T. Kingfisher, a veteran of the fairy-tale retelling genre, returns to grace bookshelves with Hemlock & Silver. A dark twist on Snow White, it follows similar captivating Kingfisher fantasies like the award-winning Nettle & Bone and Thornhedge, her subversive spin on Sleeping Beauty.
Our protagonist is Anja, a healer who has devoted her life to studying poisons and searching for antidotes. We meet Anja on the day the king materializes on her doorstep with a plea: Heal his weakening daughter, Snow. Anja is reluctant. Absorbed by her scientific experiments, she does not have time for high-risk political games. Accepting a job from the king would mean accepting the possibility of his wrath should she fail.
Nevertheless, she cannot turn him down. Soon, she is whisked away to Witherleaf, a beautiful but isolated desert estate. There she meets Snow, a slight child of 12, whose insolence is tempered only by a confounding sickness: a lack of appetite, vomiting that turns her stomach inside out. It is no poison Anja recognizes, but she is the one person who might be able to find a cure.
Along with Anja, readers will puzzle over the mystery of what ails Snow. The direction Kingfisher takes this novel in is original and intricate, while managing to stay true to the key beats of Snow White. Anja’s spunky first-person narration serves as a compelling guide through a world that quickly becomes far stranger than poison and princesses. Funny, curious and charmingly vulnerable, Anja anchors a story that is otherwise plot-heavy and overly complex.
Hemlock & Silver culminates in a series of reveals that happen in dramatic and rapid fashion, which are a little hard to follow. However, Kingfisher sweetens the ending with Anja’s well-earned and tender love story, and satisfyingly leaves no stone unturned when it comes to solving the mystery of what’s happening to Snow. The final reveal is charged with the same mad energy as any good fairy tale, and readers will close the book hungry for the next concept—fairy tale or otherwise—that Kingfisher turns her imagination toward.