Nettle & Bone

By T. Kingfisher

A dark and compelling fantasy about sisterhood, impossible tasks and the price of power, from award-winning author T. Kingfisher

NEBULA AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter—has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.

Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Titan Books
• Release date: Apr 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781789098280

T. Kingfisher

T. KINGFISHER (she/her) writes fantasy, horror, and occasional oddities, including Nettle & Bone, What Moves the Dead, and A House with Good Bones. Under a pen name, she also writes bestselling children's books. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, dogs, and chickens who may or may not be possessed.

Reviews for Nettle & Bone

[ragwaine · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I feel like this book has 3 distinct parts and each part had a completely different style. It started out dark, gritty and original with a female necromancer in a wasteland full of cannibals, seeking a way to murder a prince. Then suddenly everything was "normal" and it was a not-very-exciting medieval story about a princess (the necromancer from earlier), her sisters and an evil prince. Then about half way through it just got amazing and turned into something with such great characters that it reminded me of [book:The Princess Bride|21787]. After that it stayed wonderful, got dark & a bit creepy. There was only one thing I was disappointed in and that is a SPOILER. I'll leave some space and put it below.She was a teenager. He was 40. WTF?

[spiritedstardust · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First 5 star I've had in a while, so long that I forgot how they feel - like a grandmothers hug with the thrill of a stomach somersault during take off.

This was amazing
I loved the writing.
I loved the characters (Agnes and bone witch (I call her Griselda) are a hoot and a half, such a grumpy sunshine combo).
I loved the story.

It was such a fun read and I am eager to check out more of the author's work.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There’s a reason T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) has become so popular across so many genres — she tells a great story and Nettle & Bone is no exception. Kingfisher drops readers into the action and never lets up for 250 pages as we follow Marra on her quest to save her sister from the evil prince she married. Sound like a fairy tale? Yes, it is — with all the magic, intrigue, danger, and humor one could want.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love a quick stand-alone fantasy adventure. Delightful characters, believable motivations, and just enough magic to make it interesting. A bit of sleeping beauty, a lot of female rage and empowerment.

[sucharita1986 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher is a tale spun in magic. It is the first time that I am reading something by the author. The book is of medium length. The positive points are that the plot sparks up from the beginning and the climax is a bit interesting. The characters are strong, magical and confident. The story focusses on women who are just puppets in the name of saving the empire. But, our protagonist, Marra understands that she is not like others and takes her own stand. The only negative point is that in the middle the plot loses its way and becomes a little bit boring. But, the climax saves the book.I would like to give 4 stars to the book. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me an opportunity to read and review the book.

[randymorgan-144387 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Princess Marra has one seemingly impossible objective; to stop her sister’s abuser. Through unconventional tasks and discouraging trades, Marra was able to enlist: a geavewitch, a former knight, a fairy godmother, two chickens, and a resurrected dog. This ensemble plots to break a curse, topple a throne, and most importantly, protect Marra’s sister. T. Kingfisher starts by corralling the reader with a dark, eccentric, and mysterious opening. Then book shuffles through the back story, which is mildly discouraging. The clever use of metaphors keeps humor in the story while maintaining vivid imagery. The sarcastic witty dialogue contrast elegantly with the overarching gloom and paces the plot of this grim tale. Nettle & Bone is a Vulture Best Fantasy Novel of 2022.

[tornadox-962417 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fairy tale-like quest turns into a group adventure, with princesses, witches, faeries, warriors, and almost nuns. And the very cute Bonedog. Except in flashbacks, most of the main characters are 30 years old.

I haven't read T. Kingfisher's short story that partially inpsired this movel.

