This review contains some spoilers for Hemlock and Silver plot points and reveals.
Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher is a retelling of Snow White in a very classic Kingfisher style-- an incredibly quirky main character found in Anja, the healer who is obsessed with poisons, an animal companion who has a storied history rich with snarkiness and a perfect Cheshire quality, and an absolutely indescribable amount of body horror that becomes an existential nightmare.
Anja is an atypical character in most media, but as a Kingfisher protagonist, she's incredibly typical-- an adult woman who doesn't fit in with her peers, who is a bit of an outcast and a lot of a weirdo. She's a character for the weird girl readers to relate to who is incredibly knowledgeable in her chosen profession and has very little handle on "society." She's bold, arrogant, and despicably funny, and it's simply amazing to watch her fumble through every single thing that happens through the novel. Every encounter she has with someone, between her bodyguard, her cat, her rooster, and Princess Snow is laced with the quick witted sarcasm that frequent readers of Kingfisher will know to expect and appreciate from her protagonists.
If I may be given a moment to wax poetic about the last point mentioned above, I think where this novel truly excels is in the horror of the mirror world, and the amalgamations that are formed during the process of facing two mirrors together. The mirror gelds are an absolute nightmare upon discovery that Healer Anja is understandably completely horrified by-- hands and faces and arms and limbs all melted together, wriggling around on the ground, and the larger ones being fully formed creatures that are not only sentient but also intelligent, existing like gigantic centipedes and living within a fully formed society. They are an absolute stellar design, and to have them become an ally to Anja against the penultimate antagonist is a beautiful way to showcase the kindness of Anja as a person, who barrels into situations and does her absolute best to stumble through them without having any knowledge of how to handle it.
Despite having finished this novel some time prior to writing this review, I'm still left feeling quiet wonder regarding the mirror gelds, and there are some truly harrowing scenes that still continue to leave me speechless from the descriptions of how they are formed and how they exist and have their own society. I would read another novel or even just a short novella focusing on the mirror gelds if given the chance.
This was originally meant to be a review for an ARC I received through NetGalley last year! Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and T. Kingfisher for accepting my ARC request!
Thank you for reading!
B.
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