What’s a fairy godmother to do when she bungles her gift to a beautiful princess? In Toadling’s case, it means making sure that no one ever, ever wakes that princess up. Thornhedge, by the always excellent T. Kingfisher, flips the story of Sleeping Beauty on its head.
Toadling has quite lost track of how long she’s been hiding behind brambles, thorn hedges, and enchantments when a blundering young Muslim knight (he admits he’s not very good at the whole violence thing) decides to camp beside the thorn hedge. Toadling is spotted watching the knight, and he strikes up a conversation with the skittish fairy. To her frustration, Halim reveals that he’s been looking for a keep surrounded by formidable thorns that he learned of from a story. All Toadling wants is for people to forget all about the keep and the thorns and stay very far away from the sleeping princess in the middle of all of it, but nothing she says will make Halim go away. He’s determined to free someone from an enchantment, whether it’s the princess or Toadling herself.
I love what Kingfisher has done with the Sleeping Beauty story here. There are changelings, goddesses, lots of blunders, magic, the march of time, and a relentless desire on both Toadling and Halim’s part to do the right thing (even if neither of them are quite sure what that is). I found this story of two people who have no idea what their next move is to be a very human kind of tale, even with all the magic happening around them. Who among us hasn’t drawn a complete blank when faced with an insurmountable problem we have no idea how to tackle? And who among us has not faced an insurmountable problem by just winging it and hoping for the best?
I had a great time with this breezy, funny, heartwarming fairy tale retelling.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
I’ve read T. Kingfisher before, but hadn’t come across this book. I’m almost tempted to take a look now.