This is a fairytale that is unexpected in every way, a quest to save a princess from a prince, a motley crew of lovable characters with very questionable morals and one doggo that will steal your heart…and your bones.


We follow Princess Marra as she attempts and fails to navigate a world of political maneuverings and scheming royals and finds an unexpected solace amongst the nuns at the convent of Our Lady of Grackles.
But even as she tries her best to avoid entanglement with anything beyond her embroidery thread she can no longer ignore her family’s ties to the Northern Kingdom when she discovers her sister is suffering at the hands of her husband, the prince and heir to that icy Kingdom.

So Marra sets out on a quest to kill a prince and save her sister.
But quests are never as straightforward as the fairtytales would have you believe.
Mortals and fairy godmothers alike will hinder and help her on a journey that will take her from the peaceful convent gardens to the dust filled plains of the south and further still into a land blistered and ravaged by death before she can return with the tools to take down the prince.



Every character in this book is wonderfully realized and delightfully dimensional and complex, from the guest appearances to our main cast.
You will more than once be taken by surprise at the decisions they make, from the dead they deal to the teeth they trade and the souls they save but not one choice is out of character and I came to love this party of unexpected friends - and frenemies- more than I realized.
The primary focus is held firmly on our main characters and their personal growth, particularly Marra who has some brilliant character development throughout this story, but there is a lovely sub-plot romance that is so wholesome sweet it will give you toothache.

There is also more than one member of the main group that I would kill a prince to get a backstory for….just saying…in case the author reads this…

The world building is something completely unique and also, so sue me for using this word yet again, unexpected. As I read I felt like I was visiting lands from every one of my favorite childhood fantasies but this time they were that bit more merciless and that bit more authentically realized.
The plot was flawlessly paced and every time i made time to actually sit down and read i would fly through the pages not even notice how many I'd read until i checked the page count.
Writing style wise I was put in mind of Tessa Gratton and Naomi Novik, whimsical yet tangible, brutal yet beautiful and often charmingly hilarious - I laughed out loud more than once - while also so sharply honest and true to life it would often cut to the bone.

Overall this is a fine edged weapon of a fairytale that pulls no punches where the fairy godmothers will just as lightly curse you as bless you and the princesses wield bones and nettles just as deadly as any poison dagger.


Cannot recommend it enough to fans of dark fairytales and feminist fantasies who want something just that bit different from every other book on the shelf.

It's my first read from T. Kingfisher and I think I'll be reading more from her in the future. If you're a fan of unconventional stories like The Princess Bride or Shrek, then I highly recommend this one. This is my kind of fairy tale. It's a little bit dark, a lot bit hopeful, and features an interesting group of misfits that all work together to storm the castle.

The story sets off running as we follow Marra, our heroine, around the banished lands in search of bones. What does she needs the bones for? Well, she needs them to resurrect a dog. Yes, she's making a dog out of bones. It's the first task of three that she's willing to do in order to garner the help of a gravewitch. If she's able to get the help of the witch, then she can begin her journey to saving her sister.

The beginning jumps between what Marra accomplishes for the witch and what's already happened. Marra is the third princess from a super small country. Her older sister is married to the prince of the Northern Kingdom and deeply abused by him. While Marra is a princess, she's been spending the last half of her life in a convent in the Southern Kingdom waiting out her fate. But after seeing the state of her sister and seeing that no one is willing to help her, she's taken it upon herself to try and save her from a cruel husband and a life of pain.

As Marra completes the impossible tasks for the gravewitch, they head off with a demon-possessed chicken and come across a disgraced knight who can't go home, and a fairy godmother who's only good at casting curses on children. Together, they plan on storming the castle, saving the queen, and breaking whatever spell that lives on the land and keeps the cruel prince's family in power.

Most of the story is the journey to the castle. Marra comes across the different characters of her group as she gets closer to her sister's new kingdom and you see a glimpse of this world through their journey. The world building was exquisite. I was worried that some things would be sacrificed because of the length of the book, but there was no exceptions for world building. You can really imagine this place with strange monsters and weird magic all throughout it. It felt like a real place you can visit and while this wasn't the highest of high fantasy novels, it was nice to escape from reality for a little while. Dogs made from bones and monsters who can play a song to dance your teeth out of your mouth, it was such a wild ride and I found myself enjoying every minute of it.

