Anja is a poison doctor - she takes poisons regularly to work out what they do. She's a toxoicologist, really. She gets taken to a kingdom where the king's daughter is dying and she appears to be being poisoned. The mystery of what is wrong with Snow and who is behind it is the core thread of the story. There is a romance, but it's almost incidental (and lovely), with the mystery being the real core.
It's a Snow White retelling, so there's a lot about mirrors and apples and sleeping figures (no dwarves).
I really enjoyed this book. If you like Terry Pratchett, you'll probably like the tone of this one too.
It's quite dark and a little frightening in places. Not quite horror - I'd call is 'horror adjacent'.
The characters are wonderfully real. As with all of T Kingfisher's books, this is funny and interesting and quirky. I loved it.

9/10

The tale of Snow White has been told in many ways. "Hemlock & Silver" by T. Kingfisher proves that it can be presented not only in a novel way but also elevated to a whole new level. There are poisonous apples, a magic mirror, and Snow White herself, but all reflected and distorted as if in a hall of mirrors – seemingly familiar, yet uncannily different. Part fairy tale, part (body) horror, but above all, a great read in a distinctive style laced with intelligent humor (the very first sentence perfectly sets the mood).

We experience the story through the eyes of Anja, a poison specialist. The king's task of investigating the origins of his daughter Snow's mysterious illness reveals aspects of reality she never suspected, aspects, that her scientifically inclined mind initially dismisses as impossible. Putting the heroine in the presence of an unknown phenomenon and in uncomfortable situations allows for extensive world-building. Although there's a lot of information, delivered almost from the very first pages, it's presented in an accessible way so as not to overwhelm – the world is as fascinating as the plot itself. The action is unhurried at first, but quickly picks up the pace, leaving no room for boredom.

What I love about Kingfisher's novels is that the characters aren't "typical bookish." Anja isn't your typical fantasy heroine – she's 35, "strongly built," and somewhat socially awkward researcher in a not-so-respectable, not to say unnerving, field. The first-person narrative perfectly captures her unusual way of thinking, her sense of distance from others, and yet her passion for science. The supporting characters, though somewhat more "standard" (an enchanted princess, a "serious knight", a magical cat), are not just background characters but equal "partners", and the relationships between them feel "built" rather than just "written."

What can I say, I highly recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for approving me to read this book, I’m rating it 4.0 stars.

This may be my favourite T Kingfisher book yet, I’m a sucker for a good fairytale inspired read.

The author created a weird and wonderful fantasy lightly based off of snow white, our main character is healer who seeks antidotes to poisons which leads her to trying to save Snow. This story has creepy villains and a mysterious plot that forces our FMC on the discovery of a lifetime. The side characters such as the cat and the guard were my favourites, they bring a lot of banter to the story and I never thought I’d be saying that about a cat.

I highly recommend this for a fun fantasy read with a grim plot that leads to a satisfying ending.

Let's hear it for sarcastic, smart gals in their mid thirties as the FMC in fantasy novels!

I've only read T Kingfisher's horror books to date, so I went into this not knowing what to expect, and I loved every minute of it. The book is filled with elements from the Snow White tale we all know but given a unique and dark twist. The characters are funny and human (even the non-human ones) and the magic system (not that Anja believes in magic!) is interesting. Pacing was great and there were quite a few little twists I didn't see coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars

I can't believe I've never read a T. Kingfisher book before - this book made this author a must-read for me!

This is a very loose reimagining of the Snow White tale but, if you don't like fairytale retellings, I wouldn't let that put you off as it is more of a fantasy book with some of the Snow White elements weaved in.

I really enjoyed this book, it's the perfect mix of mystery and dry humour with loveable characters. My first T. Kingfisher book but certainly won't be my last!

Hemlock & Silver is T. Kingfisher’s latest fantasy novel - a retelling of Snow White from the perspective of a healer specialising in poisons, Healer Anje, as she’s asked to investigate the mysterious influence of Snow by the King.

What then ensues is a plot similar to Coraline with being more of a bridge of Kingfisher’s horror and fantasy works combined. It’s a style unlike other books of hers I’ve read but definitely is easy to read, but slower than the others I’ve read. I’ve also seen a lot of mention of the romance subplot but I would emphasise that’s only really massively present in the last 15% - this book is about the retelling of Snow White so much more than the romance between Anje and her guard Javier.

I really did enjoy this - I love that the main character was older and in her 30s, I love the side characters especially Greyling and I love how rich the world is for a fairytale retelling. As with all of her works, I love how grounded the worlds are and feel - like so much more is going on than just this story, and I really enjoy that in my fantasy. My only issues were with some of the pacing in places.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for my ARC copy - the review is my own honest opinion.

