Nettle and Bone Written by T. Kingfisher Book Review by Miranda Moses (Fraser) ISBN: 9781250244048 Oh, my fellow magic lovers, this was such a good book! When I bought it, I thought the description talked about the fae folk. And I was like, "Yes that's very on-brand for Halloween Book Reviews." I was either mistaken or the website was... Either way, it is a story full of magic and fantasy. So it gets to stay in this series! Kingfisher really grabbed my attention with this story from the start. And while it is a short story, less than 250 pages, it is one worth reading. Especially if you enjoy stories that are quest based, filled with impossible tasks, magic, and mythical creatures. The story revolves around a woman named Marra. When this story takes place, she is 30 years old. She is the last born of three princesses. Both sisters she loved, in different ways, and both were married off to the same prince. The oldest dies before having a child and to keep the peace between their kingdoms the second daughter is sent to marry the prince. While they struggle to produce an heir, the parents of the princesses send Marra to live in a convent so that she does not marry and have children before her sister. (No one to fight for the throne, you see.) But when it becomes apparent to Marra that her sister is being abused, she sets out to find a woman with powerful magic. The dust-wife in turn sends Marra on three impossible tasks. The chain of events just tumbles along from there, flowing from start to end. There was no point where I found myself wanting to jump ahead to more action. Since these types of stories are better experienced by the reader I don't want to go into too many of the tasks or missions that happen. BUT seeing as the one is heavily shown on the book cover and the inside printed photo, I figure that's a fun one I can share. Marra's second task given to her is to make a dog of bones. She twists wire and bone to complete this mission and wonderfully her hound of bones comes to life and joins her. I adore her little skeleton dog! That is very Tim Burton energy and THAT is very on-brand for Halloween. Outside of the missions, I can tell you that this book contains: a chicken with a demon in it, godmothers (the magical kind), ghosts, goblins, and more. Loads of magic and spells! In the end, this book reminds me of "The Two Princesses of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine. The love of a sister starts a quest that travels across lands, and requires magic, and mythical creatures! I also saw a review of someone calling it a dark version of Quest for Camelot. (Also a good one!) So if fairytales and quest line stories are something you enjoy, I highly suggest checking this book out. And on a personal note, I really enjoyed reading the author's excerpt in the back where she talks about this how this book came to be. She ends it by saying, "I hope your dogs are loyal and goofy and good-natured and that your chickens remain free of demons". And truly that is a fantastic way to tickle your readers. I will be looking into more by this author! Read on my fellow bookworms. May we one day have Belle's library! And as always, links to the author's pages can be found down below.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Fairy Tale Reviews!Fairy Tales are some of the GREATEST treasures we have as humans! I am so excited for these reviews! Archives
October 2022
|