[Rana Aldisi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love dark fairytales, I found Marra a bit too boring as a main character, I mean it started out good, but then she keeps on being self-deprecating which was annoying. I loved all other characters that she found along the journey, and even though there wasn't much of world-building, what we do learn about that world seems really interesting. I felt the ending was a bit hurried, but good overall.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For me this was a very satisfying story, there we moments where things shifted and it stumbled a little but overall this was a very, very good read with characters I cared about and wanted to succeed and it was interesting to see how they managed to get them to succeed.A woman (bless you T Kingfisher for older characters) who has been living as a nun (literally in a convent) decides that after her sister dying and her next sister being married off to the first sister's widower who appears to be cruel, that she is going to do SOMETHING to a) save her sister and b) not be the next victim of this cruel man. She endures hardship and pain and completes impossible tasks for a grumpy, world-weary bonewitch, meets immortal godmothers and one who could be evil but chooses not to, mostly. And along the way finds love with a man who is also dealing with his own demons.The stumbles were probably more me than the story but overall I wanted to hug almost everyone left at the end of the story.I have recommended it to several people

[fred_mouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I feel weird about rating a book I sat and read in one sitting so low, but the reality is that I finished it in one setting through sheer bloody mindedness, not any kind of fascination or absorption.I get that this is a fairy tale trope based story, and that those tend to have quite dark histories. It presents as fantasy, but I experienced it much more as horror. I suggest that people be aware ahead of time that there are multiple important content warnings, whether or not they choose to check what they are. There are some uses and subversions of tropes that I liked. It is, unsurprisingly, the good/kind but not very bright third child of the rulers who is the 'hero', although our protagonist, Marra, spends a lot of time avoiding being a hero. The story opens as they do a trope appropriate impossible task; when they return to the dust-wife, the response is very much a subversion of the expected response. The resolution of the story is very much built from the bones of other stories, in ways that become almost inevitable, even if the decorative twiddles are different. The writing is robust, the world building a delight (there are so many hinted at details that could each fill a book of side quests), the characters varied. The politics of how the two kingdoms fit together is very well thought out, particularly the details of why various people make the choices that they do, even though they look like such bad choices. Various things frustrated me. Something about the names of the sisters didn't sit right, and I can't say why, but Damia, Kania, and Marra are just such an uncomfortable set. The naming ceremony for the royal child being a christening, in a world without Christianity (I can take the presence of godmothers with more equanimity, because after all, there are many gods in this world). The characterisation felt off at times, and I found the romance that happens to have almost come out of left field. I realise that I am often oblivious to sub-text, but this was more than usual, and I was all 'why?'. In terms of the spoilery thoughts: I was intensely frustrated that the oldest sister is effectively fridged. I get that their death was an important plot point, but I don't think they get any agency in the story, I'm not sure they get anything other than a couple of scenes to appear and disappear from, and everything about them is filtered through the youngest sibling's Me Me Me. Yes, it is tight first person for those bits, but I really didn't like how that part of the story line was handled

[herenya_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Marra, the youngest princess, was sent off to a covenant rather than married off to a prince. When she discovers what her sister has to endure at the hands of her husband, she decides to stop him. And that quest starts with tasks set by the dust-wife -- to weave a cloak of nettles and build a dog of bone.This is Vernon doing what she does best, with the juxtaposition of fairytale-ish events with down-to-earth personalities, and of dark horrors with kind characters, positive relationships and lively animal companions. She's very perceptive about the different experiences and concerns of women. I liked that Marra is a grown woman of thirty, not a mere teenager.“Fairy tales,” said the dust-wife heavily, “are very hard on bystanders. Particularly old women. I’d rather not dance myself to death in iron shoes, if it’s all the same to you.”

[glennis.leblanc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fairytale of the third princess that goes on a mission to save her sister from a marriage that is slowly killing her. Marra has been living in a convent since her middle sister married the prince from the northern kingdom after their older sister died five months into the marriage. At the funeral of her young niece, she finds out the prince is beating her sister and constantly keeping her pregnant in order to have an heir. But the magic that protects the northern kingdom comes with a price. Marra is now on a journey to do three impossible tasks so the dust wife with help her with her mission. I did laugh about how the third task is done. This story has a great fairy tale feel to it while also having a modern feel to it. And you have to love the idea of a chicken with a demon in it.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.

[alspachc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The one about the fairy godmothers. Surprisingly good blend of the ridiculous (fairy godmother magic) and the serious (spousal abuse). Not all of the plot really hangs together, but it ends up being a fun story with enough meat to it to be satisfying, if not overly serious.

