A review by caughtbetweenpages
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

dark emotional funny 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? Yes

3.75

A Sorceress Comes to Call is a supernatural thriller written in the style of a regency romance.  The result of the genre blend is a cocktail of dry witted characters with complex relationships, steadily growing suspense, and whatever it is about folklore that makes it feel true without having to bother with logical explanations for strange happenings. The elements made room for one another’s best features; scenes following Hester were all delighted laughter and romantic pining, where Cordelia’s sections encouraged the feeling of being an animal caught in a snare plucking up the courage to chew off its own limb. I don’t know how T Kingfisher makes all the tones and moods work together, but she does. 

I’m a little more confident on the why of my next statement, which is that T Kingfisher is a master of the twisted fairy tale. I’m a big fan of subverting a traditional form to ask questions that preoccupy a modern audience. in particular, I found ASCTC challenges the oft-featured virtues of beauty, obedience, and the sanctity and security of blood-family from fairy tales in a particularly adept way, not by offering answers via counterexample, but by using said examples to ask questions:
What if the most beautiful woman in the room was considered to be so for her wit and warmth and the way she is true to herself (and indeed, she is not the Most Fair Bar None; if you ask Richard, nobody holds a candle to Hester), rather than for being the youngest with clearest skin and purest virtue? 
What is obedience, really, when taken to an extreme, and how much agency can one truly be said to have when they’re being obedient?
What if it is your blood that presents the greatest danger to you and others? Where must your loyalty lie?
At no point did I feel preached at, or like I was reading an essay about fairytale, like old favorite tales with their obedient and lovely and youthful heroines were being looked down upon in the reading of ASCTC. I was just reading a gruesome, lovely story, that happened to be in conversation with ones that came before. 

Any contention I have with the pace at which information about the central conflict was revealed—eg. Penelope’s introduction as a ghost, when no mention of ghosts was made up to that point—only serves to make the story feel more in keeping with fairy tale tradition. The headless horse digs itself up, erupts into demon form, and disappears after being flapped at by a goose? Solid! Doesn’t even break the top 10 most non-sequiter moments of the folktales I’ve read. The fantastical felt true enough for story and rooted it all more in the genre. 

As counterbalance to—or rather, a technique used in tandem with—the use of the fantastical in ASCTC, the realism of the story’s character work helped further root the story in believability beyond the sort you need for a fairy tale. This was true for all the characters, but especially so for Hester and Cordelia, and even Evangeline. Reading Cordelia was heart wrenching in that her POV ran me through an emotional gauntlet; the exhausting, ambivalent feelings landscape of an abused child are difficult to read. She balances a hatred of her abuser, fear, and a desire under it all that Evangeline will stop and love her the way she’s claiming she has been the whole time, all the way through. It is a triumph and a relief when Cordelia realizes that the only way she will ever be free is if she stops hoping for change on Evangeline’s part and instead takes matters into her own hands. For Hester’s part, her anxieties around her chronic pain and aging into oblivion hit as true today as they would in the Regency period. I was delighted to see an “older” woman take up space (both diegetically and as a POV character) and be desired; she’s not taking the usual roles of an older woman in fairy tale (1. Jealous villain, 2. Infallibly wise mentor, or 3. Dead virtuous Saint). The two of these characters in tandem carry the story’s emotional landscape, and I will be thinking about the both of them long after the book’s closed and this review is posted. 

I recommend A Sorceress Comes to Call for readers who love fallible characters doing their best against stacked odds, and anyone disappointed by the toothlessness of the Grimm Brothers fairytales.