4.5 stars

What a wonderful and sweet retelling!!! T. Kingfisher writes such marvelous characters -- I adored Toadling and Halim, I would read books and books more about them. I wasn't sure how I'd like this book at first, but Kingfisher's writing swiftly drew me in. I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, especially fairy tales in particular.

Thank you NetGalley and TOR Books for "Thornhedge" by T. Kingfisher in exchange for an honest review. I recommend this book to all lovers of Sleeping Beauty and fairytales. I was not expecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did! This was my first time reading T. Kingfisher, and I was not disappointed. Instead, I was brought onto an emotional rollercoaster and once I was on, I could not get off. I could not stop turning the pages and I was heavily invested, It was charming and dark-fantasy filled. The ending was well executed, and I was drawn in since the start. I will be reading more of the author's work.

"In the early days, the wall of thorns had been distressingly obvious. There was simply no way to hide a hedge with thorns like sword blades and stems as thick as a man’s thigh. A wall like that invited curiosity and with curiosity came axes, and it was all the fairy could do to keep some of those curious folk from gaining entrance to the tower.
Eventually, though, the brambles had grown up around the edges—blackberry and briar and dog rose, all the weedy opportunists—and that softened the edge of the thorn wall and gave the fairy some breathing room. Roving princes and penniless younger sons had been fascinated by the thorns, which were so obviously there to keep people out. Hardly anybody was interested in a bramble thicket."
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"How does anyone manage? There are too many streams and they all flow and all of them could be good and there’s no way to know. How does anyone ever choose to do anything?"

Match.com profile – Languid Lady - Wanna meet a real princess? Low maintenance, fond of comfortable bedding, long walks in dreamland, quiet weekends at home in the castle. If you are looking for consistency, a quiet, luxurious, restful life, send me a message. Only real princes need apply. Let’s make some magic together. (Submitted for a friend)

We all know, or should know, the story of Sleeping Beauty, whether the Disney version or some other. Beautiful princess is tucked away in a tower for a seemingly endless nap, done dirt by an evil fairy. Kingfisher, as she has done many times with established tales, offers a different perspective.

This time, what if it was not a dark force, but a kind one that had caused all those zzzzzzzzzs? What if there was a good reason for doing so? What is someone was charged with making sure that no one disturbed the sleeper, however many years, decades, centuries might pass?

"One thing I like to do with fairy tales is to look at them and go “How can I make this even worse?” - from the Grim Dark interview

I am not so sure that Kingfisher’s tale really is a worse version. Well, maybe worse that the Disney version. But far from the worst. There is one (and there are others as bad) in which a wandering king happens by the castle where a sleeper named Talia is housed. He decides this is a great opportunity for him, absconds with her virginity, and leaves the unconscious Talia pregnant with twins. What a guy!

We get a look at some of the trappings of fairy tales, including a fairy civilization that is maybe not so nice. Another, the Greenteeth, who raised her, provide our heroine with her other side abilities. These include the power to switch back and forth between human and toad form, which can come in handy. Her name is Toadling. She has been dutifully standing guard over the castle in which the sleeper has been kept for multiple centuries.

Until one day, a knight arrives. Halim is not one of those spoiled, handsome, armored snots who usually trot through such tales, slaying dragons and rescuing (abducting?) fair maidens. He is a Muslim, for one, and, not being a first-born, not exactly in line for a nice inheritance.

"Being a knight isn’t about being religious, you know, so much as it is to figure out what to do with your extra sons so they don’t tear up the family seat. Every now and then someone gets the idea we should start chopping each other’s heads off, but in practice, the Pope squats in Rome like a spider and the caliphs glare at one another over their walls, and the rest of us get along as best we can with each other.”"

As is obvious from this, Halim comes across as a pretty decent sort, mostly there to check out something he had read, about a long-form sleeper in a tower. I suppose there might be an angle of interest in forming an alliance with a landed bit of royalty when your own prospects are a bit slim, but really, it is mostly curiosity. We are led to think that he is a good guy by the conversations he has with Toadling. But is he on the level with her, or is he trying to manipulate her into letting him past the massive thorn hedge that surrounds the castle?

For her part, Toadling is riven with guilt for having messed up a magical task she had been assigned, thus her lengthy tenure at this post. She is dutiful, and honor-bound.

Toadling tells Halim her (and thus the sleeper’s) story in bits, so that by the time we are nearing the end, we know all there is to know about how the whole princess-in-a-tower situation came to be, the decisions that were made, the actions that followed and the active perils.

