Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2022
256 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
From Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an original and subversive fantasy adventure.
This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.
It's the one where she kills him.
Marra never wanted to be a hero.
As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn't so fortunate―and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.
Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:
―build a dog of bones
―sew a cloak of nettles
―capture moonlight in a jar
But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.
Hero or not―now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar―Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.
"[A] darkly funny feminist fairy tale...The plot snaps along as quickly as a good joke, and beneath the whimsy, there's an underlying sympathy and sincerity that enables Kingfisher to handle tricky issues like domestic violence with great compassion and care. At its heart a story of good people doing their best to make the unjust world a fairer place, this marvelous romp will delight Kingfisher's fans and fairy tale lovers alike." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Blending fairy-tale familiarity and common-sense characters, Kingfisher's prose balances grim circumstances with humor and heart. Readers of Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered and Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood series should pick this up immediately." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Nettle & Bone leans into the macabre and evokes the Grimm-est of stories...Highly recommended for fans of fractured fables like Naomi Novik's Uprooted (2015) and Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread (2019)." - Booklist (starred review)
"This book is so exciting, deeply wise, sad, brutal and compassionate all at once. And beautifully written, with a plot as cunning as fine embroidery...When I finished I could hardly bear to tear myself away from this eerie, vivid world, with its struggling, flawed, wonderful characters." - Catriona Ward, author of Last House on Needless Street
"Nettle & Bone brings Kingfisher's signature honesty and authenticity to a fairy tale setting―the result is refreshing, earnest but not naive, and deeply satisfying. I devoured it. This is one that's going to stay with me for a long time." - Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars
This information about Nettle & Bone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo Credit: JR Blackwell
T. Kingfisher (she/her) writes fantasy, horror, and occasional oddities, including Nettle & Bone, What Moves the Dead, and A House with Good Bones. Under a pen name, she also writes bestselling children's books. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, dogs, and chickens who may or may not be possessed.
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