I was incredibly excited that my request to review the newest book by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) was accepted, for she is one of my favorite writers of fairytale-esque fantasy. However, I should not have had my expectations so high, otherwise I would have enjoyed “Hemlock and Silver” a lot more, I’m sure of that. That’s the problem with having read so many of her books and having loved all of them, the level of enjoyment I expected was too high. So I was a bit sad, especially with myself, when these expectations were not really met. Having said that, I believe that anyone who chooses this book for their first Kingfisher experience will fall in love with her writing and her storytelling.

To me, the build-up was a bit too slow. I felt that nothing was really happening for at least the first 25% of the book and although on the one hand the worlbuilding is solid and well developed in terms of pace and explanation, on the other hand I had the feeling that there was a little bit too much of infodumping on the subject of herbs, venoms, poisons and antidotes. While this “masterclass” didn’t pull me back from reading it didn’t interest me enough to be fully engaged with the characters for a long time. At least not until the main protagonist proved to be more proactive.

This is the story of Anja, a woman who as traumatised by her cousin’s death by accidentally taking venom (Hemlock, hence the title) when both of them were children. Ever since that fatal day she took an interest in learning about poisons, or rather researching for ways to fight their effects. Anja is a rather blunt and matter-of-fact problem solver kind of woman. She is well into adulthood when the king comes for her help in saving princess Snow who, allegedly, is being mysteriously poisoned and so her life is in danger. Anja accepts the case and all kinds of adventures unfold from there.

The mystery that surrounds the princess’ alleged poisoning is more than borderline supernatural, demonstrating once again that Kingfisher is the queen of weird dark fairytales. She creates an interesting alternate world inside the mirrors that lightly reminds me of the settings of “Piranesi”, by Susanna Clarke. However, Kingfisher is as original as Clarke is in her own style. And that originality spreads all over the book even if the first half gave me lukewarm feelings.
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Do I recommend reading this book? Absolutely, yes. My advice for full enjoyment is to simply lower your expectations.

At this point I've read every t.kingfisher out in the wild and there isn't a single book of hers I have disliked. Clever, funny and engaging writing as always

If you want a fairytale retelling that's totally unique yet still retains the familiar, T Kingfisher is who to seek.
A Snow White inspired tale that keeps you guessing and with the traditional elements cunningly reworked in an engrossing way. An older fmc (yay) who specialises in poisons, Anja was a great character! The supporting cast were, as usual, instantly well fleshed out and engaging. I adore the way Kingfisher is graphic and creepy in her actions yet almost tempers it with wit and humorous reactions, utterly compelling.
If anything I wanted more from this, more time with the characters, more time solving the riddles and exploring the world, but honestly I'd read T Kingfisher's shopping list at this point and be grateful!
Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the arc opportunity, all thoughts are my own and left voluntarily.

Hemlock & Silver is a funny, witty, complex fantasy that creates a world full of characters who stay in your heart. Especially the cat.

This is the second book by T. Kingfisher that I’ve read, and compared to Swordheart I liked it immensely more.

The plot is very simple: Anja, a great expert in poisons and antidotes, is hired by the king to save his daughter Snow, who is slowly being killed, probably by a poison.

Since it’s a retelling, there are many elements from the original story that are picked up and used in a way that I found very creative and interesting, especially regarding the mirror element.

Anja is an absolutely hilarious protagonist, who reminded me of Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries. She is a scientist and does not belive in magic. Everything she has known in her life is poison and research for more antidotes. She and the grey cat are by far my favorite characters.

I would have liked to see some of the characters from the beginning reappear at the end (I will avoid more details because I don’t want to spoil any of you this gem of a book) but aside from that detail, for me it was a perfect book.

The author is perfectly able to talk about disgusting things, yet manages to break the tension with comic elements that don’t feel forced, but simply reflect what a frustrated person would say in a hysterical moment. It felt very human and realistic.

Snow is a very peculiar character, and in my opinion she is well built as a twelve years old princess with a turbulent past.

It’s the perfect fantasy if you want a story with a worldbuilding that is distinctive yet familiar in certain aspects being a retelling, with a protagonist who analyzes everything through the scientific method (maybe even when she shouldn’t), and a talking grey cat who had me laughing out loud.

“I try not to judge anyone, man or beast, by appearances, but let’s just say that I had significant doubts that a cat with that expression loved anything except murder.”

It’s not very romance driven but I loved the subplot: it was important but it did not take the spotlight from the plot.