It's a lot of fun following Marra and the group through their world in hopes of saving Marra's sister before it's too late. Each character is so inspired and hold their own personality. I can imagine the faces they made and the language that they use feels spot on with their personality. I even liked that the chicken had a personality. The fun part is that they were so flawed; as flawed as Marra herself. The gravewitch was just a snarky old lady who takes care of her demon-possessed chicken. The disgraced knight was looking for something to fight for after being banished from his own kingdom. The fairy godmother who can only do bad, but wants to be good. They all had flaws, but I loved seeing them be more than that throughout the story.

It was interesting to watch Marra grow so much from the character she starts with to the character she ends up. At first, she's timid. She's spent most of her life in a convent embroidering tapestries and helping birth babies. Then, she goes off to save her sister without a clue where to start and fosters help along the way. Nothing comes easy to her and she does fail a few times, but I love that she's not willing to quit especially since her sister's life is on the line. I feel like the strength of the people she collects as she's journeying to the capital really lend to help pull her from her own shell and become the stronger person she is. At the end, she knows who she is. She knows what she wants. And she's done playing puppet to a family who only see her as a bargaining chip.

Of course, it also deals with some bigger themes of domestic abuse and violence. Hearing Marra's sister dealing with the pain her husband doles out and the lack of help from the people around her, I really felt for Marra and her situation. It would hurt me to see my sister in such pain and going to such destructible lengths to avoid it. I definitely would leave my life as a nun to help her even if I didn't even know how to help her.

Quite a fun story and definitely the kind I love finding myself dreaming about. I may not want to get in the way of that chicken, but I will definitely read more from T. Kingfisher.

This was my first book by T. Kingfisher and it certainly won't be the last. I love the dark-spin-on-fairytales thing, and this is one of the best takes on that that I've come across. I love that Kingfisher took all the "expected" elements of a fairy tale (fairy godmothers, spells, etc.) and twisted them into this dark and unexpected direction. The setting is so atmospheric, and Marra is an easy heroine to root for. I thought the pacing was a little off, especially when we're bouncing back and forth in time, but this seems to be a pretty common style for books like this.


I think this will be a great hand-sell for fans of A Spindle Splintered, Spinning Silver, Heartless, The Lunar Chronicles, and more.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for this ARC!

After reading this book, i definitely need to read more books by kingfisher. This book was so immersive and well paced.

Marra lives in the harbour kingdom, with her three sisters. In an attempt to build connections, their older sister is married off to the prince of the North, only to die several months later. Then the second sister is married to him. Kania tells Marra that all is not well in the kingdom, which sends Marra off on a quest to break the curses over the land and save her sister from a loveless marriage.

This book, while not a whole lot of romance like I would normally enjoy, is really quite beautiful. I think the friendships in this book are what had me hooked and the magical world building.

* Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for an advance copy for review purposes *

A very engaging fairy tale involving a nun, a fairy godmother, a dust wife (kind of like a witch with powers around the dead), a knight, a bone dog and a demon hen. Marra, princess of a kingdom under constant threat of invasion by the surrounding kingdoms, watches with despair how her sister suffers from violence from her powerful husband. With intention to help, she sets out in an adventure and gathers a very diverse crew to help defeat the cruel king.

I loved the imagery of the book, specially the scenes involving the introduction of the bone dog. I really liked that the majority of the characters were women, and that the main character was not a teenager, but a woman in her thirties (although she is way more naïve that one would expect at that age, even considering living half of her life in a convent). Some of the situations are really funny, but this is a pretty dark story. There is some romance, but is very subdued, and thankfully takes a back seat to the very interesting story.

Now, where can I get my own bone dog? And will my flesh dog be too tempted to eat it?

Marra, born a princess and now living among nuns, is determined to live a meek, unassuming live of chores and crafting. That is, until she learns that her sister is married to an abusive, hateful king.

With a team of unlikely heroes, Marra engages on an adventure to save her sister, her kingdom, and herself from the monster king.

