Anja is fascinated by poisons. Ever since she witnessed a cousin die after eating hemlock, she has dedicated every minute to figuring out how poisons work and how they might be countered. I love a nerdy protagonist! Being a bookish sort myself, it’s delightful to see a hero who uses their intelligence and cleverness to solve problems rather than magic or violence. In T. Kingfisher’s gripping new novel, Hemlock & Silver, she faces her greatest challenge yet: to figure out what is making the king’s heir so sick that the entire court is worried that she might die.
It doesn’t take much inducement by the king to lure Anja out of her laboratory to come see his daughter. Princess Snow’s symptoms are very puzzling. Her vomiting and failure to thrive don’t match any known illness. Something is poisoning the girl, though no one has managed to work out what’s being used, let alone figured out how the poison is being delivered. Anja loves a puzzle, though she responds to the challenge with a lot of muttering, pacing around the castle questioning people, and disrupting all kinds of routines to get to the bottom of the mystery.
I’m afraid to say too much more about what happens to Anja and Snow because a lot of the charm of this book (at least for me) is watching Anja try to figure out what the hell is going on with the princess. There are definitely elements of Snow White’s story in Hemlock & Silver—mirrors, apples, queens—but Kingsilver inverts or riffs on those elements to create a highly original tale, with a dollop of horror for bonus weirdness, to keep us from getting ahead of her protagonist.
Hemlock & Silver might be my favorite novel by Kingfisher yet. I’ve been a fan of Kingfisher’s reinvention of fairy tales and folklore into amazing works of fantasy ever since I read Nettle & Bone. This one has all of the brilliant plotting and originality, but what puts this one over the top for me is Anja. I strongly identify with a protagonist who believes that all she has going for her is her brain and struggles with her relationships with others. I have a lot of the same insecurities Anja does, though I know I can only hope that I could be as determined as she is when someone needs her help. This book already has a cozy little spot in my heart.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.