A cute cosy fantasy going on an adventure with main character, a healer named Anja. This was super fun as the plot is Anja going to heal the Kings daughter from a mysterious illness. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and Anja's main interest being poisons added an interesting aspect to her character. If course the cherry on top was the romance between Anja and her bodyguard Javier, the broody man and awkward spinster healer is a fascinating dynamic which lead to hilarious moments in their relationship developing.

A retelling of Snow White that falls in between Kingfisher's fairytale and horror stories.
Anja, daughter of wealthy trader, is a master poisons. Called upon by King to solve the mystery of his daughter’s ill health which comes just months after the death of her sister. Initially Anja is flummoxed, but with a stupid rooster, Grayling the not-quite-cat, a venomous snake, and a loyal bodyguard, she starts to uncover the truth (I hope you don't mind developing a fear of mirrors).
This is another great story from Kingfisher filled with more eccentric characters and creatures. I enjoyed Anja and her relationship with her guards – especially Javier – although I was slightly disappointed that Aaron gets side-lined. I loved the maid with her hair – what is going on? Is it really alive? I'll always favour a talking cat, so Grayling was always going to be a favourite, but he has competition from the rooster and snake.
A fun, interesting horror-ish twist on a snow white story. I wouldn't mind further adventures of poison master Anja and her loyal bodyguard.

I wanna start by saying that T. Kingfisher is one of my all-time favourite authors, and, not to be overdramatic, getting the chance to read an arc of Hemlock & Silver is genuinely one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. There’s something about T. Kingfisher’s writing and character development that is just so comforting and fun, without compromising the darkness and creepiness of her storytelling. Hemlock & Silver is up there with the Hollow Places in terms of favourites for me, and I’m so honored to be able to read and review it early!

Hemlock & Silver is a Snow White retelling that combines all of the classic elements of the original story in a new and interesting way. We follow Anja, a poison-obsessed healer who’s made it her life goal to research and develop antidotes to as many poisons as she can. When she’s approached by the recently widowed King about a suspected poisoning of his daughter, Snow, Anja becomes entangled in an otherworldly mystery involving strange apples and eerie reflections within the castle’s mirrors. Hemlock & Silver combines all of the things I love about T. Kingfisher: a smart and independent FMC with a strange job that she’s absolutely obsessed with, fantastic banter and chemistry between the characters (both romantic and platonic), and an atmosphere that is both cosy and creepy at the same time.

I honestly have nothing negative to say about this book. I loved Anja, the main character, and how she was so clearly autistic-coded. I loved the way the romance was woven into the story; it was the perfect amount to not detract from the plot or drastically change Anja’s characterisation, but just enough to have me genuinely giggling and kicking my feet. I loved the world that we got to explore, both the mundane and fantastical parts, and how atmospheric and at times legitimately unsettling it was. Oh, and there’s also a sassy talking cat who I would absolutely die for.

All in all, Hemlock & Silver is a fantastic novel that does a great job of retelling a classic fairytale while still standing on its own as a compelling, engrossing, and just plain fun story. It’s T. Kingfisher at her best, and yet another book to solidify why I will continue to pick up her work time and time again.

• I received an ARC for this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and I appreciate both your work and commitment to this project. The following opinion is my own and holds no major spoilers. •

• Hemlock & Silver
• T. Kingfisher
• Rating: 3.5/5

This was my second T.Kingfisher’s read but while the first made me feel like she had absolute narrative control over the story, this one made me doubt her writing skills.

First of all, I need to mention that this isn’t a romantasy and perhaps I was mostly excited for it because of it. There is a romantic subplot but it’s really subtle, which fortunately helps us to know the FMC’s personality and background much better. However (and perhaps this is the reason I didn’t enjoy the book as much), the story theme twists several times during the book and made me confused about what I was reading about.

Our FMC is proficient in the study of venom, poison and its antidotes (like some kind of apothecary) and when the king knocks on her door saying he fears the princess is being secretly poisoned but no one can find the cause, she reluctantly packs her bag to investigate the situation. This is what I thought the book was about, but it’s not.

Don’t get me wrong, I love getting surprise elements and it’s a thrill once I find out I was deceived somehow by the author and the story is entirely about something else. In this case, I just felt negatively baited.

This book is an Alice in Wonderland and Snow White retelling with a layer of warped fantasy that almost feels supernatural. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed this book so much more if I wasn’t so excited for the poison studies and investigation only to be met with a weird fable-like-ghostly story. I love fables and I love retellings, but the way the narrative is organized was confusing and it made me wonder several times why the hell did we have an apothecary for the main character in a story that isn’t about that.

Being the devil’s advocate here, I can see some people getting excited about the fact that the story is twisted to the point that even the FMC finds herself having to deal with things she’s not experienced in. (But then I feel like the author shouldn’t have taken so much time developing her academic background in flashbacks.)