Nettle and Bone’s fairytale structure certainly appealed to my inner child in a wholly satisfying way, but my adult self also felt validated by Marra’s journey from feeling small and useless to deciding her own purpose.

I absolutely loved the feminist themes throughout this story. Without including spoilers, the main heroes of this story are the women. There was a huge emphasis on crafting in this story, a traditionally feminine hobby, as opposed to sword fighting or something more traditionally associated with men’s hobbies.

T. Kingfisher plays around with the timeline of this story in a really interesting way. When the story opens, Marra is digging through a charnel pit constructing a dog out of bone and wire. Then, Kingfisher jumps backward in time to Marra’s childhood. You want to keep reading to find out how this quiet, unassuming princess ended up digging around a bone pit.

I found her prose hypnotic, like a true classic fairytale, and hilarious. I often laughed out loud. In fact, there wasn’t much I disliked about this book. True, the pacing was slow at times, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bag thing. The leisurely pace really gave me the opportunity to ponder Marra’s struggles.

I will pre-order the hardcover copy of this book. I’ll also recommend this book to adult fantasy fans, especially women in their late twenties who might identify with Marra’s journey like I did. These characters, these themes, and this story will definitely stay with me for a long time, and this is a new favorite of mine.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars

As far as fairytales go this one is both dark and absurd. We follow Marra, the youngest princess from a small kingdom with a strategic port. After her oldest sister, who had been married to the prince of the much larger and stronger kingdom to the North dies, her remaining sister is married off to him. Marra is sent to a convent where she leads a happy life until her sister becomes pregnant. While attending the birth Marra finds out the prince is controlling and abusive. Ever practical, Marra knows that no one else is going to do anything so she sets out to gain the power she needs to kill the prince and save her sister. This leads her on a journey to find a dust witch who sets her three impossible tasks and has her travelling to the Goblin Market and tracking down her fairy godmother.

This book is great because it has all of the expected hallmarks of a fairytale, witches, fairy godmothers, magic spells, impossible tasks, etc. etc. but they are twisted and turned in new and unexpected ways. Like the original fairy tales that women told to each other over their chores (before men like the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault got their hands on them and adapted them as morality tales for children), this story deals with problems that afflict women. Arranged marriages, abusive partners, forced pregnancy, the dangers of childbirth, pregnancy loss and the death of a child. These are serious themes and I love how Kingfisher doesn’t shy away from them. The absurdity of the magic and the characters bring the levity that a story that deals with these kind of themes needs for balance.

There were a few things that I didn’t like about this book, but they are relatively minor. The first is the pacing is a bit weird. We jump into the story partway through and have to back track to understand why Mara is undertaking the three impossible tasks. This throws off the balance of the book which is otherwise very much a quest story (or a road trip story if you prefer, with the characters travelling across the land picking up the things they need to attain their goals). I did read the author’s note at the back of the book which pointed out that this book started out as a short story so it’s possible that is the cause of the strange starting point and weird pacing. I have not read the original short story so I can’t say for sure.

The second thing that left me feeling a little disappointed was the similarity of this story to Swordheart, which is another of T. Kingfishers works. While Swordheart is much more a romance story there were many similarities between Marra and Hala as well as between Fenris and Sarkis. The overall road trip vibes of this book also made me think of Swordheart. Despite these similarities I think I liked Nettle and Bone better so take my complaints about their similarities as you will.

If you love fairytale retellings with bad ass women who aren’t just men with breasts, characters over the age of 30, and a good helping of snark and wry humor this book could certainly work for you.

Every one of T. Kingfisher's books is fantastic in its own way. In this one she tackles fairy tale tropes, and populates it with a vivid set of characters spawned from archetypes but fleshed out in a very Kingfisher way. We spend the most time with practical-minded, possibly neurodivergent Princess Marra, who doesn't quite know how to exist in the world, but who keeps stolidly moving forward anyway. Thank you, Ursula V, for finding a heroic role for the knitting wallflowers of the world.

I did not want to put this book down. A magical motley crew trying to kill a Prince? Sign me up. Also I forever want my own Bonedog after this book and wish I could keep him.

