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linora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It gives off feminist lightly spooky princess bride-esqe vibes in the best way.
My description of it is somewhat spoilery, but it's how I described it when recommending it to my sister. It is below.
It is about a third born princess who finds out that prince charming has been abusing her sister. So she leaves the nunnery and teams up with a witch, a himbo, and a fairy godmother to go fucking kill him.
I read the entire thing in less than 24 hours.
My description of it is somewhat spoilery, but it's how I described it when recommending it to my sister. It is below.
It is about a third born princess who finds out that prince charming has been abusing her sister. So she leaves the nunnery and teams up with a witch, a himbo, and a fairy godmother to go fucking kill him.
I read the entire thing in less than 24 hours.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Slavery, Death, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse
katebella's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Took a long time to get into the book (almost halfway!) but really enjoyed once I did
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy
Minor: Slavery and Cannibalism
flaminggecko's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Grief, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, War, Violence, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Classism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Child death, Xenophobia, Dementia, Child abuse, and Animal death
Moderate: Cannibalism, Alcohol, Bullying, and Blood
Minor: Excrement
ettegoom's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
This was a good one! Thoroughly fairy tale, with clear heroes and villains, a curse and a princess to be rescued.
I love the concepts of the bone-wife and of the blistered land.
Well worth reading.
I love the concepts of the bone-wife and of the blistered land.
Well worth reading.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child death, and Confinement
mgondwe's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I listened to this story on audiobooks.
I was surprised to learn this was a dark fantasy as I continued to listen to the story. Before I listened to this story on audiobooks, I had only read the reviews from the audiobook page, and most of the top reviews depicted this book as a cosy fantasy with a lot of humour. And the only reason I got the book was because I wanted to read a funny book to lift my mood (and if it included fantasy elements even better), so I was surprised to learn that this book is nowhere near as light, and the funny moments were greatly exaggerated. It’s definitely not a cosy fantasy read.
Also the demon chicken is nowhere near as funny as some people made it out to be.
I found it jarring listening to the the narrator switch to different funny voices for certain characters at the beginning, but I got used to it eventually.
What stopped me from dnf’ing this book is that I could relate to the main character, Marra, (including her love for knitting/crafting and other life experiences), and T.Kingfisher’s writing style, while extremely dark, made it easy for me to follow along and understand each characters thought process & I ended up getting invested and wanting to know if she would end up saving her sister from the abusive Prince in time.
**spoiler below***
I think there should be a trigger/content warning in the blurb for abuse and violence. As mentioned before this is not a cosy read. And there were certain scenes i felt uncomfortable listening to (reading it wouldn’t have made it better) including the domestic violence between Marra’s sisters and the Prince, and when Fenris explained his story and he blamed himself for failing to protect a boy who was being abused and ended up being whipped to death by his father.
I was surprised to learn this was a dark fantasy as I continued to listen to the story. Before I listened to this story on audiobooks, I had only read the reviews from the audiobook page, and most of the top reviews depicted this book as a cosy fantasy with a lot of humour. And the only reason I got the book was because I wanted to read a funny book to lift my mood (and if it included fantasy elements even better), so I was surprised to learn that this book is nowhere near as light, and the funny moments were greatly exaggerated. It’s definitely not a cosy fantasy read.
Also the demon chicken is nowhere near as funny as some people made it out to be.
I found it jarring listening to the the narrator switch to different funny voices for certain characters at the beginning, but I got used to it eventually.
What stopped me from dnf’ing this book is that I could relate to the main character, Marra, (including her love for knitting/crafting and other life experiences), and T.Kingfisher’s writing style, while extremely dark, made it easy for me to follow along and understand each characters thought process & I ended up getting invested and wanting to know if she would end up saving her sister from the abusive Prince in time.
**spoiler below***
I think there should be a trigger/content warning in the blurb for abuse and violence. As mentioned before this is not a cosy read. And there were certain scenes i felt uncomfortable listening to (reading it wouldn’t have made it better) including the domestic violence between Marra’s sisters and the Prince, and when Fenris explained his story and he blamed himself for failing to protect a boy who was being abused and ended up being whipped to death by his father.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Violence, Murder, Miscarriage, Infertility, Grief, Death, Child abuse, and Dysphoria
chelbelle122's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Toxic relationship, Torture, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
a_bow's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This reads like a Grimm's fairy tale and feels more like a summary of an epic story. There is not a lot of world building or any real magic system. It's fast paced, fun, and allegorical. It had me thinking about how the patriarchy really hurts women from all facets of society. There is not a lot of character development and while I appreciated the main character being a 30 year old woman, I felt like she was very naive for a 30 year old. I felt like she did very little in her adventure and relied all on the other characters' skills. I would have loved if she took her feminine rage on a solo mission and just strike fear into people. Like she just snapped and you really see just how fed up she is with men who abuse power, with men who are bystanders to those abusing power and do nothing, and to women who internalize the mysingony and happily perpetuate it, and the women who don't like it but also dont do much to stand up to it until it personally affects them. I want to see her struggle with her faith to a religion that claims all are equal yet creates a caste system where powerful men are in charge and many times exaggerates/misinterprets the text to take even more power. I want to see a 30 year old woman who has seen it all/heard it all, who has had enough of the bullshit explode on everyone and everything. I want her to use her wits to steal, kill, seduce, threaten, barhain anyone to get her way. Overall I found it enjoyable I just would have loved more! It's like if Paris Paloma's.song Labour was turned to a book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Child death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Infertility, Abortion, Sexual violence, and Grief
itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
After the really average books that put me in a reading slump, this book took me right out of it. Even though I've been contending with a terrible bout of insomnia, I legitimately enjoyed this book enough to want to know where it was going to go next every time I put it down.
