She soon learns the eldest sister has died under mysterious circumstances. Marra, as the youngest of three, is sent to a convent for the Saint? Goddess? – Our Lady of the Grackles. Marra is the youngest princess in the Harbor Kingdom, her eldest sister Damia was sent to marry Vorling, the Prince of the Northern Kingdom in the hopes of strengthen an alliance between the two nations.

Hero or not-now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar-Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.

Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:īut, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate-and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince. This isn’t the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.Īs the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. Most princesses want to marry the prince, in this case, the princess wants to dispose of the prince. Nettle & Bone is a slight veering from those horrific, uneasy tales, but there’s an undercurrent of dread nonetheless.

(Apr.Kingfisher has been taking up space in my “must read list” for a few years thanks to her horror novels. At its heart a story of good people doing their best to make the unjust world a fairer place, this marvelous romp will delight Kingfisher’s fans and fairy tale lovers alike. The plot snaps along as quickly as a good joke, and beneath the whimsy, there’s an underlying sympathy and sincerity that enables Kingfisher to handle tricky issues like domestic violence with great compassion and care. She assembles a rag-tag team bent on overthrowing Vorling-including Bonedog, a resurrected dog skeleton a dust-wife (a kind of necromancer) with a demonically possessed chicken for a familiar a suicidally honorable and surprisingly diplomatic knight rescued from a Christina Rosetti-esque goblin market and a frazzled fairy godmother who can only grant gifts of good health. However, when Marra learns that the wicked Prince Vorling has murdered her older sister and seems likely to murder his abused second wife, Marra’s middle sister, as well, Marra takes action.

Marra is better at knitting than politicking, and is relieved to be sent to a convent while her older sisters make political marriages to nobles from the Northern Kingdom. This deeply satisfying and darkly funny feminist fairy tale from Hugo Award winner Kingfisher ( What Moves the Dead) finds its unlikely heroine in Marra, youngest princess of the Harbor Kingdom.

Nettle and bone t kingfisher