T. Kingfisher was my most read author in 2025 (I read five of her books and reviewed two), so I had planned to wait before reviewing anymore of her books, but my hold for Hemlock and Silver finally came up on Libby, and I enjoyed it too much not to talk about it. So here we are.
Anja is an expert in poisons. Or, more specifically, she is an expert in antidotes. But when the king himself summons her to investigate the poisoning of his daughter, Snow, Anja feels out of her depth. The more she looks into Princess Snow’s mysterious illness, the more uncanny things become. With the help of a one-eyed talking cat and a grouchy palace guard, Anja insatiable curiosity and passion for research will take her through the looking glass into a terrifying new world.
This was a quintessential T. Kingfisher book. It has a middle-aged female protagonist with a very niche special interest and limited people skills, enjoyable quippy dialogue, and a dash of body horror. It definitely fits the author’s formula, but it’s a formula that works, so why mess with perfection? As a retelling of Snow White, it sticks closely enough to the original to be recognizable as a fairytale adaptation, but deviates in fascinating and terrifying ways. She sets the book in a desert kingdom reminiscent of the American Southwest, which is a refreshingly unusual setting for a fantasy novel. The way she writes about the flora and fauna of the desert shows a real love for that setting (Kingfisher lives in New Mexico, so I’m sure she based a lot of the book’s setting on her own home). This was a delightful read, and significantly less creepy than several other T. Kingfisher books, so would make a great introduction for someone dipping their toes into the author’s work.
