- The Good: A spinster healer investigates a sick princess but finds adventure and love along the way
- The Bad: Simple characters; too sweet for a dark fairy tale
- The Literary: A retelling of Snow White
Anja isn’t a traditional healer—her speciality is in poisons, which she regularly ingests for scientific analysis. A summons from the King changes her quiet life forever, as she has no choice but to accept the request to help the princess Snow, who is slowly wasting away.
T. Kingfisher is back again with a retelling of Snow White, but thankfully, this story is more inspired by the fairy tale than a modernization. I’m not a devoted fan of Kingfisher, but I find her work entertaining. She’s won several science fiction and fantasy awards for both her novels and short stories. But I’m also craving original stories in my fantasy. So I’m glad the protagonist in Hemlock and Silver is a completely new character, the mid-30s scientific-minded spinster who keeps a venomous snake.
However, I wish Anja was just a little more interesting, maybe a little more conflicted. Sure, she’s self-taught and single-minded. She’s secure in her larger-than-average body and unfeminine fashion choices. She has a fussy sister and a rich merchant father who indulged her interests. She’s eccentric and chose a different life path, but as a character, she still feels like an archetype.
In addition to the mystery surrounding Snow’s illness, I’ll reveal one spoiler that turns the plot (and is already spoiled on the book jacket): There is a magic mirror, but it also happens to be a door to a mirror realm, a la Through the Looking-Glass. With the help of her the bodyguard Javier, assigned to Anja by the King, and stray narcissistic cat Grayling, Anja slowly uncovers that Snow’s condition may not stem from poison at all. Anja doesn’t even believe in magic, and it’s a surprise to me that after all the emphasis on poisons and science that fantasy and magic is the real problem here. In that way, I’m not sure all the setup of Anja’s backstory was required, as it doesn’t seem to pay off.
I do enjoy the simple slow-burn romance between Anja and Javier. Javier plays a pivotal role in navigating the dangers of the mirror world. He’s drawn to Anja’s intelligence. His careful and stable personality plays nicely off Anja’s more chaotic and awkward style.
One last quibble—many of these novels are labeled as dark retellings, which I think is unfair. The current trend in fantasy is for happy endings, and this story is no exception. Also, have these marketing agents ever read a classic fairy tale? Those are dark.
Recommended for fantasy fans in the market for a sweet entertaining story. I’d wager this one is nominated for the Hugo Award this year.