Clare L. Deming

I need to do a better job keeping up with book reviews, so I’ll start by looking at a recent stand-along novel I read, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher. This is a fantasy novel that is a retelling of a Grimm’s fairy tale.

I have read and enjoyed a couple of other books by this author, but have not had a chance to review them yet. She is someone who my husband met many years ago through his work in online gaming and first came to my attention as Ursula Vernon with her “weird fruit” art that you can still see at her DeviantArt page.

These are the other books by the author that I’ve read:

• Nettle & Bone – review coming soon!
• Swordheart – review coming soon!

Here is the blurb:

A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

One of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was that I was not familiar with the fairy tale it was based upon. In the first few chapters, I didn’t know if I should be rooting for Cordelia or her mother, Evangeline, and I had no expectations about where this tale would go. It was set in a generic medievalesque fantasy world which didn’t take anything away from the story because that vaguely European feudal setting is what I’d expect by default for Grimm’s fairy tales.

I enjoyed seeing the character of Cordelia grow as the story unfolded. She was initially meek and defeated (but for good reason as we see after the first few chapters), and her reluctance to act was believable in the first half of the book, rather than frustrating.

Evangeline was a fitting villain and her power to make others “obedient” was a terrifying ability. I did wonder why she hadn’t made better use of her powers, and how she ended up in her current circumstances when it seemed like she could have done so much more with her abilities. Yet there were hints about the limits on her power and how much magic she was capable of working at once.

I loved Hester as a secondary protagonist, particularly since Evangeline discounted her as a threat and wrote her off due to her age and disability. Hester looks out for her brother and immediately saw Evangeline’s ingratiation with their family for what it is, even if she didn’t appreciate the sorcery at work to start with. When events became deadly it was too late for anyone to escape the situation.

I liked the idea that the author planted in regard to sorcery and the perception of magic in this society. People generally saw sorcerers as fraudsters and cheats, rather than serious threats. In the past, those capable of powerful sorcery were hunted down so that those few who remained now keep their powers secret. This explained why little was known about the power of sorcery to the characters in the novel.

I read about the original fairy tale before writing this review, and I would say that this book is only loosely based on that material. Sorcery does not play a role in the fairy tale and the courtship aspect is not featured. Only the character of the horse, Falada, took its name from the fairy tale and followed some of that original plot. The geese made an appearance in this book, but were not central to the story.

While I initially thought of this book as a light read, I think I mean more that it was an easy read. The prose was straight-forward and none of the worldbuilding or setting were complicated, with only a few characters who were central to the story. The plot took a gruesome turn near the end which didn’t bother me, but it might upset some people (animal death, but not really). To be fair, that part of the novel took more direct inspiration from the source material.

I definitely plan to pick up more books by this author. Have you read any that you really liked? Let me know in the comments!

You can find more of my reviews here.