Am I even capable of writing an intelligent review of a T. Kingfisher book? I feel like I turn into a caveman when talking about her works: “Book good. You read now!”
A Sorceress Comes to Call is the latest by T. Kingfisher. This falls into her fairy tale retelling realm (as opposed to romantic fantasy or folk horror), and is based on The Goose Girl, which honestly I don’t remember ever reading the original, but this is at least the second retelling I’ve read and enjoyed (the other being Little Thieves by Margaret Owen).
Kingfisher excels at writing pre-teen and teen main characters, and also middle aged main characters, and in this book, she unites these two skills, giving us one of each as a narrator. Cordelia is a teenager, the only child of a single mother who happens to be a sorceress — and who controls Cordelia like a puppet any time she even slightly misbehaves or embarrasses her mother. Hester is our goose girl — but she’s actually a retired goose lady who runs her brother’s household, rests her aching knees, and works on her embroidery. When her brother starts courting Cordelia’s mother, she immediately knows something rotten is afoot. As Cordelia and Hester get to know and trust each other, they eventually have to work together (along with a few other trusted friends and loyal household staff members) to defeat the wicked Evangeline.
There’s also a magic horse, fierce geese, and a few murders, as well as a little side of romance.
As with Nettle & Bone and Thornhedge, in this book Kingfisher reminds us that fairy tales are actually pretty dark when you think about them. When Cordelia’s mother controls her, the girl is aware of everything that is happening, but has no ability to do anything. There’s cold-blooded murders and a pretty horrific monstrous situation I won’t spoil. Honestly, the themes in A Sorceress Comes to Call are about as scary as in What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night, but dressed up in a more fantasy-inspired setting.
What really sets Kingfisher apart for me is that she has this real skill for anchoring these darker story elements with truly loveable characters, and the sense that somehow, everything is going to turn out alright in the end (well, mostly alright, some characters don’t make it to the end sometimes!). It makes her work always feel a little cozy, even though the stakes and conflict are generally too high for cozy fiction (then again, there’s the entire “cozy mystery” genre which is full of murder, so I guess everyone’s standards for cozy are different!). Cordelia and Hester and their friends are dealing with some serious problems, but there’s still lovely domestic moments of learning embroidery, playing cards, and talking about geese.
This is a stand-alone book and could certainly be your entry point to Kingfisher. I personally found it to be incredibly readable and difficult to put down. Just review the CWs and TWs below to make sure the themes aren’t a deal breaker for you.
CWs and TWs: Child abuse (mostly emotional/psychological), murder, off-page child death, off-page death of parent, on-page violence against and killing of a horse.
Format and Source: This is one of like, three ebooks I purchased this year. I bought it from B&N because bookshop.org still doesn’t have ebooks (wasn’t that supposed to happen back in the spring?!?).
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): Fractured Fairytales & Folklore. I feel like Kingfisher really excels at taking the essence of a fairy tale, whether it’s a specific story or a trope, and reimagining it and exploring it from a different angle.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 20 out of 25 prompts complete. 3 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 16 out of 25 prompts complete. 2 bingos.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 20 out of 23 prompts complete, 5 bingos.
SBTB Summer Romance: 5 out of 24 prompts complete, 0 bingos.