Marra has a quiet life at the convent, but knows something very strange is going on with her sister who is married to the Prince. It's more than just the shock and grief of losing her oldest sister...something is amiss, but Marra is admittedly slow on picking these things up (as her sister always teased her). I love how dedicated she is and how fervently she completes any task or fights any obstacle in her way once she decides to save her sister.

One of my favorite things is found family / meeting a bunch of seemingly mismatched people and bringing them together for an epic quest. And I think this is the best one I've read so far. I loved the different dynamics at play between each character, even just how they each reacted to the same situation or tried to solve a problem.

The storytelling was fantastic with just the right amount of fairytale-esque feeling, but with the perfect sassy touch. And the strong emotions of Marra throughout the process really made everything more vivid and touching. I enjoyed this from beginning to end and the windy road in between.

Wow. Just wow. From the depths of Kingfisher's imagination comes this dark fantasy fairytale read.

Marra is one of three princesses. The first married off to the prince is returned home dead. The second, them married to the same prince afterwards, is abused and held in an endless cycle of miscarried pregnancies. Marra is sent to the convent by her mother, forced to remain unattached if ever the need for a third princess to marry the prince comes to pass. On a quest to save her sister she seeks out a bone-witch with a possessed chicken as companion, creates a dog made of bones and wire, enlists her fairy godmother, and finds an imprisoned former warrior from another land.

I really had mixed feelings when I started this book. The first few chapters left me extremely confused and uncertain. Kingfisher jumps a bit all over the place. The author moves straight into the story with little world building before backing up the story and leading readers along Marra's path. Once I got past those few chapters, I was enveloped by a highly imaginative and dark tale filled with interesting characters. I mean...demon chicken, laying demon eggs? If that doesn't scream interesting, I don't know what does. I also really liked how the story is propelled by Marra's love and revenge. Once past the opening chapters the book grabbed hold of me and propelled me to a very satisfying ending.

Overall this is a quick read once you get into the story. Traversing Kingfisher's imaginative dark story landscape was absolutely wonderfully delightful.

You’d think a dog made from bones and wire would be horrifying, but actually it’s charming and lovable, and the first friend to join Marra, the main character in Nettle and Bone on her quest. The third daughter of a kingdom plagued by a weak military and a great harbor, Marra has watched her oldest sister die, and her second sister be married off to the same cruel man to ensure peace in their small kingdom. Although Marra’s relationship with her second sister, Kania, wasn’t the greatest, she is appalled and sets off to avenge her sister and to prevent her becoming the evil prince’s third victim. Along the way she gathers what should be a frightful entourage, but what turns out to be uniformly delightful and loyal traveling companions, among them a dust-wife with a demon chicken, a fairy godmother, and a murderer-knight bought with a dancing tooth from a goblin market.
This fairy tale turned road trip comedy is a wondrous romp. If you enjoyed Uprooted by Naomi Novik, I think you’ll find that you’ll start this book and look up 2 days later, only somewhat surprised that none of your laundry got done or your bills paid, either.

(Also posted to Facebook, with certain friends tagged)

I really loved this book. The tone is a bit darker than some of T. Kingfisher's previous novels, but it was balanced out by a wry sense of humor that was present throughout the book. The author played with fairy-tale tropes such as fairy godmothers, evil princes, and princesses sent to nunneries in a way I found engaging and refreshing.

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC!

Nettle & Bone’s premise is that of a typical fairytale—our heroine must complete three seemingly impossible tasks in order to receive help on an incredible quest. Though the premise is traditional fairy tale fare, the story itself is anything but typical. Our heroine is not a young, teenaged heir to the throne, but the third-born, thirty-something princess, who was sent to a convent to wait for the birth of her elder sisters' heirs. Quiet and timid, the convent is a solace, not a cage to our heroine, Marra. However, when she learns there’s something sinister to her sisters’ marriages, and that death is on the doorstep of her sole remaining sister, she sets out on a desperate quest to save the day.

“Three tasks the dust-wife had given her. Sew a cloak of owlcloth and nettles, build a dog of cured bones, and catch moonlight in a jar of clay….Three tasks, and then the dust-wife would give her the tools to kill a prince.”


