Nettle & Bone

Hardcover, 256 pages

English language

Published April 26, 2022 by Tor Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-1-250-24404-8
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(79 reviews)

Marra — a shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter — is relieved not to be married off for the sake of her parents’ throne. Her older sister wasn’t so fortunate though, and her royal husband is as abusive as he is powerful. From the safety of the convent, Marra wonders who will come to her sister’s rescue and put a stop to this. But after years of watching their families and kingdoms pretend all is well, Marra realizes if any hero is coming, it will have to be Marra herself.

If Marra can complete three impossible tasks, a witch will grant her the tools she needs. But, as is the way in stories of princes and the impossible, these tasks are only the beginning of Marra’s strange and enchanting journey to save her sister and topple a throne.

6 editions

An empowering fairy tale

This book is one of my comfort reads, the audiobook read by Amara Jasper is excellent. The book itself is full of characters that are well developed and likeable, with the evil prince being a character who is the embodiment of toxic masculinity - most people, I think, have run across someone like this. It does include some really dark subjects, so why do I say it's a comfort read? Because even though it's a fairy tale, even though these subjects are dark, they are real things that happen to real people, and yet, as is so often the case with well written characters, because they care for their goal, which is love for another person, they face these things. There is also no sugar coating, no toxic positivity. In that, there is a sense that we, too - we real people - can do the same, when facing terrible …

Two old women, a dead dog, a princess, and a soldier

Sometimes the book you need comes along unexpectedly. This one had been in my to-read list for quite a while, and so I finally decided to pick it up, knowing I love Kingfisher's writing but not knowing what to expect from this particular book.

I loved every moment of it, and already want to read it again. I heartily recommend it.

Review of 'Nettle & Bone' on 'Goodreads'

So it is not a tightly wound intricate world, and it falls short of being a fantasy masterpiece, but nonetheless twas a damn fun book. The characters and atmosphere are riveting. The first page is hook- line- sinker -read -this- book -in- a -day good. Dust wives? YES. Bone dogs? Gothtastic! Our lady of the Grackles? How do I join, hell yes!
I liked the Twisted Ones as well, and was impressed with how easily she slipped into the fantasy genre. What works is the grip, the imagination, the lovely horror that casts shadows without banging your head against a wall of horrific violence. I feel like she could go deeper, more back stories, maybe a 700 pager, but perhaps this is not the mode in publishing now. However, I am definitely a fan now.

Review of 'Nettle & Bone' on 'Goodreads'

It's a fantastic depiction (as far as a man can tell) of the hardships women face. It's not a new topic, but it's so well done here that it still feels fresh and makes the whole book. We see a lot of woman characters, and each of them is a whole story. They end up very different (and all extremely likable) as they handle their challenges differently.

Or maybe I'm wrong about this? We don't learn anything about the past of the dust-wife or Agnes. We only see Marra's mother and Kania from a distance. I still feel like I know their story. This is the magic of brilliant characterization.

The writing is beautifully crafted. The dialogs are all amazing. Every line feels completely unpredictable and yet spot-on for the character. The pacing is great. Every little bit of detail is used in some way to say something interesting. For …

reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone

I really enjoyed this fantasy slash fairy tale quest story about a youngest daughter working to try to free her elder sister from abuse. It has fresh worldbuilding, many characters with depth, multiple older women characters, and ultimately a story about working together to free people from powerful and abusive men.

I think the weakest part of the book was the romance angle for me. It was cute, but I felt like I was missing some extra characterization about "why these two" other than just romance-through-proximity. This was all a bit of a surprise for me, as I quite enjoyed the various T. Kingfisher sad paladin romances. (One could make a good argument that Fenris may as well also be yet another sad paladin, which doesn't help here either.)

That said, I feel like the romance was an exceptionally small part of the book (arguably much smaller than other books …

None

Kania was hostage to the prince. Marra’s future children, if any, were hostage to Kania’s fertility.


Pretty sure this is the scariest book I've ever read by T. Kingfisher, and that has nothing to do with all the spooky parts of the worldbuilding. It's all about the situation at the heart of the plot. Marra's sister stuck in that awful abusive marriage; their mother impassively watching and letting it happen because politics; the implication that plenty of nobles, guards, and servants in the Northern Castle were quite aware of what was happening, were all right with it, and Kania's happy ending involves staying among them and working to be seen as someone as ruthless as her husband... I don't know. All of that just sent chills down my spine. Especially that happy ending. Because while the quest is successfully finished, Kania is saved, and the bad guy's gone, nothing has …

Another Effortless Genre Shuffle from Kingfisher

At this point I know what I'm getting into every time I open up a T. Kingfisher book, whether it's horror, fantasy or romance - and most of her books have all three, mixed at different distillations. The writing will be breezy, the plot will both be interesting and turn in directions that you wouldn't expect, the characterizations will be unique and not standard cardboard cutouts (well, her male love interests tend to be big noble depressed guys, but they're all well written). "Nettle & Bone" hits all of these - a fun read that conceals depth and absolutely wrenching moments. My only complaint is that I wish it didn't move so fast - that there was a bit more room to breathe. But across the board I'm always so excited to read new stuff from her. Every book so far has been great, and I feel like she's closing …

Review of 'Nettle & Bone' on 'Goodreads'

Wieder ein hervorragendes Begleit-Tier, nämlich ein Hund, der im ersten Kapitel aus Draht, abgenagten Knochen und Magie zusammengebaut wird. Der Rest war auch gut, winzige Schwächen im letzten Drittel (mein pet peeve Handlungs-Nacherzählung, aber hier wirklich auf wenige Absätze beschränkt), angenehm unglamouröse Heldinnen (zwei sind alt und die dritte ist meistens ratlos) und viel unterhaltsame Nebenhandlung.

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