there’s also a dog made out of bones and a demon chicken. Fun times!

I really loved this cast of characters. They were all so different from one another but yet they came together as a team for this quest that Marra had. My favorite character was Agnes because she was just so quirky and fun. I instantly loved her. There was also a little romance going on between Marra and Fenris which was just adorable to see happening.

Overall, Nettle and Bone was a fun and dark fairy tale full of lovely and peculiar characters. Obviously I adored it and would highly recommend the story.

About the author:

T. Kingfisher, also known as Ursula Vernon, is the author and illustrator of many projects, including the webcomic “Digger,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story and the Mythopoeic Award. Her novelette “The Tomato Thief” won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and her short story “Jackalope Wives” won the Nebula Award for Best Story. She is also the author of the bestselling Dragonbreath, and the Hamster Princess series of books for children. Find her online at RedWombatStudio.com.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads