A review by croscot
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark funny sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I thought this book would be about a quest to save the main character's sister and kill the prince. But I don't think it's about that at all. (And reframing my understanding of the story helped me find some enjoyment in it.) To me, this book was about:

• Marra's becoming an adult: she managed to spend 30 years of her life sheltered from brutal politics and her mother's scheming, which made her too naive and ignorant of what was going on around her; this journey showed her how harsh and cold family relationships can be, how important it is to learn skills (embroidery alone won't help you much if you need money), how crucial it is to be able to ask for help - Marra was absolutely and utterly useless alone, but people liked her enough to agree to help;
• found family: A motley crew, but with more heart than Marra's mother could ever dream of;
• the dangers of helicopter parenting: I know The Queen wasn't helicoptering per se (or if she was, it definitely wasn't due to abundance of care for her daughters), but she still had tight control over her kingdom, and I totally understand her motives - what are 3 daughters in comparison to thousands of  lives? But her meddling with Marra's education and upbringing made her youngest... well, dumb. Kind, but very very dumb and inept. (She was a quick learner when it came to midwifery, but it turned out the skill lost its usefulness as soon as she ran away.) The fact that Kania grew up smart and perceptive feels like an anomaly in these circumstances. 

And these were the things that I liked. What I didn't particularly enjoy was just how dull and meek the main character was. And it's paradoxical, given I've just explained WHY I think Marra was the way she was, yet it bored me so much, the only thing I was looking forward to were funny exchanges between the dust-wife and the godmother and Bonedog's shenanigans. I mean, it's not great when a demon-possessed chicken that clucks from time to time has more personality than the protagonist.

The atmosphere was interesting, though. And if there's ever a sequel with Agnes and the dust-wife adventures, I'll be definitely eager to read about them!