#BookReview ‘Nettle And Bone’ by T.Kingfisher

About the book…

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.

HUGEST of thanks to the wonderful Sarah at Titan for my gifted review copy (and secret spell!) of ‘‘Nettle And Bone’ which is available now from all good bookshops!

Who could not love a book which begins, with a girl, crouched in a charnel pit, wiring bones together to make a dog? Her hands ruined from nettle burns and scalds, she sits there painstakingly putting together carefully selected pieces , fused with magic , which comes to life.

Hiding from something, she is clearly on a quest and once you are hooked you are in this story for the long run.

Fairy tales and myths are endlessly rejigged with modern twists to them to make them new again, reviving them rather like Bonedog, yet here some  alchemical sorcery makes old tunes rise through a very new lens.

Here, Marra is the princess sent to an abbess after her two older sisters are married, one after the other, in a political allegiance which should serve to keep their tiny harbour kingdom safe. An alliance with the North should be enough to prevent the armies of the South invading and also the Northern alliance will mean they have an heir on the harbour kingdom throne.

Once sent away, Marra’s favourite sister is only heard of again when she mysteriously dies. Her next sister down, Kania, is sent, and Marra is put away in a nunnery, her parents seeking to either preserve her or make her undesirable. As she is is the plainest and most homely of the sisters, everyone duly forgets about her and she marvels at how a nun has a freedom that a princess does not.

Attending the birth of her niece,her experience gained from birthing local women with the Abbess, Kania whispers to Marra to keep herself hidden and keep herself safe. Reeling from the shock of seeing what Kania is going through and with a suspicion that her marriage is not a good one, Marra recognises that the only one to save her and her sisters will be herself.

Consulting a dust witch, a graveyard woman who speaks to the dead and keeps their secrets, Marra embarks on an epic quest firstly, to complete 3 impossible tasks and then, with a motley crew in tow, she sets out to reclaim her kingdom and her sister as time is running out. As soon as Kania has a male heir, her usefulness will be over and unless she wants to join an ante room in the death palace, underneath the Northern Palace, Marra needs to act swiftly.

This is a tale of feminine power and restoring to these young women their place in the world, rather than seeing themselves as others do-brood mares for vain and cruel princes. The godmothers who place curses or blessing (the only difference is in the experience of the beholder) throw an interesting twist on their traditionally held places in fairy tales.

Goblin markets where heron masked toothdancers take you teeth , alchemists which will sell you glamours for the price  of days off your life, a cursed (or blessed ) chick who takes them to safe lodgings (in the boarding house of a woman possessed by a cursed wooden puppet) are all immensely startling and satisfying images which spring easily to life in the mind of this reader.

Ultimately, it is a novel of seizing your own fortune and making a life for yourself as well as the rude awakening that your parents are human, do not have all the answers, and sometimes, doing the best you can includes saving thousands of lives by sacrificing the health of your daughters in the hope their sharp and keen intelligence will see them through. The lack of perfection and presence of flaws in each and every person who walks through these pages gives it a relevance often overlooked in fantasy for the big action and adventure scenes.

A quest is no good without a protagonist on a noble journey, and a reader willing to go with them.

And in Nettle and Bone, this reader was happy to travel alongside Marra, Finder the chick, the unnamed demon possessed hen, a godmother, a fallen knight, and dust witch to the very end of their path.

About the author…