Things I liked:
Things I liked:
- This book had a really good, consistent dark fairy tale atmosphere without being overly despairing or angsty. My heart did drop a little at
the thief wheel scene in the tombs but in a good way kept me reading to find out ifthis was the end for our protagonists . - Marra was a very believable character and protagonist. It could be argued she didn't really contribute much compared to her companions but considering she was largely sheltered for most of her life, I think it's more forgiveable for her to make stupid decisions or seem immature.
- If you like fairy tale magic systems, this is the book for you. The book never bogs you down with infodumping or exposition on said system, but takes the time to explain things concisely.
Things I didn't like:
- I feel like the demon chicken was very underutilised compared to the rest of Marra's companions, and it was never explained why the dust-wife had a demon possess the chicken to begin with.
- The romance between Marra and Fenris felt a little forced in my opinion. It was sweet enough but I feel like it was there purely to make the booktok/booktube girlies squee. We could have shown Fenris was a decent guy without having to force him and Marra into a romance.
- I feel like there could have been some more minor conflict between the main party, especially when
Agnes</spoilers> joined them or between them in the boarding house trying not to be suspicious in front of the landlady.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Miscarriage, Child death, and Physical abuse
Minor: Cannibalism and War
bethlee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Miscarriage, Child death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy, and Grief
Minor: Dementia and Death of parent
Everything in the "moderate" trigger warnings category are things that are major plot points of the book, but none are described graphically.skillyillian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First things first a very heavy trigger warning for domestic violence. It's not pictured on the page explicitly as it happens, but it's described by the victim as well as the FMC and other characters throughout the book.
That being said:
Honestly this is SO good. The language used is so descriptive and really fits the tone of the story. I loved having an FMC that wasn't barely legal, and her determination to do impossible things was incredible. The dust-wife was awesome but I think Agnes stole the show and I would have loved to have seen and learned more from her. Honestly, I think the story would've benefitted from more character backstory and development? But it's not like they were cardboard cutouts by any means, either.
The timeline, or at least the way it's presented in the story, was a little hard to follow for a minute? But once the past caught up to the story it made sense, so 🤷🏻♀️
I think my favorite part was the humor, honestly. It balanced things out and added levity in a way that I think prevented the whole story from being too heavy. It was witty and wry and the kind of jokes that fit perfectly for a group comprised of a dog made of bones, a cursed chick, a demon hen (no relation), and two traumatized young-ish people traveling with two powerful old women who are each other's opposites in every way.
Overall, this is a great story with some really interesting characters I think we could've learned about a bit more. I loved it so much though, and jumped right into another Kingfisher book (What Moves the Dead) which I'm also enjoying so far. I'm excited to keep reading more from this author :)
That being said:
Honestly this is SO good. The language used is so descriptive and really fits the tone of the story. I loved having an FMC that wasn't barely legal, and her determination to do impossible things was incredible. The dust-wife was awesome but I think Agnes stole the show and I would have loved to have seen and learned more from her. Honestly, I think the story would've benefitted from more character backstory and development? But it's not like they were cardboard cutouts by any means, either.
The timeline, or at least the way it's presented in the story, was a little hard to follow for a minute? But once the past caught up to the story it made sense, so 🤷🏻♀️
I think my favorite part was the humor, honestly. It balanced things out and added levity in a way that I think prevented the whole story from being too heavy. It was witty and wry and the kind of jokes that fit perfectly for a group comprised of a dog made of bones, a cursed chick, a demon hen (no relation), and two traumatized young-ish people traveling with two powerful old women who are each other's opposites in every way.
Overall, this is a great story with some really interesting characters I think we could've learned about a bit more. I loved it so much though, and jumped right into another Kingfisher book (What Moves the Dead) which I'm also enjoying so far. I'm excited to keep reading more from this author :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Cannibalism