REVIEW: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind
Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.
Not to die, but to save— seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.
But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.
Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.
Or it might be the thing that kills them all.
CW/TW – child in danger, death of a child
Dear Ms. Kingfisher,
I have to be honest and admit that there were frustrating times with this book. Times when I got lost in trying to picture or figure out the details of the setting or the plot. It was like looking into a funhouse mirror that fractures endlessly and you’re not sure where it ends or what is real. The set up takes a while to be laid out which causes the action to slow but as the full horror comes into focus, I was hooked. The romance and the ‘uh’ were sweet, too.
Healer Anja is mostly a delight. She’s an older, mid-thirties broad shouldered, barrel curved stomach of a woman who is straightforward and direct with a passion for scientific methodology and who does not have a maternal bone in her body. The death of a cousin changed her life and propelled her into a career of finding antidotes for poisons. Saint Adder is her patron (instead of Rabbit, Bird, Fish, Sheep, or Toad) and she keeps a chime-adder, something that skeeves people out, for a potion she’s developed to reverse the effects of a poison. Now the king needs her to figure out what is wrong with his twelve year old daughter. Before that answer is found, Anja will discover things she never knew she never knew.
The first third of the book is us learning about Anja and her world and that slows the kickoff of the plot. She isn’t really a healer per se though people arrive at her wealthy merchant father’s house asking for miracles from her. Instead she’s spent twenty years seeking antidotes, testing poisons and venoms on herself in an effort to discover how to counteract the things people just will get into.
(And FYI, several of the poisons she tries to find remedies for still don’t have them IRL.)
When the king “asks” her to journey to the remote villa where he’s had his daughter moved to try and get her away from a clever poisoner, Anja knows she really doesn’t have a choice. She does try to protect herself and her family from retribution should she not be able to save the princess but the king, who is a surprisingly good sort, knows he’s asking for one of the above mentioned miracles.
After they finally arrive at the villa, Anja is stumped. Little things clue her in that not all is as it seems and someone knows more about the situation than Anja would have thought. The princess is in a desperate condition and Anja also knows that even if she can get to the bottom of who/what/where/when/why, Princess Snow still might not survive.
Then, while carrying the princess’s snarly one eyed cat, Something Happens that turns Anja’s world upside down. Or inside out. Well, anyway everything Anja thought she knew isn’t enough to explain this. As Anja delves into this, mysteries and explanations are everywhere but reading all this and trying to comprehend it while picturing it in my mind made my head hurt a little. There are some aspects I’m still making a >puzzled face< about.
From early in the book, two guards have been assigned to Anja, much to her dismay because she’s a healer. No one would want to hurt her, right? Oh, right if the poisoner realizes what Anja is tasked to do, maybe that would be a danger. Anyway, I pinned my beady romance eyes on one of them and, yes!, guessed correctly. These two are charming as they misunderstand each other’s feelings but then both have reasons for never having delved into romance before. But when you can translate a man’s grunts and that man charges at that to protect you, you can be fairly sure his feelings are more than “this is my job.”
One thing I know, any Kingfisher book-world will be grounded. Things might be wild and weird but they will also make internal sense and the littlest details have been thought out. The world building is also mostly doled out rather than everything being dumped at once.
This is a take on “Snow White” but expect a few – sometimes disturbing – changes along the way. Saint Sheep’s shit but those mirror-gelds were creepy to think about. “No. No that is not right. That should not be a thing that happens.” Remember, mirrors are strange. Some things are not dead but also not awake. Also that Anja is devoted to science so it might take her a while to accept that some things can’t be explained by science. Only read this spoiler if you want something amazing spoiled for you. Seriously.
Spoiler: Show
Enjoy. B
~Jayne
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I loved the Saint of Steel series by Kingfisher. Horror is not usually my thing but I’m willing to give it a try.
@Variel: If you’re okay with the Saint of Steel series, you should probably be okay with this book.
I’m trying to decide if I buy this one or wait for my library, which has it on order. I’m also a big fan of the Saints of Steel. I liked Nettle & Bone but struggled with parts of A Sorceress Comes to Call. I should probably just wait for the library but I will definitely be reading it.
@Misti: If you struggled with “Sorceress” I would honestly wait and see if you can snag a library copy.
@Jayne: thanks, I’ll wait for a library copy. I won’t feel bad about DNFing a borrowed book if it comes to that.
This is probably the first T. Kingfisher book that hasn’t wowed me. It took too long for the plot to get moving, and the romance was lackluster. I wanted things to end on a more promising note for a major secondary character and I thought her trauma was glossed over. The was pretty awesome though.
@SusanS: Whoops, the Amazing Spoiler was pretty awesome though.
@SusanS: Yes, it is an Amazing Spoiler! Though this currently seems to be almost a routine thing in Sci-fi/Fantasy novels.
@SusanS: My reference to things not kicking off immediately is perhaps too oblique. I’m going to edit that. Maybe the major secondary character might have a future story. That’s me hoping.
I love this author but like some of her books better than others for me. This was neither my most or least favorite book. I liked that the fmc was an older, non beautiful woman whose skills were hard won. I like that there were several strong female characters and I liked that you could envision a “real” happily ever after for the romantic partners, even if I didn’t quite get the chemistry. My main concern might be a spoiler
But a major part of the plot reminded me of a popular tv series and that pulled me out of the book several times
Interestingly I liked the story of the real grayling at the end very much.
I’m pretty happy to try most anything that T. Kingfisher writes, even if horror is not usually my bag.
This is currently on sale for $2.99