[roses7184_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Okay, let me be up front, I absolutely LOVED this book. Nettle & Bone was everything I wanted, and honestly needed, from a book right now. Fairy tales, especially dark ones, are my bread and butter. Stories where our heroes face impossible tasks, stories that somehow manage to mesh humor and tragedy, stories where it really feels like the characters grow and change. This book had all that and more, and I devoured every single second of it. When you’re feeling lost, sometimes it helps to join someone else on their journey instead.Now I feel it fair to warn perspective readers that the beginning might be a little confusing. Without preamble, we’re thrown into a space with a very ragged and exhausted Marra. She is performing a task that, quite honestly, feels fairly dark. I wasn’t sure what to make of her at first. However the reader is soon taken back in time, to see where Marra came from and how she ended up where we first found her. It’s honestly brilliant once you get past that initial point. Kingfisher found a way to show Marra’s growth in a breathtaking way. We watch a mere girl, who was afraid of everything, morph into this woman who is stronger than she ever thought she could be. The reader gets to travel 15 years of Marra’s life, and it’s a beautiful thing.It is true though that no heroine worth her salt travels alone, and Marra is no exception. In her journey she assembles a ragtag team of some of the most intriguing characters I have met in a long time! We meet the elderly but sassy Dustwife, who I honestly wouldn’t want to mess with. A fairy godmother who is much better at curses than blessings. A human man with a tragic backstory, who simply wants to forget where he came from. And, of course, the sweetest dog made of bones. This group was an absolute joy to travel with, and the banter between them was gold. I always appreciate when a book can incorporate good humor in dialogue without it feeling forced. Nettle & Bone manages that easily.As for the story, well here is the part where I can’t really share too much for fear of giving things away. I can assure you that Marra’s journey is one that will tug at your heartstrings, but also make you root so hard her at the same time. The love for her family, despite everything, radiates off of the page. There are beautiful nods to inner strength, loyalty, and simply attempting to understand the views of others. You’ll travel through a goblin market, meet a demon chicken and a cadre of unfriendly ghosts. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself utterly enchanted and reading well past your bedtime. Yes, this book is that good.Easiest five stars I’ve given to a book in a long time. This was dark fairy tale, fantasy filled, perfection

[bookczuk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pandemic Read. As long as T Kingfisher keeps writing, I'll keep reading.

[verkruissen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

 Absolutely loved this book. It had elements of magic, folklore and romance. I laughed out loud at parts, especially the demonic chicken :) I would definitely recommend this for fans of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver and Uprooted.

[foggidawn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Marra, youngest princess of a small kingdom, has spent half of her life in a convent. When she discovers that her sister, married to a prince of a neighboring kingdom, is in danger, she is willing to face any task to save her. This will mean leaving her comfort zone, both literally and metaphorically, and bringing together a small crew of misfits who just might be able to change the destinies of more than one kingdom.The very first bit of this book is pretty grim, with some elements of horror, but after that part the story settles more into quest fantasy lines, with plenty of humor and delightful characters. There's a slow-burn romance that, while not central to the story, is quite delightful and satisfying. I enjoyed every bit of this book, and would definitely recommend it.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Its not often you come across a newly written fairy tale that manages to break stereotypes, while completely embracing them. The story itself is a simple, a princess needs to rescue her sister from an abusive husband, goes on a quest to find help, that comes in the way of a dust-wife, a godmother, and a bodyguard.Of course, there are twists and turns. Parts are dark, very dark. From the forest where Bonedog is put together, to the Goblin Market. Other parts are sad, from being forced to live, whether for a kingdom, or by a spell. Marra herself is a breath of fresh air - she is exactly what she is suppose to be, a third princess, being kept in a convent to both keep her as a backup, but also so doesn't compete with her queen sister. There really is only one bad person in this story, but a lot of morally ambiguous choices.

[fionaanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars but the author note at the end pushed it down*. At 240 pages, this is a rather thin fantasy, literally and figuratively. At times it was quite clever and interesting but the characters are flat and the plot is predictable so I never felt drawn into the story.

Thank you to Tor Publishing who kindly sent me a free ARC for review.

