When she finally tripped up, the two girls on the ends had dropped the rope and they had all begun giggling together. The same review also praised the way in which Kingfisher uses humor to contrast with the darkness of the plot. That said, I could see this being a hit for readers who don't like horror and want this kind of a lighter blend.

If they felt that they were safer here than they were outside it, it was not her place to tell them otherwise. She had to splint them together with the wires, leaving bloody fingerprints across the surface of the bones. T. Kingfisher uses the bones of fairy tale to create something entirely her own, written in gloriously clear and transparent prose. under the spell of kingfisher's quietly confident storytelling, these mind-bogglingly disparate elements coalesce gracefully into a wholly original story, refracting all the expectations of fairytales and quest narratives into something more stirring, heartbreaking, funny, and satisfying than should be possible.i am so in love with kingfisher's fertile imagination and nuanced character-work, the quiet lines she just tosses out that mean so much more than they seem to at first glance, how nothing is ever black-and-white and the care she takes in managing the gray, even her dang author's notes are fun. As Marra watched, the hen lifted her tail, voided her bowels on the king’s broken face, and then strolled to the dust-wife’s shoulder with a satisfied cluck. A review in Grimdark Magazine praised the "twisted mix of morbid horror and sweet delight" as well as the novel's ensemble cast, giving the book 4 out of 5 stars. In my opinion, fall is the perfect season to abandon one's mortal coils for a few hours and cross the threshold of this book, where one will assuredly bear witness to something a little wicked. On her journey, Marra will be joined not only by the dust-wife, but also by Bonedog, her godmother Agnes, the demon chicken, Fenris, and Finder.

She never disappoints me with her extraordinary creative mind, taking me trips to meticulously built fantasy worlds with adorable characters.

This was such a surprising and hilarious team of heroes, they had so many memorable and unique dialogue, and I just loved each of them so, so much! Highly recommended for fans of fractured fables like Naomi Novik’s Uprooted (2015) and Helen Oyeyemi’s Gingerbread (2019). Because as Marra learns while at her sister's bed during her niece's birth, Prince McEvil enjoys hurting his wives.

it's just another story of a girl trying to kill a prince to protect her sister AND THE FRIENDS SHE MAKES ALONG THE WAY. com, Martin Cahill observes that Kingfisher "doesn't shrink or hide from how often fairy tales brutalize young women, how so many stories take their agency, their bodies, and their will for use and abuse by kingdoms and kings alike. That road trip part of the book was more entertaining, sarcastic with witty dialogues help us take a break after the dark, eccentric, mysterious opening of the story.

It takes Marra some time to get going and decide that she has to deal with things herself but once she does she won’t be deterred by anything. Nothing quite new and yet when told in Kingfisher’s voice, with fun easy banter between the characters it’s incredibly entertaining. She notes that she was not engaged by the non-linear structure of the opening chapter, but praised the remainder of the novel and its subversion of standard fairy tale tropes. The first one died and things aren't looking good for the second one, which is why when we meet Marra, she's in a land filled with cannibals and dead things, working her infected fingers to the bone as she makes a pet bone-dog out of bones and wires: the second of three impossible tasks.

This book dragged from the first chapter, which is not something I think I've ever experienced before. A weird, feminist, down-with-the-patriarchy-and-also-the-kingdom kind of story that had me smiling throughout. This is a story of a revenge quest to save a sister from unpunished domestic violence, with a ragtag team of unexpected allies.many thanks to netgalley, macmillan audio, and macmillan-tor/forge for advance copies of the audiobook + e-book in exchange for an honest review.