Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Nettle & Bone

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

17 reviews

wardenred's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Kania was hostage to the prince. Marra’s future children, if any, were hostage to Kania’s fertility.

Pretty sure this is the scariest book I've ever read by T. Kingfisher, and that has nothing to do with all the spooky parts of the worldbuilding. It's all about the situation at the heart of the plot. Marra's sister stuck in that awful abusive marriage; their mother impassively watching and letting it happen because politics; the implication that plenty of nobles, guards, and servants in the Northern Castle were quite aware of what was happening, were all right with it, and Kania's happy ending involves staying among them and working to be seen as someone as ruthless as her husband... I don't know. All of that just sent chills down my spine. Especially that happy ending. Because while the quest is successfully finished, Kania is saved, and the bad guy's gone, nothing has really change. The world is still the same place it has always been, where all the same things can happen again and again, and people keep playing by the same rules.

Maybe I missed some details. Maybe the odd mood I was in influenced my perception of the book. But really, it just felt so heavy and unsettling and for the most part lacking hope. There were trickles of it, sure, mostly in the scenes focused intensely at Marra and how Not Okay she was with certain things—not just her sister's situation. And there's lots of interesting worldbuilding here, a compelling magic system, one of the best, most original adventuring parties ever, and a very good bone dog. So many things to love! And I did love those, but it was difficult to do so for all the above reasons.

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

bittennailbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

What do you get when you cross a princess turned nun, a disgraced knight, a resistant fairy godmother, a necromancing lady holding a demon-filled chicken, and a bone dog?

Well, you'd have a whole lot of fun.

Nettle & Bone was my first delve into the world of Kingfisher and I am never coming out. This dark fairytale re-telling has you rooting for the bad guys and cheering on murder. The characters were super engaging and funny as were all the side thoughts. A lesson in dark meets camp brought to you by T. Kingfisher. Would recommend to anyone who wants something less on the cozy fantasy side with a wagon full of charm.

Content Warnings

lisa_m's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

darkefyres's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

vasha's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is a T. Kingfisher fantasy novel, and if you have read a few of her others, you will know what to expect and not be wrong. It's funny, creepy, and thought-provoking by turns; it has powerful, eccentric old women, it has animal companions, it has a very, very well-behaved knight, it has a quest through a world where something inventively horrible is likely to turn up at any moment, and it has a naïve, earnest main character who fumbles through doing something impossible because things simply aren't fair and must be rectified. Sometimes I complain because T. Kingfisher's books are so much alike (apart from "The Twisted Ones" and "The Hollow Places" which are contemporary horror and my least favorite, go figure!) But firstly, what she does is unique and excellent so why object if she keeps doing it; and secondly, each of her books has a subtly different theme. This time, she takes on fairy tale marriages. A queen is playing a tricky strategic game trying to keep her small kingdom from invasion, and one of her moves is to marry her beautiful, sweet eldest daughter to the monstrous prince of a neighboring kingdom. The death of the eldest means the second daughter Kania, a much more steely personality, is the next wife and must become pregnant over and over trying to produce an heir, while the third daughter, Marra, is set aside in a convent. Marra is the hero of this story: she's shy and prone to anxiety, and it takes her a long time to realize just how bad Kania's life is (eventually leading to reflections on how many injustices the whole system of marriages and inheritances contains), and even longer to think of something to do about it, though that thing is just going to someone else for help. She's a very unusual hero in that other people do all the dramatic deeds in this story, and she has the most unlikely of personalities for a leader, but the other members of her quest party defer to her, if only because the whole thing was her idea, she keeps persisting, and she gives the others a reason not to give up or do something else. It's a lovely depiction of getting something done by mutual assistance and by taking one step at a time: Marra goes to a dust-wife, an extremely powerful witch who can talk to and command the dead, and convinces her to set aside the inaction which (and really, it's a good thing) she usually maintains; she helps rescue Fenris, a knight held captive by the Fair Folk, and while he provides the party with skill with weapons, she realizes that he needs emotional support and inconspicuously gives it; she overcomes her prejudgment of her apparently-useless fairy godmother Agnes to find another ally of an unexpected sort (Agnes's accomplishments are some of the most delightful surprises in the book); and the final member of the party is Bonedog, a mastiff resurrected as a skeleton, who really just needed another chance to be a good dog. In this story, a princess saves another princess, or really gives her the opportunity to save herself, and the distinction between good and evil fairy godmothers is hopelessly muddled. This deeply feminist and quietly hopeful book is one that's badly needed, and I expect to be re-reading it many times.

Content Warnings

aardwyrm's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

T Kingfisher brings us the tale of a woman who is deeply practical in most ways but vulnerable on a few fronts, her ill-assorted chosen companions with unexpected magical gifts, and an enemy who is more about the implacability of entrenched power structures than personal malice but has plenty of personal malice, too. There are some writers I've had to step back from after learning their beats this well, but the world, the prose, and the poignancy are all as sharp and bloody as ever. Never miss a Kingfisher.

Content Warnings

More...