Our all-too-happy-to-be-forgotten princess seeks not the help of a daring young knight, but a powerful “dust-wife” or grave witch, in order to aid her on her quest to save her sister, and to not-so-coincidentally murder her sister’s evil husband, Prince Vohrling. Armed with a demon-chicken, a bone dog, and a cloak made of nettles, they set out on their journey. Along the way, they encounter dark spirits, enter a dangerous goblin market, rescue a murderer, and enlist a fairy godmother who’s infinitely better at curses than blessings. Though Nettle & Bone sounds like it borders on the ridiculous, it doesn’t.

“‘You’re bringing the hen?’

‘She’s got a demon in her,’ said the dust-wife. ‘It’d be rude to leave her for the neighbors to deal with.’”


Author T. Kingfisher deftly balances humor and a dark and creepy atmosphere as expertly as her heroine spins her cloak of nettles. I absolutely loved this unique twist on traditional fairy tales, and delighted that everything was not as it seemed. Sometimes the most magical stories are the ones we can see ourselves in and I think this was definitely part of why I loved Nettle & Bone so much. It was utterly refreshing to read about a heroine my own age, who was content with a quiet life out of the spotlight, and wasn’t off to attend a ball, reclaim a lost throne at great cost, or any other conventional princess storyline.

Though a tale of vengeance, in a way, I often found myself laughing aloud at Kingfisher’s signature humor. The hilariousness of a demon chicken who takes a crap on a ghost, is so well interspersed with the creepiness of the drowned that haunt bodies of water or the eeriness and horror that is a cursed child possessing a willing adult. I personally didn’t care quite as much for the romance of Nettle & Bone as much as other aspects of the novel. Though sweet, I could have done without this relationship entirely. I suppose no fairy tale is complete without a love story, but I truly didn’t find it to be a necessary part of a novel that seeks to be different from the model fairy tale. And as Marra was such an independent young lady, who prized her freedom as a nun, it was hard for me to believe she even wanted a man in her life.

I also found the world-building to be minimal in Nettle & Bone. There are vague references to diseased lands, other kingdoms, and even saints and gods, but not much development on them. Nettle & Bone is still a great read even without more detail to its world, but I couldn’t help but to wonder how much better it could have been with further exposition on these things. I so quickly grew to love this strange world, with its mysterious saints, old crones that command the dead, and goblin market, that I couldn’t help but want to know more about it.

Nettle & Bone is truly a must read for fans of darker fairy tales and the author herself. It is such a fun read that I could easily see myself rereading it in the future. Nettle & Bone is the second book I’ve read by author T. Kingfisher, the first being What Moves the Dead , and I’ve enjoyed both novels so much that I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading other works by the same author.

Honestly, I am psyched wherever I see T. Kingfisher coming out with a new book. I feel in love with this author after listening to Jackalope Wives on LeVar Burton Reads and she doesn't disappoint. Her books always have aspects that I love and appreciate: main characters who are a realistic age and not gorgeous, 18, and a size 2. They're not obsessed with romance. They're smart but make mistakes, brave but scared, and very realistic. Marra, the main character in this book, is almost 30. THIRTY. I love that she wove in the threads of different methods (I think it's the princess and the swans where the princess has to sew shirts of nettles) and her own lore that comes from her insane imagination. And honestly, her love of dogs always comes through and I love that animals aren't getting hurt (like Stephen king, I love you, but you hurt animals in your books and it's almost never necessary).

I have a feeling that T. Kingfisher has the makings of a new favorite author for me. This was the first book I have picked up by this author and it far exceeded my expectations. I have seen Kingfisher pop up on my recommended reads often but I had never taken the plunge to actually pick up any of their books. Then came Nettle & Bone. There was just something about this story that caught my eye right away. I knew that I had to give it a try and I am glad that I did.

Nettle & Bone was a very unique and refreshing fairy tale. I have read many a fairy tale and/or fairy tale retelling so it is pretty hard to leave me in awe but this book did. From the characters to the plot. I just couldn't get enough. I enjoyed spending time with Marra, the dust-wife, Bonedog, and a chicken possessed by demon as they traveled across the country to kill the King and save Marra's sister. They picked up a few more members along the way and became quite the ragtag group of misfits.

