Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

The thing about this book is that there’s so much to like about it, but the execution leaves just a little bit left to desire and it left me frustrated because I wish such great material had been treated just a bit better.

I open this book (figuratively, since I was on an ereader), and it enchants me as I read about this woman who is in a cursed land trying to complete the second of three impossible tasks set to her by a witch (which is how every Cinderella-type story before the Grimm brothers got ahold of it went, by the way). I’m drawn in, but it quickly starts to alternate with flashbacks to another time, before the witch and the impossible tasks, telling us how our protagonist got on this road. And… I’m ripped out of the narrative I just got invested in.

Don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t last too very long, but it lasts long enough that the first 20-30% of the book seems to drag. Then, I don’t know how it happens, but this book–despite its immense cleverness and wit–just couldn’t hold my attention for anything in the world. Even at less than 250 pages, it took me longer to read this book than most books that are almost 400 pages. I’d read a chapter or two and then I’d just get easily distracted. This normally doesn’t happen unless the book has uneven pacing (which this book does tend to struggle with) or is completely boring (which this book is not). The only conclusion I can come to is that between the uneven pacing and slightly poor execution of what could’ve been a story that’s both whimsical and terrifying (think Miyazaki, in a way), this book just simply isn’t well-developed enough to hold my attention as thoroughly as most novels do.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tor Books for access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. This title is being reviewed as part of my backlog of advanced reader copies, but since it has been more than a month past publication date I acknowledge this title has had widespread coverage since release.

I loved this book! It takes all of those wonderful secondary characters in a fairytale and makes them the focus. We have the third daughter (and a princess) trying to save her older sister who she never got along with. We have the old woman who most might consider a witch. Then there is the honorable murder from the goblin market. The fairy godmother has terrible talents and the sweetest of hearts. And finally, the dog is made entirely of bones!
From start to finish, I found the entire story utterly fascinating. It kept taking twists and turns I did not expect. I worried whether any of these characters could truly get a happy ending while it gave homage to traditional fairy tales. Plus, it is a quick easy read. Honestly, it is a must! Do yourself a favor and take the time to read it.

This was such a fun fairy tale-esque story with wonderful characters and a very interesting world. The book starts on quite a dark note and I expected the tone to stay dark throughout. This isn't the case, which did take me a minute to get to grips with, but once I realised it was going to be a humourous and whimsical offering, I was on board. I loved the quest aspect of this story, with its impossible tasks and goblin market and thought that the plot and writing were engaging throughout. Most of all, I loved the characters. The Dust-Witch and Agnes were both delightful and I would DIE for Bonedog! Overall, this was a really entertaining read and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who likes their fantasy with a touch of humour.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

While I love Kingfisher’s take on horror, the fantasy ends up being too dry for my tastes, and it was told in such a way that the first 20% or so was very difficult to follow - and not for the usual reasons (ie infodumping worldbuilding) but because we skipped the worldbuilding for the sake of coming back to it later. Mara is a fairly limp lettuce main character, even as she does all of these very complex and interesting things out of a very strong sense of moral obligation. But she was the least interesting character in the party by far. Fenris was also… not very interesting (again, a strong moral code does not a three dimensional character make).

The best parts were the horror elements. Incongruous bits of spook woven through and the way Kingfisher lingers on detailed descriptions of unsettling things… the Goblin market was a nice touch and a great way to marry the fantasy elements with horror.

But other than that it was just… fine? I guess? Hopefully I’ll have better luck with What Moves the Dead.

This book wasn’t for me. The writing style is not my thing. There were a lot of things that confused me about what was happening from the start of the book. I just couldn’t get into it. Thank you for the publisher for giving me the chance to read it. Maybe I’ll pick it up again later but right now it’s just not for me.

Wow, 5 stars. Loved this so much.

Fans of the author's A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking will find a lot to love here, too. Although this story is darker, there are bits of the exceptional dry humor (and for all it was kindof a YA book, A Wizard's guide had it's dark moments). Nothing I could put my finger on exactly, but a few places in the book also made me think of Dealing with Dragons-- probably the main character's outlook.

The author's earlier work seems to be an odd variety of fantasy experimentation; none of them really called to me, but I will be very excited to see what else they write in the future!

Nettle and Bone is an EXCELLENT dark fairytale. Kingfisher expertly blends horror and fantasy in this novel. I was both entranced and horrified throughout the entire book. However, I do think some elements of this book were a bit silly (iykyk). 4.5 stars. Would recommend this to fans of Ava Reid and Hannah Whitten

I wanted to love this but couldn’t finish it. I’ve enjoyed some of T. Kingfisher’s other books and absolutely love this cover but I am not in the right space for dark and creepy right now, which is now this started. Maybe I’ll give this a try at a different point in time, but right now this isn’t the book for me.

