I think at this point I’ve read everything T. Kingfisher has published (the full-length novels at least, I think there’s still a few short stories I’ve yet to make it through). My favourite is probably Paladin’s Grace, but even the books I liked less (What Moves the Dead) I still liked. Therefore, I’ve been eagerly awaiting any of her new releases. I was lucky enough to recently be allowed to access an ARC (obligatory this hasn’t affected the contents of my review!) for one of her upcoming novels, Hemlock & Silver, releasing in August.
This is a sort-of Snow White retelling, where instead of focusing on Snow White herself, we follow poison-expert Anja as she is summoned by the King to heal the mysterious ailment of his teenaged daughter, Snow, after the death of her mother the Queen. When she arrives at the estate where Snow is living, she conducts a thorough investigation into what might be poisoning the princess, and encounters some strange happenings related to the mirrors placed in her rooms.
Anja is a delight. I’ve mentioned before that I find there’s a lack of interesting older women characters in fantasy novels, but Kingfisher is an author I can always rely on for that (and while they share some similarities, they’re all distinctly different too, not carbon copies of basically the same woman in every book). She’s smart, but sort of awkward, and her tendency to blurt out random facts at inappropriate times is very funny. The setting as well was very interesting—instead of the basic vaguely-central-European-foresty region that seems to be the default setting for most fairytale-inspired stories, instead we get a desert region with flora and fauna reminiscent of the American Southwest (which provides a lot of information for the poisons that Anja works with).
I tend to sort Kingfisher’s books into three categories: horror, romantic-focused fantasy, and fairytale retellings. This is probably the first book of hers that I have trouble fitting neatly into one category as it’s a really good blend of all of the elements that I love about her other books.