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What Smack Said #11
The skeletons of fairy tales and bonus podcast episodes ���� 
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Welcome to issue 11! May has just flown by and I've got some exciting things planned coming up over the next couple of months. Also, shoutout to Laura for pointing out the lefthand graphic has said "2021" from January to April. I like to think she's the only one who noticed, but I know better. *hides face*
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My podcast co-host and I are cranking out new episodes for Infinite TBR, including our first bonus episodes! In them, we cover a quartet by T.J. Klune called the Green Creek Series that my co-host, Gabi, read and then needed to vent about. |
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For those who don't remember, we upload our regular episodes on the fifteenth of each month, and any bonus episodes we pull together are uploaded on the first. We've only got the two bonus episodes so far, but there will be more down the line! |
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I used to be way into fairy tale retellings, but like many genre trends, the market has ended up incredibly oversaturated. All of the best-known fairy tales, like "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Cinderella," and have been retold literally dozens times, each with varying degree of skill. Even lesser-known fairy tales like "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "The Goose Girl" have been turned into both young adult and adult fantasy novels several times over. The sheer number of retellings makes it difficult to find any that are really, truly good. |
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But
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher is one of the really, truly good ones. It is as dark and brutal as any Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, but also just as wondrous and lovely as an original. |
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One of the things that sets
Nettle & Bone apart from the rest of the genre is that it's not truly a retelling. Kingfisher incorporates all the important aspects and weaves them into something brilliant and brand new that also feels ancient and inevitable. There are godmothers who are both good and capable of great evil. There's a disgraced knight who maintains his honor as best he can. There's a dog brought to life by magic. The queen, who is both a mother and stepmother, is ruthless, but not evil. And there are three princesses, the youngest of which is the novel's protagonist. |
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The main character, Marra, is terrible at being a princess. She's stubborn but not quick-witted, and is always the last person in the room to grasp political implications. She adores her oldest sister and quietly accepts that their middle sister hates her. ("'I hate you,' said twelve-year-old Kania, through gritted teeth, to ten-year-old Marra. 'I hate you and I hope you
die.'")
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But the oldest sister dies quietly and far from home shortly after her marriage to a prince. And within a few years, Kania leaves to marry that same prince, and Marra is sent to live in a convent. Marra is deeply content with her life there but can't sit by when she learns Kania is being horrifically abused. (Love, like hate, is complicated.) Thus follows an arduous journey to meet a magic woman, three impossible tasks, and the collection of a motley group traveling to kill the prince and save the princess. |
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I really can't recommend
Nettle & Bone enough—I loved it so much I read it twice. And if you're interested in getting your own copy,
Nettle & Bone is available at B&N here and through Amazon here. (As usual, those aren't affiliate links and I don't make anything if you click on them.)
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Spiked by C.P. Rider — The audiobook for the first two books in this series were discounted through Chirp, but unfortunately the e-books are available only through Amazon's reading subscription service. It's a solid urban fantasy read, though. The main character is a telepath but can also "spike" into other people's minds to attack and kill.
The Love Con by Seressia Glass — The premise of this story is a reality show for cosplayers, and the main character has made it to the final round, which requires a partner to complete. She picks her best friend and accidentally oversells their relationship on live TV, but it's okay because he's been in love with her since forever, anyway. Very cute, and wonderful to see a fat (and black!) character portrayed as both confident and desirable.
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