*Generally, I’m a fan of authors appending information for the edification of readers (and in the case of historical fiction, I consider it de rigeur) but sharing that the plot was dreamed up in the grocery store should be saved for interviews as it smacks of unnecessary vanity.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In order to save her sister from the prince who is abusing her, a princess-turned-kind-of-nun goes on a quest to do three impossible things to get help from a witch with the power to help. Unsurprisingly, the quest doesn’t go the way it often does in fairy tales; there’s dog made of bones and wire and a number of other surprises along the way. It was fine but not my favorite of Kingfisher’s work—I came away mainly with the impression that she’s really into animals made of bones, both in horror and non-horror varieties (to the extent the latter is possible).

[eas7788 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very satisfying, if not groundbreaking. Greatly enjoyed the world she built and many details were very cool. I like the reworking of Sleeping Beauty. Plot kept me reading. Liked the awareness of quest narratives ("we'll talk and talk and never actually do anything"). I question starting with the building of bone dog, though -- seemed like a good hook? Tied to origin of the story? Elisa gave this to me via Alison :)

[gwendydd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a delightful fairy tale. It has all of the elements of a fairy tale - a quest, witches and wizards, fairy godmothers, a princess in need of rescue, marriage to a prince - but it manages to take all of those familiar fairy tale elements and turn them into something completely different. The hero of the quest is not a knight in shining armor, but the younger sister of the endangered princess. The marriage to the prince is not the prize at the end of the story, but instead the source of danger. Marra is the third daughter of a king of a small kingdom. Her mother is a brilliant and ruthless politician, who arranges for the oldest daughter to be married to the prince of a powerful neighboring kingdom. When she dies unexpected, the middle daughter marries him. Marra is sent to live in a convent, where she is supposed to retain her virtue in case the middle sister dies and the prince needs a third wife. Marra slowly realizes that the prince is cruel and abusive, and that he will likely murder his wife as soon as she bears him a son. She sets out on a quest to save her sister from her husband. She gets the help of a Bonewife, a crotchety old woman who can work magic with the dead. They rescue a knight from a goblin market, and the three of them must find a way to kill the prince and save Marra's sister.There is so much to love about this book. The remixing of fairy tale elements is ingenious. The Bonewife has a delightful dry humor. Marra is relatable as an ordinary person who is called on to do extraordinary things. The romance between Marra and the knight is slow and feels genuine. The world-building is excellent.

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found Kingfisher’s latest delightful. Written in the style of fairy tales, it is set in a fantasy world where magic of different sorts works. Our heroine, Marra, is the third child of the king and queen of a tiny realm that includes a deep water harbor, a valuable asset. The powerful kingdoms to their north and south both want to control the harbor, and the queen knows what must be done. The oldest daughter, the beautiful and sweet Damia, is wed to the northern prince, with the understanding that their oldest child would rule the north, while the second would rule the harbor kingdom. It’s no time before Damia dies, however, and the middle daughter, Kania, less beautiful and much less sweet, is carried off to be the prince’s next wife and broodmare. At 15, Marra is bundled off to a nunnery to live, hopefully safe and forgotten by the world. Here she lives for 15 years, shoveling animal stalls, working in the kitchen, delivering babies, and spending vast amounts of time learning needlework. Little news gets there, but finally there is a funeral to be held in the northern kingdom; the girl child of Kania and prince Vorling has died. Taken from the nunnery to attend, Marra finds that things are not well in her sister’s life. Not only is she nearly constantly pregnant and failing to produce a viable child, much less a prince, but Marra sees bruises on her sister, who admits they were put there- frequently- by Vorling. This, Marra decides, can not be allowed to go on. Here starts her quest for justice. Since she is not a nun, but just living there, the abbess cannot stop Marra when she leaves. She seeks the help of a dust-wife, who is a powerful witch who can work with the dead. When Marra tells her what she wants- to free her sister by killing Vorling- she agrees that she will help IF Marra can accomplish three tasks: weave a cloak of owl cloth and nettles, create a living dog from a pit full of bones, and catch the moonlight in a jar. Marra manages the first two, and they are off on their quest. Along the way they gather helpers; a magical godmother, an ex-knight who is held slave in a goblin market, a hen possessed by a demon (but the best layer of the flock), a cursed chick who finds things, an inn keeper with a demonic parasite. The odds are against them, and they have no firm plan, but try they will….The characters are wonderful. There is no Chosen One, and no one has a gods given Purpose. These are the people who are frequently over looked in stories. Their adventures are fantastical and, at times, absurd. There is a hint of Pratchett in this world, but with few puns and a much more believable set up. This book was a couldn’t- put-it-down one for me. The world is not a pretty, high fantasy one, but a world you could believe once existed on earth. Five shiny stars!

