Early Novella Review – Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult (appropriate for YA too)
Genre: Fairy Tales Retold/Fantasy
Length: 114 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: August 15, 2023
ASIN: B08V749Y5R
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.
Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?
But nothing with fairies is ever simple.
Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.
Thoughts: This was a cute little fairy tale retelling. It took a bit for me to get into the story but I ended up enjoying it. I didn’t like this as much as “Nettle & Bone” or “The Raven and the Reindeer”.
This story follows Toadling, who has been forced into the role of protecting the world from what’s in the tower. When a helpful knight stops by to try to remove the curse, Toadling is forced to confront the very things she’s been bound to for so long.
I enjoyed that this story is told from a different perspective than what you would expect. Toadling is a fairy and the “jailer” so to speak and it was fun to read a story from that perspective. The conversations that Toadling and the knight have are quite entertaining.
I struggled a bit to engage with the characters, they lacked depth and were cute but not very complex. It’s a fun idea and a quick read. I just wasn’t grabbed by the story and I didn’t find it incredibly engaging. This wasn’t a story I struggled to put down but I liked it well enough and generally enjoyed the uniqueness of it.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this wasn’t my favorite fairy tale retelling by Kingfisher but it was decent. I liked that the story is told from an unexpected point of view and that some typical fairy tale dynamics are twisted in unexpected ways. I did have some trouble engaging with the characters and being drawn into the story. However, this is a quick read and was entertaining enough. I look forward to what Kingfisher writes next. If you like fairy tale retellings and haven’t read “Nettle & Bone”, “The Raven and the Reindeer” or “Nine Goblins” I would recommend those as well; I enjoyed all of those a lot more than this novella.