This book was full of humor and heart. I didn't want it to end. I look forward to checking out more of T. Kingfisher's work because they are definitely going to be an author I watch from now on.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the advanced digital copy.

I absolutely love books like this. Mixing something old into something uniquely new. Kingfisher has such a way with words and blending grim and hilarious scenes. I've yet to read a book by her that I didn't love.

On this fool's errand we meet some very interesting characters: a chicken possessed by a demon, a bone dog, a not very evil godmother, a shy convent-raised third princess, and more.

They're on an quest to kill a prince but well, things aren't as easy as the stories make them out to be.

This is an utterly delightful book, that is equaly parts fun and creepy, that has lots of sincerity and heart, and that has just a pinch of romance.

I'd definitely recommend picking this book up asap! 4.5 🌟

"What kind of life do you lead where you find yourself building a harp out of corpses? For that matter, what kind of life do you lead where you find yourself building a dog out of bones?"

I think when it comes to the genre “dark fairytale,” that descriptor can be a bit of a misnomer. Basically the term is so broad that it doesn’t really encapsulate everything that a book might be. Is Nettle & Bone a dark fairytale? Yes, but so are The Broken Beasts of Beauty by Loxely Savage and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that Nettle & Bone is similar to those two novels. A better way of describing Nettle & Bone is to call the book macabre, because that is very clearly what it is meant to be. It is creepy and dark, and it involves pretty girls who play with bones and murderous princes terrified of obscurity.
On one hand I really liked the set up for this book. It felt very feminisit and front leading; basically a novel that was more about action than sitting back and thoughtfully examining each and every political strategy. The protagonist, Marra, had a catalyst and an objective and essentially moved forward consistently throughout the entire narrative.
The thing about Nettle & Bone that drew me in was the overall tone of it. It was just plain fun to read. Despite how gothic and spooky it was, I can see it as being very accessible even for people who might not be into horror. The huge emphasis on fantasy stood out more than the horror elements. Not to say that the horror was downplayed, it was just very subtle and sort of crept up on you as opposed to being very in your face, which I think ultimately made it more successful.
I definitely enjoyed this, and can see myself recommending it to people unsure about trying something scary, but who really enjoy twisted fairytales and fantasy narratives.

According to research by Miller, Newman, and Friedman, "the average length of a function word was 3.13 letters; for a content word the average was 6.47 letters." To get the estimates above, we assumed that words in sentences range from 4-7 letters. We also assumed that sentences have 15-20 words and paragraphs typically have 100-200 words and 5-6 sentences.

“The world isn’t fair, Calvin.” “I know Dad, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?” While the quote is from The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, the sentiment is one that could easily be attributed to Marra, the central character in Nettle & Bone. Throughout this proto-fairytale, Marra frequently bemoans the unfairness of her world, even as she continually puts on her world’s equivalent of “big girl panties” and just keeps right on dealing with that unfairness.

I call this a “proto-fairytale” because it reads like just the kind of story that will be a fairytale someday, after the events have passed through the hands of this world’s versions of the Brothers Grimm AND Walt Disney in order to shape, knead and mold this “adventure” – in the sense that an adventure is something terrible that happens to someone else either long ago, fair away or both – into the kind of morality tale/object lesson that fairy tales end up being once they become “tales” rather than “history”.

This is also a tale that can be looked at as either “this is the house that jack built” or it’s opposite where “jack” goes on his journey of tasks and errands so damn mad at the situation that sent him that by the time he reaches his destination he tells everyone to stick it where the sun don’t shine.

In other words, Nettle & Bone is a tale of accretion, where Princess Marra starts out with a vague plan that takes on weight, depth and followers as she travels. And it needs all of those things and people because her task is large and she is small. She plans to save her second sister – the one who doesn’t even like her all that much – from certain death at the hands of the evil prince who already murdered their oldest sister AND threatens their parents’ kingdom.

Which is another way that this is a story about fairness, privilege, and the actual powerlessness that afflicts people in positions of seeming power – at least if those people are female.

