Review: Nettle & Bone

3 stars. I was not prepared for this! I have no idea why, but I was expecting something entirely different. I was expecting dark horror fantasy, not Diana Wynne Jones! I was so caught off guard I had no idea what to make of this for the first 25%. It's my first T. Kingfisher, surprisingly, and it definitely won't be my last. But yeah, sometimes going in blind is the move, and sometimes it actually isn't.

Nettle & Bone is about a princess, Marra, whose older sisters are married off by their mother the queen to the prince of a neighboring country as part of a political strategy to prevent war. The prince, shockingly, turns out to be abusive and cruel, and Marra, who has been sent to live with nuns at a convent, becomes determined to kill him, save her remaining sister, and save her own future in the process. To do this she must perform several impossible tasks, recruit a dust-wife, an ex-knight/prisoner and a fairy godmother. The odd crew then marches toward the city and an almost-certain death.

Couple of things I loved: the setting. The magic system. The sheer creativity and unexpectedness of each episodic obstacle - the tooth-merchant, the thief wheel, the innkeeper's cursed puppet - that made the story feel like a fairy tale. The hen with the demon in her. The sense of old wisdom baked into the narrative.

Couple of things I didn't love: the beginning which then rewound to the actual beginning. The prince - he made a very... boring antagonist, didn't he? Mostly off-page, and very basic? The bone dog's journey (I know what happens eventually but was it worth the pain?). The romance. And Marra herself. Her naivete was just way too damn much for me. 

So that lands us at a solid 3 stars. It is without a doubt a quick, fun read. I recommend it. I just wasn’t prepared or sitting right or in the mood or something. It is what it is!

Nettle & Bone on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads