Review: Hemlock & Silver
, pub. , pp
by T. Kingfisher
Styled by the publisher as a sideways telling of Snow White, this story has very little to do with the plot of the original tale other than a princess named Snow who has fallen prey to poison. Yes, there are apples involved, but not the way you would think. These are apples from “through the mirror(s).”
Anja is cranky, very talented, very straightforward Healer who specializes in poisons (and in fact really does no more in life than finding, investigating, and trying to find cures for various poisons), until one day the King himself walks into her workshop, flanked by guards, and says, “I killed my wife.”
His wife was poisoned accidentally, but wrought with grief, he comes to Anja because his only remaining daughter, Snow, seems to be suffering from the same poison.
Part mystery, part very slight romance, part quite intricate and fascinating fantasy (hint: the Silver in the title is the silver backing special mirrors through the villa where the princess is residing),and part horror (did you ever wonder as a child what became of all those reflections you played with when you had multiple mirrors and made reflections of reflections of reflections of yourself?). This book drew me in and I couldn’t stop reading.
The romance part of it is handled in a slightly awkward fashion, reflecting both the implied neurodivergence of the guard in charge of watching Anja and Anja herself, but also to avoid the typical romantasy tropes.
All in all, this was all I expect from Kingfisher: well-developed plots, characters, worlds, and magical systems. A great read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who reads both fantasy and mystery (or both!)).
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