CUTTING FOR STONE Will Be a Feature Film and More Book Radar!

Before I start, I would like apologize in advance—this book is not out until April. But it’s really so amazing, it deserves attention now! I have to get it out of my brain before it explodes.

If you haven’t read T. Kingfisher before, I cannot recommend her enough. She has fast become one of my favorite authors. Her amazing two last novels, The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places, were equal parts terror and comedy, and she has a delightful recent fantasy novel, A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking.

Nettle & Bone is about a tiny kingdom situated between two very large kingdoms. Marra is a princess of the tiny kingdom, the third of three daughters. For many years, the North and South kingdoms to either side have threatened to take Marra’s family’s very tiny kingdom, because it is the only one situated on the harbor. Whoever controls it would rule the whole realm.

To keep this from happening, Marra’s older sisters are promised to the Prince of the North in a political move. But the prince is a tyrant, like, a Joffrey Baratheon-level monster. After watching her sisters suffer for years while she’s tucked away at a convent (where she has been sent so she can’t marry and have an heir before her sisters), Marra decides it is time to do something about the prince. Which turns this tale into a delightfully funny and scary story about, well, committing murder.

But the Prince’s fairy godmother protected him with magic at his birth, so Marra can’t just walk into the North Kingdom and kill him. In order to get past his spell of protection, Marra enlists the help of a powerful gravewitch, who sends her off to complete three impossible tasks in return for her help. Also joining Marra on her quest for revenge is a formidable former knight, a fairy godmother with her own unique skills, a special kind of dog (I don’t want to spoil it, but you will find out what kind of dog in the first few pages!) and a chicken possessed by a demon. (Yes, the chicken is as excellent as you would expect. I want one.) Together, this group will try and bring an end to the Prince’s terrifying reign, for themselves, for Marra’s sisters, and for her kingdom.

This book is so full of imagination! I was delighted by the unusual monsters in the scary bits (omg wait until the innkeeper) and it’s also so, so funny. The dog, especially. T. Kingfisher is really good at writing dogs, dogs and books that are both hilarious and scary. And it’s also a great look at what harsh realities faced the women of medieval times, fantasy or not, and how they have been portrayed, even if the were a princess, a queen, a fairy godmother, or a powerful gravewitch. I really enjoyed the parts with the convent, because it’s not the usual “oh, the nuns are so mean” storyline, but instead a place filled with women who know they have been sent there because people fear them or want to punish them, and they bond over their power. Seriously, I love this book so much and I will tell you about it approximately eleventy million more times. MARK IT DOWN ASAP.

(CW for mentions of real and fantastical violence and murder, misogyny, physical abuse, trauma, body horror, scary situations, animal peril, traumatic pregnancy and miscarriage, and child death.)