There are multiple sources of joy in this novella (30K words). The first is the interaction between Halim and Toadling. Both are modest people. She tells Halim that she is not beautiful, and he says the same of himself.

"Practical overworked middle-aged women basically keep the world running…And being myself a rather frumpy middle-aged woman, I write stories about people like me partly because they’re very much who I can write, but also because I want those women to have stories. Sometimes we read fantasy stories in order to pretend we’re someone else, but sometimes we read fantasy stories in order to pretend that people like us can have adventures too. Mind you, if the readers ever get tired of reading about middle-aged gardeners, I’m probably in trouble, but so far, so good." - from the Grim Dark interview

The second is the creative reinterpretation Kingfisher had concocted of the classic tale. It is far from alone. The Sleeping Beauty story first appeared in the 14th century. A later version, adapted by Charles Perrault in the late seventeenth century forms the basis of all later versions, including the one transmitted by the Brothers Grimm. That one was called Little Briar Rose. I am sure you will be excited to learn that there is classification system for fairy tales, called the Aarne-Thompson system. It was news to me that this existed. It is a major tool for folklorists. Sleeping Beauty slots in at Type #410, FYI. There have been many versions over eight hundred years.

The third is Toadling herself. She is such a wonderful character, a good person challenged with outrageous fortune in her life, but holding up because her core is good, kind, and strong. You will quite enjoy spending time with her.

Thematically, there are walls aplenty in here, the fortress, of course, the thornhedge of the book’s title, and the barriers between the human world and the land of fairy. Halim offers a lovely image for Toadling.

“There’s a very high wall,” said Halim, “according to the imams, called al-A’raf. Between hell and paradise. And if you haven’t been good enough or evil enough to go one place or the other, you live in this wall. But even those people will eventually enter paradise, because God is merciful.” He jammed his chin onto his fist and gazed at Toadling. “It seems like you’ve been stuck in that wall for quite a long time now . . . That’s all the theology I’ve got in me, incidentally, so I hope it’s useful.”
Toadling sighed. “I would like to climb down from that wall,” she admitted.

And there is the wall between Toadling and Halim. Will they break through that one?

Bottom line is that Thornhedge is a lot of fun. It takes our expectations and turns them inside out, all the while offering us the welcome companionship of Toadling. This new interpretation of an old tale is rich with creativity. No spindles required. Let Kingfisher put you under her spell and you will be in for a magical read.


Review posted - 10/27/23

Publication date – 8/15/23


I received an ARE of Thornhedge from Tor.com in return for a fair(y) review. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

a sweetly melancholy reimagining of the classic “sleeping beauty” tale, thornhedge centers around the fairy who placed the curse and the gentle knight who seeks out the sleeping princess centuries later, only to find and befriend her guardian instead.

t. kingfisher’s stories can be hit or miss for me, but this one was charming, clever, and heartwarming.

"Thornhedge" is everything T. Kingfisher does best. She thrives in this dark, borderline-horror fantasy space, but she's always able to bring some levity and humor into it, and “Thornhedge” sits right in that sweet spot.

I love Kingfisher’s ability to re-imagine classic fairy tale stories or tropes and flip them on their heads. The cleverness of the sleeping maiden being the villain of the story is extremely compelling, and on the flip-side of that, I also adore Kingfisher’s ability to endear the reader to incredibly unlikely characters.

Toadling would be a completely unremarkable character in any other story. She’s not secretly beautiful, she’s not heroic, she’s not confident, she doesn’t even have especially powerful fairy magic. And the other main character, Halim, is a knight. But he’s not a Christian knight, he’s a Muslim knight, and he’s also not especially storied or heroic. To have these two unsure, hesitant, terrified characters be the driving force behind this story is a huge part of what makes it so charming and it makes the story that much more satisfying to read as they really try to screw their courage to the sticking place.

Thematically, the story resonated with me as well, because both characters are struggling against these self-imposed moral strictures that are completely of their own creation, which traps both of them in different ways.

Toadling feels at fault for what’s happening with this sleeping maiden and has taken it upon herself to stand watch over this tower and make sure no one enters, which means her life has effectively shrunken down to this one endless task, this one small point. Halim, on the other hand, feels incredibly bound to this code of knighthood, this call to help the helpless no matter the cost, and even though Toadling is warning him that this tower is dangerous, there’s a part of him that demands he see it for himself, despite the warnings and his own good sense.

