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A review by mgondwe
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
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