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Book: “Hemlock and Silver” by T. Kingfisher
Publishing Info: Tor Books, August 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.
Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.
But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.
Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.
Or it might be the thing that kills them all.
Review: T. Kingfisher always has such a creative (and often dark!) approach to fairytale re-tellings, and this one, a re-imaging of “Snow White,” was no different! I think a lot of authors shy away from this fairytale due to the inherent passive nature of the heroine. I mean, you can’t do a lot with a girl who ends up in a magical slumber during all the action at the end! Wisely, Kingfisher refocuses the story on her classic prototype of a main character: a mature woman who’s hyper focused in one area of expertise, has not time for anyone’s shit, and really, really doesn’t want to get dragged into things. And so we meet Anja, a woman with a boundless knowledge of poisons who is pulled in to solve a mysterious wasting disease affecting the king’s daughter.
In many ways, you have to squint a bit at this one to see the parallels to “Snow White.” The story itself is completely different, with only names, important magical elements (mirrors and apples) and villains being similar. And with the latter, even this was wildly different than the classic version of the story you may be familiar with. And I really liked this! In some ways, the villain of the story can come across as a bit mustache-twirling, but it was such a unique take on the Queen character, with many twists and turns along the way that I enjoyed the heck out of it.
I also really enjoyed Snow herself. This is now two fairytale books in a row from Kingfisher where she has tackled young teenage/children characters. It’s tricky to write kids in a way that is believable and natural, but here, Snow has all of the spunk of a pre-teen paired with all of the foolish self-confidence of the young. She’s at times incredibly unlikable, but also so sympathetic. Ah, the teenage years.
The magic of this world and its interplay with the poisoned apple and mirrors from “Snow White” was so original and unique. Perhaps too unique at times. Large portions of the middle of the book had to be devoted to explaining just how this magic worked, necessary information to fully understand what had happened in the past and how events unfolded at the conclusion of this book. Even now, while I was able to stick with the major plot points, I might struggle to explain exactly how some of this worked. It was definitely interesting, and I think Kingfisher did a good job trying to explain the ins and outs of it. But the necessary detailed descriptions of Anja testing this out did slow the pacing down quite a bit.
I also liked Anja and the subplot of her romance, but I will say that both of these elements were a bit reduced from this author’s usual highs. That’s to say, Kingfisher usually knocks it out of the park, and here, they were just ok. Anja read as a very familiar leading lady, and while I enjoyed her immensely, I did feel like I had read variations of this same character from this author before. The love story was also very much on peripheral of the story. Which, again, that is typical of this author’s approach to her romances in these fairytale fantasies. But here, there perhaps just wasn’t quite enough built up between these two to really hone in on their love story.
Overall, however, I thought this was an incredibly unique version of “Snow White.” There were so many creative twists and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed. Perhaps the pacing lagged a bit in the middle and the main character read as a bit too familiar, but Kingfisher’s strengths as a writer carried me through it all. This perhaps wasn’t my favorite of her books, but I still really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it for readers looking for a unique fairytale re-telling!
Rating 8: A wholly unique version of “Snow White,” if perhaps not a wholly unique feeling heroine.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Hemlock and Silver” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2025 and Snow White Retellings.
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