I feel like those parallel conflicts are really exploring the ways in which we hold ourselves prisoner—with our guilt, with our sense of obligation, with our regret or fear of regret—to the point where we don’t allow ourselves to grow or to live. I think it’s about how sometimes we try our best, maybe we put in more effort than we can even afford, and we still fail—and that’s okay. That’s part of life.

Overall, I found this to be a delightful way to spend an afternoon. The story is original, and captivating, and presents some really compelling characters while also delivering on those dark fantasy elements. The story doesn’t overstay its welcome either. It’s exactly as long and as detailed as it needs to be, which is definitely a plus.

That said, Kingfisher has set a pretty high bar for herself across the board. So on the spectrum of all things Kingfisher, even though I think this is certainly on the higher end, I don’t think it’s quite at the caliber of the best I’ve seen from her so far. Regardless, this was a solid four stars for me.

I enjoyed the fairytale and retelling aspects of this story, but I felt it was too predictable. The ending was also very anticlimactic. The villain was killed and then the characters just moved on to the next thing. I would read other books by this author, but this one just was not for me.

Popular culture tends to see fairytales in a very particular light: Colorful, romantic stories of princesses in magical castles, dashing princes, and first kisses, where good always triumphs and evil is always ugly. We like to forget that the original tales—whether passed down through folklore or penned by the Brothers Grimm themselves, are sharp, dark things, often uncomfortable, always complicated, and as likely to steal the breath from your throat as inspire dreams of happily ever after.

That is the kind of fairytale at the center of T. Kingfisher’s latest novella, Thornhedge, a delicate, sharp-edged story of a princess in a tower that’s actually a meditation on duty, loss, and grief. A bittersweet exploration of the power of language, the way stories shift and change over time, and the weight of the promises we make to others, it’s bleak and challenging and beautiful in all the best possible ways. If only because, at its heart, this is a story that reminds us, as Peter Beagle once said, there are no happy endings, not really—because nothing ever truly ends.

In the strictest sense, Thornheadge is a retelling of the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, in that most of the elements of that familiar story are present: There’s a princess asleep in a high tower, guarded by an impossible wall of brambles and deadly thorns. A meddlesome fairy who either curses and/or saves the girl. Knights on the hunt for glory. A legend that refuses to die. Attempted rescue. Uncomfortable consequences. And an ending where all is put right again. Sort of. But, as you’ve probably already guessed, this isn’t that story. Not really.

While Thornhedge clocks in at less than 150 pages, it packs the emotional wallop of a book three times this size, helpfully reminding us that no one is doing more with less in the fantasy space than Kingfisher. Not a single word is wasted—even the punctuation feels insanely purposeful—and its delicate descriptors, mournful tone, and carefully crafted dialogue all feel deliberately arranged for maximum emotional and narrative impact.

As a T. Kingfisher fan, I was thrilled to receive an eARC of Thornhedge! Her dark and irreverent twists on fairytales, folklore, and more are some of the best writing out there today (if not never) and this retelling of Sleeping Beauty does NOT disappoint!
Instantly, I felt compassion and attachment to Toadling and her hardship as Fairy-godmother/ward of the sleeping princess. The shades of romance with the knight and his own failures to become the folkloric ideal were heartwarming even as I felt so much concern for where the story takes us.
In the end, I just wanted more. More of Toadling and this world. I can only hope we get a glimpse of it in future works.

T. Kingfisher is the writer of great story telling! All the books that I have read of this author have been amazing and unique in there own way. Thornhedge is no different in this aspect. Take a spin on the Sleeping Beauty/ Rapunzel classics then make the tower hidden with a changeling inside! This story features a toad like fairy and a modern day knight. What more could their adventure entail? Maybe a little romance? Hmm...

Just think for a minute, What happens to the story if the princess doesn't get the happy ending, yet maybe someone else does? Was the princess wrongly accused by the kind hearted toad or did the correct destiny actually happen? Would you ever condone a family member to the control of a toad like creature in order to save all of mankind?

If you are wondering about any of these questions I just asked you, Then look no further than opening the first pages of this book!

I absolutely loved Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher and this one gave me the same gothic fairytale vibes. In Thornhedge, Kingfisher turns the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty on its head. It’s a deliciously dark, action-packed story that will have you racing through the pages to find out the fate of our beloved Toadling and is sure to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.