I don’t have much to say about the male romantic interest since he’s just there for the sake of romance and barely developed. I also felt like the fantasy elements were kind of lazy and we would have had a better immersion in the antagonist’s POV if we didn’t waste so much time with the poison stuff that barely had any importance.

On the other hand, I loved the FMC and the way her mind works and it’s always a breath of fresh air finding myself reading a character that’s actually mature despite her inexperience in several things in her world. It’s adorable and interesting and the author never fails to amaze me in the way her dialogues are well-written in both their funny and dramatic situations.

All that being said, despite my poor impressions of this book and considering I *loved* T.Kingfisher’s Swordheart, I’ll keep reading her books like there’s no tomorrow until I find my next favorite one.

Hemlock & Silver is the eerie retelling of Snow White that you never knew you needed.

Kingfishers writing is, once again, fantastic. As always, the creepy vibes are there, the wit is there but best of all, one of the things I love the most about Kingfishers work, the relatable characters are there. She remains one of my favourite authors because she writes main characters who are often in their 30s+, aren't always conventionally pretty, are diverse in many ways and usually have an animal sidekick. The romance is gradual, gentle and absolutely the side show to the main event. Which works for me because romance is rarely my first choice.

Hemlock and Silver is simultaneously cosy and creepy and I'm not sure I'll ever quite look at a mirror in the same way again.

DNF (FOR NOW!!)

I’m intrigued by this book, and I can easily recognize this might be a case of right book, wrong time, so I will put it down for now, but I very much plan to pick it up again in the future

I really liked this!

I am pretty new to reading T.Kingfisher (this is my second book by her) but I’ve enjoyed so far seeing her different range / the similar things she does bring to each novel.

I loved how she took on the story of Snow White and made it her own. At some points, I really didn’t know where this was going — and that wasn’t bad! It was nice to be surprised with how the story could be twisted in to something new / different. I will say though I did not always understand the mirror world stuff and sometimes found the explanations contradictory and hard to understand, but this only irritates me at times . . . It did not, thankfully, have a large influence on how much I enjoyed the novel.

I really loved Anja and her curiosity about poisons and how she was always so unapologetically herself. It was great to see her not try to bend and twist herself to fit in to a shape she thought other people wanted to see her in. Of course she had her moments of self consciousness and doubt, but all of this made her feel so human. I loved her relationship with the guards, one in particular…

I like how the romance felt natural — even if it was pretty quick! I thought it was sweet.

I loved the cat.


This was a pretty good book and I’m excited to keep exploring more of T. Kingfishers work!

Hemlock and Silver is my second book by T Kingfisher and really enjoyed it, the writing is always so atmospheric with vivid descriptions and just the right amount of creepy and mysterious elements in the stories that are created that makes it so fun and engaging. I finished this book in two sittings I just found it such a joy to read.

It is a fun snow white retelling following the slightly quirky Anja, a healer also so fascinated by poisons who finds herself hired by the king to cure his ill daughter Snow. While trying to discover the mystery behind her illness Anja finds an alternate mirror world that might cure Snow or be the thing that brings the downfall to others. I found Anja so relatable and instantly loved her humour and the way she handles things and the situations that she finds herself in and just how refreshing it was to have a FMC who is older, awkward, intelligent and has a wicked dry sense of humour.

While the beginning did feel a little slower paced especially as we learn about all the different poisons and antidotes, I found it soon picked up and with the end making it so worth while. I loved that while the romance was more of a sub plot it still felt bittersweet and full of such beautiful moments.

I highly recommend to anyone who loves twisted fairytale retellings that feel original with clever twists and a slow burn romance that doesn't overshadow the plot.

Thank you so much to Publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book before publication, these are my honest thoughts and opinions.

I think this is my favourite fairy tale retelling from Kingfisher, though I did also really enjoy A Sorceress Comes To Call. I appreciated the older heroine in this one, who has advantages (wealthy family) but also challenges. The story beats from Snow White were recognisable, but only from a distance. I appreciated that all of the main characters (and some of the side ones) had personal growth / changes as the story progressed.

This book has Kingfisher's standard dry wit, I definitely cackled a few times while reading this. It also includes her usual creepy/borderline horror elements, though these weren't as pronounced as some of her other stories (including ASCTC).

I usually shy away from telling of old classic stories but much admire T Kingfishers work so thought this was the one to try and I am so pleased that I did. The story is well fleshed out in both tale and characters but the main character Anja is just superb. She is definitely someone I would want to be friends with, such an interesting and entertaining woman.