So Marra is on a quest to save her sister. She thinks she needs to kill the evil prince, so that’s the task she sets herself. But she needs magic to counteract the prince’s magic, so she goes looking for a witch. The witch sets her three impossible tasks, not unlike many such stories. And not unlike those stories, Marra completes the tasks she has been set. She makes the cloak of nettle thread, and brings a dog made of bones back to the witch. The witch herself presents Marra with the third, the moon captured in a jar because she’s so astonished by Marra’s completion of the first two tasks that she decides to help her with her quest.

And they’re off! Along with the witch’s familiar, a hen with a demon inside her. Otherwise known as Strong Independent Chicken, a bird who really exists and to whom this book is dedicated.

But the plan is barely a sketch – and one not nearly as easy to fill in as Marra originally thought – or hoped. Along the way they add two more members to their already assorted party – a soldier they free from the Goblin Market, and Marra’s family godmother, who is both a bit more AND a bit less than she seems.

Off they go in search of, not adventure, but a way of bringing a little more fairness into their world. Marra thinks they’re going to kill the prince. The soldier is just happy to be free of the Goblin Market. The witch is coming to speak to the dead and the godmother is coming to magic the living. The chicken and her demon are along for the ride, in the hopes of causing whatever mayhem they can on the way. And there’s plenty of that every step of the way!

Escape Rating A+: I was looking for something by T. Kingfisher AKA Ursula Vernon to review as part of this Blogo-Birthday Celebration Week because so far I’ve loved everything of hers that I’ve read, especially A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and her Saint of Steel series (Paladin’s Grace, Paladin’s Strength and Paladin’s Hope). And because I enjoyed every single presentation she did on the recent JoCo Cruise – especially her stories about, you guessed it, Strong Independent Chicken. So I was looking for a book to review as a gateway drug for the giveaway and Nettle & Bone will be out later this month. So here we are.

Like the other books of hers that I have read, there’s a lot going on in Nettle & Bone and the story feels much bigger underneath than it is on the surface. On the surface, there’s the adventure of it all, which is marvelous and a perfectly good way of getting into this story and the rest of her work.

But underneath that there’s all this other stuff going on. There’s a lot in this story about the contrast between power and powerlessness, and the way that the perception of privilege depends on where you are in the neverending pecking order of the universe. It’s something that Marra comes to have a wider and more expansive view of on this journey. That’s partly because she’s a princess who is almost but not exactly a nun. While she thinks her mother the queen is powerful and can fix everything, she’s also aware that it is easier to travel as a nun than either a princess or a woman. Princesses are hedged ‘round with restrictions, while women in general are always subject to the whims and physical size and power of men.

Her whole quest is about reconciling the fact that those rules apply in the end to princes and princesses and even kingdoms. Someone is always more powerful and someone is always abusing that power.

At the same time, this is a women’s quest from start to finish. Although they have a soldier with them, and Fenris is certainly useful – as well as easy on the eyes – everything that happens in this story is driven by its female characters. The plan and the solutions they come to are not about men and arms and armies – it’s about women and soft power and seeing the truth of things. With the result that soft power turns out not to be soft at all, because power is a hard thing to seize no matter who is doing it.

In the end this is a story about feeling the fear and doing it anyway, even when you don’t know what you’re doing and aren’t in the least bit sure you’re going about the right way of doing it. Marra’s quest is to save her sister, and she does. At the same time, her sister also saves herself. And both the kingdoms. It’s never easy and it’s always on the knife edge of failing – but it gets done.

And it’s utterly marvelous along every single step of its impossible way.

“She is riding a dragon, and all of us in the kingdom are riding along with her.”

Marra is the baby of her family. For the kingdom’s good, Marra’s middle sister Kania is married to prince Vorling. To spare Marra if the heir does not come along, she is sent to the convent. Resilient Marra is a dutiful daughter, but she knows she needs to act when she learns some secrets about the prince.

“Some things come into being once it’s inevitable that they will exist.”

The invention of the dust-wife, the tasks she gives Marra, and the quest they go on are all so incredibly inventive. I loved everyone they picked up along their journey. This book is amusing because there is mystery and magic, whimsy, and tension, and it’s very creative. Marra is a strong woman. She’s dedicated to doing what is right, and you cheer for her every step of the way. I loved the fairy tale elements that were the cherry on top of an already superbly fun read. Nettle & Bone is a creative story that draws you in from page one. Thank you, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, for sending this along.