Well would you look at that, it’s a pub day review! Kingfisher has such a fun way of taking a tale that looks kind of horrifying from the outside and making it sweet. And she looks at Sleeping Beauty from another perspective here. I didn’t love it quite as much as Nettle and Bone, I think because it was so focused on one character, but I still heartily enjoyed the story and would recommend it!

This was my first encounter with T. Kingfisher, and I really enjoyed it. The play on the idea of changelings and how where they're brought up can affect them (or not) was great. I also liked the relationships between the characters. Even though it was short, I still feel like I was able to fully engage with each character.

A reimagined tale of Sleeping Beauty. T. Kingfisher doesn’t tell Sleeping Beauty’s story, but Toadling, the protector of Thornhedge, who is not quite fairy and not quite human.

I love this unique spin on a classic fairytale. For a novella, the characters, plot, and world-building surprisingly feel fully developed. T. Kingfisher packs so much in a few words. I love this about her writing! You can’t help but fall in love with both Knight and Toadling. Both strive for different missions. Toadling wants to protect Thornhedge; Knight intends to uncover the curse within Thornhedge. But together, they are simply adorable - proving you don’t have to be beautiful, strong, or perfect to be worthy or loved.

Jennifer Blom’s narration is highly entertaining! With the audiobook in just under 4 hours, you can easily finish this wonderful fantasy retelling while commuting or cleaning your house! Thornhedge feels similar to Nettle & Bone, so if you liked that one, read this ASAP!

A short fairytale! I really loved how refreshing the book felt! So much seemed to be packed in such a short story; it really shows just how talented the author is. I enjoyed the story but because of how short it was, I didn’t feel very emotionally invested.

What if the thorns were meant to keep Sleeping Beauty in her castle, rather than keeping others out? A lovely and sinister little retelling of Sleeping Beauty from my new favorite author, T. Kingfisher. Although this book was a little on the short side, I enjoyed Kingfisher's take on this classic fairy tale, in which the baby princess is swapped for a changeling and has to come back to protect her parents and their small kingdom. I will always read anything Kingfisher writes, and am working to convince absolutely everyone I know to read her books!

I really enjoyed this Sleeping Beauty reimagining. It was whimsical and lush. Captivating and enduring. And unexpected, but in a good way.

My first T. Kingfisher, but certainly not my last.
Not everyone will understand Kingfisher when she calls this story soft or sweet at its core (beneath the shadow of monstrous fairies, murderous changeling children, murdered nannies and centuries of loneliness), but I am absolutely will. This is a lovely, short and lighthearted take on a modern fairy tale, drawing inspiration from the story of Sleeping Beauty, and playing around with it in an interesting and unexpected way.
I loved it and cannot wait to see what else Kingfisher has in store.

This Sleeping Beauty retelling is an interesting remix. Toadling was born human, but was taken by fairies immediately after birth, a changeling left in her place. After being raised by the greenteeth, (a group of water fae), Toadling is taken back to the human realm to give a fairie gift to an infant. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned, and Toadling spends decades atoning for one mistake. Two hundred years later, along comes a kindly knight, searching for a story. And Toadling has a wild one to share.

This novella is both sweet and dark. A true fairytale. Toadling is definitely a sweetheart, kind and shy. She spends so long alone, swamped in guilt...Until Halim comes along. He's also such a sweetie. He is able to get Toadling to open up and share her story, and what an interesting one it is. I really enjoyed this retelling. It's unique and such a quick read. Would recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a great quick read. The author did an excellent job of making a concise book that was also fun and engaging.

𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 by T. Kingfisher is a sweet, cozy story about a fairy named Toadling that can turn herself into a slimy toad and prefers the company of her gloomy swamp greenteeth family that raised her after the fairies stole her from her human family at birth and left a changeling in her place. Toadling had been sent on a mission, and now it is more important than ever that the humans do not go beyond the hedge of thorns that she is guarding. Yet, the humans will not stop coming to her hedge because someone is telling them stories. T. Kingfisher describes this mousy little toad fairy as having the bruised skin of a mushroom, and her gruesome upbringing with the darkest imagery, yet this is really a sweet and cozy twisted story of Sleeping Beauty. Clocking in at a hefty 128 pages, a reader can finish this in less than a day. I loved the author’s ability to change the point of view of this traditional fairy tale and make it something more. Though there are some very dark moments, this is, yes, dammit, a sweet story as the author acknowledges in her author’s notes at the end. Don’t miss it – it is perfect for this time of year. 4.25/5 stars. Loved it.
Book published August 15, 2023