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At 15 Marra was sent to a convent to prevent her from producing a rival heir to the small city-state kingdom which her older sister's eventual child by the King of the large Northern Kingdom should inherit. Marra prefers her convent life to court life, but when she is 30 the death of her only niece makes her face the reality of the nightmare her sister faces and she leaves the convent to search for a magic to kill the controlling abusive king. This sounds all serious, but the cast of older misfits and a bouncy bone dog she collects, to say nothing of a demon inhabited hen, produce a very fun read.

[sennebec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are numerous surprises awaiting readers in this book. When I started it, I expected Marra to end up being a monster, or vengeful woman. I was wrong. She grew up feeling more like a spare part that had been stashed away in case she was needed by her rather scheming and pragmatic mother, a queen whose country has a very desirable harbor and is situated between two, more powerful kingdoms.Greatly hurt by her older sister's suspicious death and fearing for the life of her other sister, now married to the same ruthless and cruel prince, Marra leaves the convent where she's lived for more than half her life and embarks upon a dangerous quest to save her sister. It involves fulfilling three requirements, all on the bizarre side, making an alliance with a woman who tends a cemetery, a most unusual pet, a demon-possessed chicken and two fairy godmothers who are far from any you read about when you were a child. In the end, you're likely to quietly cheer for Marra and her companion. Read the book to fill in what I've omitted from this review.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fantasy novel with some dark undertone.s For securiy reasons (for her country) a princess from a smaller country is married off to a king from an aggressive neighboring realm.Her younger sister who had become a nun finds out that her sister is being abused and her life is in danger."Nun" sister leaves the convent to assemble a ragtag group of rescuers (each with special abilities) to help her sister escape her plight. A solid effort.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

They keep trying to market her stuff as horror and it's just not. It's not happy little kid's stories either...but fairy tales weren't, back when. Serious physical and mental/emotional abuse, but the story is about fixing it (one way or another…). Some nice tricks, but mostly it's just her doing what needs doing (the usual Vernon/Kingfisher pragmatics). I like the bonedog.

