Fairytale Retelling

Book Review: A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher

| Jessica Crawford

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is a 336 page standalone novel published by Tor Books in 2024.

Genre:

Fantasy, Fairytale Retelling

Opening Line:

There was a fly walking on Cordelia’s hand and she was not allowed to flick it away.

After reading and adoring What Moves the Dead and A House with Good Bones, I adopted T. Kingfisher as one of my autobuy authors. Her newest novel, A Sorceress Comes to Call, is a reimaging of Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm, with the inclusion of Kingfisher’s signature humor as well as some additional dark fantastical elements.

Fourteen-year-old Cordelia is the daughter of a ruthless, social-climbing sorceress. She is terrified of her mother, who not only permits her daughter no privacy, but goes so far as to frequently take control of her body. When she sets her sights on the Squire of Chatham and gets to work trying to procure a marriage proposal from him, Cordelia finds allies among his family, friends, and household staff. Can this group of unlikely heroes manage to best a wicked woman with immense power and a demonic familiar?

This is a grimly suspenseful story with great characters, and funny lines sprinkled throughout. This is not my favorite of this author’s work, but it’s still a decent showing. And it makes a beautiful shelf trophy!

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Backlist Book Reviews

| Jessica Crawford

I read a couple of lovely backlist books recently!

Rhea felt better. She was still going somewhere terrible, but she had a hedgehog, dammit.

I only just “discovered” Kingfisher this year and she is already an autobuy for me, and so I am now also working through her backlist. This book did not disappoint! I do feel like it took too long to get to the meat of the story–we know our main character is engaged against her wishes because her family cannot afford to say “no” to a Lord, but it takes quite some time for her to actually arrive at this nobleman’s home and learn exactly why being his bride is even so much more of a bummer than she feared. But this is one of the author’s earlier works, and I have not noticed the same issue with any of her other books.

Once we do learn about the other wives, some of whom are not…exactly…living human beings, as well as just what is at stake, this is a darkly fun adventure as the main character races to try to save herself and the others. The resolution was bit too hurried and neat IMO, but the characters and quests undertaken are just so imaginative and…well, darkly fun!

The narration also includes some of the author’s trademark wit and humor.

She clung to the tile, and eventually she stopped screaming, because it didn’t seem to be helping.

I am so excited to read more of her work!

Beautifully written queer retelling of Arthurian legend from the POV of the knight Percival. It’s magical, it’s moving, and it’s very human at its core…while also being, you know, not fully human. The book itself, the cover and the handful of illustrations inside, are lovely!