loppear reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Cozy fantasy quest
4 stars
Women-led, funny and enjoyable, a familiar-feeling quest to right wrongs and make friends and save the day.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published April 26, 2022 by Tor Books.
Nettle & Bone
5 stars
(13 reviews)
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.
Da_Gut@bookwyrm.social reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
One I'm very fond of
4 stars
It's not my favorite T. Kingfisher book, but it one that I'm very fond of. And I love the curse child - that one I use in my TTRPG games.
joachim@lire.boitam.eu reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Lovely
5 stars
I hope you like dancing teeth though
Aimee Gunther reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Not the most complex of books, but a good time
4 stars
The narrators in the audiobook just made the book. The dry, perma-unimpressed Dust Wife added a lot to the book
Tindra reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Nettle & Bone
4 stars
It took a bit for me to really get pulled in (I actually accidentally let my library loan expire because I found a different book more interesting, and ended up restarting), but once I was in, I was IN. Very satisfying conclusion.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the romance side plot is barely there.
Audiobook narration excellent.
enne📚 reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Nettle & Bone
4 stars
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 …
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 in the same genre of story) and so don't let that put you off. I just feel like the story would have been more powerful had there not been as much understated flirting there and they had just been buddies working together to right wrongs (or even some explicit aro or ace angle, which is how I had been reading Marra the rest of the book).
I wouldn't describe this as a comedy book, but there were so many funny moments to the book that I had to hold myself back from posting a dozen quotes. I laughed so hard at the dust-wife's exasperation leading into her third impossible task (and it was such good characterization too). Overall, this was a lot of fun but I also found it to have quite a bit more depth than I was expecting.
mark reviewed Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Another Effortless Genre Shuffle from Kingfisher
5 stars
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 …
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 in on masterpieces.