[spaceandsorcery · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My first T. Kingfisher book, and certainly not my last, since with this one the author turned me into an instant fan - and with good reason, given that I found the combination of fairy tale elements, tongue-in-cheek humor and delightful characters quite irresistible.Marra is a princess in a small but pivotal realm set between two larger ones that are in a constant state of conflict: as the youngest of three daughters, she sees her eldest sister Damia married off, for political expediency, to the son of the northern realm king’s, only to learn that a few months into the marriage she died as the result of a fall from a horse. Her middle sister, Kania, is then chosen to marry that same prince Vorling, in the hope that an heir will seal the alliance between the two realms; then, to prevent the possibility that a child from Marra’s eventual marriage might upset the balance, she is sent to live in a convent.Rejoining her family for the christening of Kania’s daughter, Marra discovers - to her horror - that her sister is living in a nightmarish situation with a violent, abusive husband whose only goal is to produce a male heir, after which Kania’s life might become worthless: fearing for her sister’s life, and enraged by Vorling’s treatment of her, Marra decides to remove him from the equation, and to fulfill that goal she seeks the aid of a dust-wife (a sort of sorceress dealing with the dead) who sets her on three apparently impossible tasks before lending her help. On the course of her journey of vengeance, Marra ends up collecting a ragtag group of allies, consisting of the aforementioned dust-wife (and her demon-infested chicken), an apparently goofy godmother who is everything but, a former soldier enslaved to a merchant in the goblin market, and a dog made of bones - oh, and a chick endowed with a sort of magical GPS qualities ;-)Nettle and Bone mixes the classical elements of the quest with those of the found family, wrapping the result in an atmosphere that blends seamlessly darkness and humor, fear and whimsy, and that turns what might look like a “been there, done that” reading experience into something unique and compelling. Most of the credit goes of course to the characters, both as individuals and as members of the group: as they get to know each other in the course of the journey, they also learn to trust their respective gifts and put them to use toward the final goal, and in this way allow the reader to see what makes them tick and appreciate the skill with which the author trust them together.Marra might not have a high opinion of herself, probably because her family never considered her of great use (except as a second-hand replacement for her older sisters), but when we meet her she’s already more than halfway through the tasks set by the dust-wife, and we are immediately presented with her determination and resilience, qualities that endeared her to me from the very start. I like the author’s choice of introducing her in medias res and then backtracking to the past and the road that brought her to that point: it’s an excellent way to showcase her emotional and personal growth from the contented almost-nun, who found joy in the simple pleasures of embroidery and tapestry making, to the resolute avenger of her sisters. There is a sentence that encapsulates that transformation very well, and shows how even the more unassuming, self-effacing person can find the courage to act when necessity arises:[...] watched Vorling’s face and realized that she had never hated before now. This must be what this new feeling was. It took up so much space in her chest that she did not know if she could breathe around it.Marra might be burdened by self-doubt, fears - mainly fostered by her family’s treatment of her as something of an afterthought, or an inconvenience - and by an overwhelming guilt for not having understood sooner the danger represented by Vorling, but she compensates those traits by not giving up even in the face of apparently impossible obstacles, and in the end she becomes a surprisingly (for the times and background in which the story is set) feminist character, particularly when she understands how women are endangered by the role that this world has saddled them with:[…] the history of the world was written in women’s wombs and women’s blood a consideration that I found even more pertinent in these recent times….The dust-wife and Agnes the godmother earned my instant sympathy, and not only because they are older women (Crone Power!!! :-D ) but because the combination of dry humor from the first and apparent absent-mindedness from the second offered many occasions for amusement - and here I feel compelled to mention the demon-infested chicken that’s the dust-wife’s constant companion and whose pointed squawking calls often underline a given situation in a delightfully fun way. A special place must however be reserved for Bonedog, who literally stole my heart and was one of the best non-human additions to the story.I did not expect to enjoy this story so much: what on the surface might have seemed a fairy-tale retelling ended up being a compelling adventure with a lot of heart at its core, and it’s my hope that other books from T. Kingfisher will prove equally engrossing and satisfying in what will be my own journey of discovery through this author’s works.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires."How can anyone not love a fantasy book that starts like this? The reader is dropped into the story partway at the beginning, but we learn that Marra is a princess, the spare who is sent to a convent to wait until the prince of the Northern Kingdom might need a new wife. Her oldest sister married him and died in an accident, and then the middle sister is currently married to him. But her sister warns her not to be next, so Marra determines to save her sister (and herself, just in case). Marra is not a typical heroine, being mostly good at embroidery so she decides to get some help from a dust-wife who sets her to three impossible tasks (hence the opening). The dust-wife has magic, mostly to do with communing with the dead. She also has a chicken possessed by a demon that sits on her staff and provides one egg a day for their journey. The two women attach to their group a disgraced knight who fell asleep in a fairy fort and a fairy godmother who mostly gives out blessings for good health.Nettle & Bone has all the elements of a good fairytale and also manages to subvert most of the tropes. T.Kingfisher is a wonderful author, wry and funny:“How did you get a demon in your chicken?''The usual way. Couldn't put it in the rooster. That's how you get basilisks.”She also doesn't shy away from the scary parts that make up the best fairytales. Marra has to go through some horrible events to save her sister. As the dust-wife says:“Fairy tales,” said the dust-wife heavily, “are very hard on bystanders. Particularly old women. I’d rather not dance myself to death in iron shoes, if it’s all the same to you.”Still, Marra and her crew persevere and the story of their adventures is one to read and re-read. Marra is a great character, a little slow to mature but stubborn once she sets a goal. I loved looking at her world through her eyes and I empathized with her often:"And did the great heroes do laundry? I don’t remember hearing about it. You’d think after slaying a hundred men, they’d need a good wash."

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting impossible tasks and good comrades. The narrator captures the matter-of-fact attitude of the dust-witch in a lovely way.