Elle's Reviews > Nettle & Bone

A darker, more sinister fairytale than what we’re used to, Nettle & Bone offers some familiar ideas but twisted and gnarled into something else entirely.

We first meet Marra digging in a pile of bones left by local cannibals so she can find enough pieces to build a bone dog. It’s the second of three impossible tasks she’s been given by the dust-wife, a kind of sorceress that inhabits cemeteries and communicates with the dead. But Marra will complete them all, because it’s the only way she will get the dust-wife to help her complete an even more impossible task: killing a prince.

Because before Marra was a woman seeking vengeance, before she was a novice currently AWOL from her convent—she was a the youngest of three princesses of a small kingdom. Now with one sister gone and another at the mercy of an evil prince, Marra will do whatever she must to seize the chance to kill him. Luckily, along the way Marra is joined by the dust-wife, a banished knight, a sketchy fairy godmother, the bone dog and a chicken possessed by a demon 🐓, all willing and happy to help her commit regicide.

At the very start of Nettle & Bone, when we’re first discovering who Marra is and what she wants, the story is filled with this fantastical feminist fury. She questions and then eventually challenges the inevitability of men, especially when it comes to a sense of entitlement to women’s bodies. The expectation that women will simply churn out kids without complaint is skewered by Kingfisher, in a refreshingly honest portrayal for a character like Marra, who doesn’t appear to have any interest in bearing children. That said, I could see some who are sensitive to discussions of pregnancy to not appreciate this part as much, though I don’t think it’s something that should cause offense.

And despite beginning by bearing its teeth, the tale softens as it goes on. Once we start meeting each supporting character, the book becomes almost a road trip comedy, where a gaggle of sort-of friends get to know each other along the way. The writing is sharp, with smart and funny dialogue. There isn’t a weak link in the bunch; each character contributes something both entertaining and endearing to the dynamic. I also appreciate that the youngest character is a 30 year-old woman, with the majority of the other female characters being 50+. Not an angsty teenager in sight!!

While the story takes plenty of detours on its way to the epic climax, it never feels like a waste of time. Plus, at 256 pages it’s not going to be a huge time commitment either way. All I can say is I had a great time reading this one, cackling throughout, and hope that people will try this bizarre little book for themselves.


*Thanks to Tor Books for an advance review copy!

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