Laura Madsen’s Reviews > Hemlock & Silver > Status Update

People call T. Kingfisher’s books “fairy tale retellings” but that really doesn’t explain them. This book has a mirror and a poisoned apple but is otherwise not remotely related to Snow White. Nettle & Bone has a godmother but that’s it. Sorceress has a few geese and an abusive relationship but that’s it. They’re all creative and weird and addictive and disturbing.

“It had been so late that it was early again, and we had actually managed to save someone’s life, through no fault of our own. Then we went back and drank heavily. It’s strange how winning can be more jarring than losing sometimes.”

“If you go around eating random plants without knowing what they are, then yes, sooner or later you’re going to wind up either very unhappy or very dead. Plants aren’t necessarily your friends.”

A protagonist after my own heart: a plump middle-aged woman obsessed with toxicology!

“Women my size don’t run if we can avoid it. There are, let us say, certain structural concerns in the chest region.”