This is the kind of fairy-tale-ish fantasy that UV/T. Kingfisher excels at--a rich world full of beautiful details and good people trying hard in the face of a difficult world. There is so much emotional complexity behind the simplicity of the characters' motivations. Marra is very bad at politics and interpersonal complexity, but she knows her sister needs help and so she picks up heads off, not knowing how she'll help but knowing she has to try.

The cast of characters here is so delightful--the dust wife, cranky, mysterious and full of magic; the godmother, with limited magic but cheerfully eager to please; the disgraced warrior in need of rescue; two very different chickens. Our team has their eyes on the prize, but there is a lot of subtlety in the peripheral characters--the sister Marra never got along with; the mother who is holding a small kingdom together at the cost of her own loved ones.

I loved the convent and the goblin market and the burned lands, and how some problems don't need you to barge in with a sword, but to untangle the complicated threads of tradition and habit and ill will.

An absolute joy to read.

Content warnings: domestic/spousal abuse, both mental and physical; necromancy, the undead, and desecration of graves and bones; miscarriage and child loss; violence, injury and death; forcible tooth removal.

I’ve been such a fan of T Kingfisher for so long, and of her fairy tale work in particular, so Nettle and Bone, which subverts a lot of fairy tale tropes, has been one of my most anticipated books since I first heard about it – and it more than lived up to my excitement for it!

Gosh, I loved this book. I mean, I knew I was going to, because as I say I’m a really big fan of the author, but this is one of my favourites yet. Nettle and Bone perfectly captures everything I love about T Kingfisher’s writing: it’s smart, witty, and full of the kinds of well-rounded, capable characters I love, and somehow it manages to be cynical and hopeful at the same time. I love how she manages to mix darkness and warmth – please pay attention to the content warnings here, as the themes of spousal abuse and child loss in particular are quite strong, but don’t think this is a bleak or hopeless tale, because it still manages to be incredibly human and kind.

Nettle and Bone isn’t so much a fairy tale as an original story that pulls strands and themes from fairy tales in general and weaves them into something new. You have the fairy godmothers, the three impossible tasks, the animal companions and so on, but everything is a half-twist to the left. For me, who’s been completely obsessed with the bones of fairy tales for years, this was like catnip, spotting all the different threads in the cloth, but I think it would absolutely work if you didn’t have that background knowledge, because it’s a very classic quest (in some ways) and a very inventive world. It’s familiar and not at the same time. There’s so much here that’s delightful, creepy, or both at once!

This story is about the power of people who are determined to make the world better; they’re flawed, but they’re trying. There’s some fantastic examination of privilege, and how it isn’t always black and white that the people with privilege are the ones with power – it’s tricky to explain without getting into too much detail, but I loved how Marra’s role as princess is treated as being simultaneously a protection and a burden, without ever getting into that cliched fantasy princess ‘woe is me’ thing. Marra is thirty, and feels it. She’s naive in some ways and mature in others, and while she very much has the bones of a Kingfisher heroine (practical, smart, sarcastic) she feels really fresh and interesting because of her unique situation. The other characters I want to keep secret from you, because you should really meet them on-page first, but there wasn’t a single one who wasn’t fascinating. There’s a smidgen of romance, and a lot of character growth for everyone; it almost sneaks up on you how much you’ve fallen in love with all of them!

I feel like I’m being irritatingly cagey, but that’s because this is a short book (only 330 pages in hardback!) and each part of it builds on what comes before in beautiful ways that it would be a shame to talk about out of context. At the start of the book, you might be confused by the hopping around in the timelines, but just persevere because everything becomes clear very quickly, and the slightly odd structure ends up lending a real richness and depth to Marra’s character. So don’t spoil yourself before you go in – just let the magic of the story sweep you along.

If you’re a fan of T Kingfisher, you absolutely need this book, and if you aren’t yet, this would be a great place to start (or with one of my other two favourites, Bryony and Roses or Swordheart). Five out of five cats!

I didn’t love this book and that’s partly on me because I’ve been slumping pretty hard but sometimes a really amazing story will pull me out of a slump and this unfortunately wasn’t it.
I struggled to connect with the main character although I admired a lot of her traits including her determination and stubbornness. I liked a few of the secondary characters quite a bit and felt that they all had their own unique personalities.
It’s very slow burn overall which ratchets up the creepiness factor but made it difficult for me to stay engaged.
I did really enjoy certain parts like the goblin market and I loved the found family/unlikely crew vibes.
The pace quickens toward the end and I definitely felt more invested in the last third of the book.
If you’re looking for a unique, stand-alone fantasy that’s a mix of eldritch horror, offbeat humor with surprising touch of warmth this is definitely a book to pick up!

If there's one thing T Kingfisher is great at, it's writing completely bizarre novels that are a blast to read. Always a huge fan of the found-family trope, so I adored the dynamic of our cast of misfits, especially bonedog and "the chicken that has a demon in it". An incredibly engaging and fun read!

4.5
I am just going to have to accept that I am a standing T. Kingfisher fan. I have enjoyed everything I've read by them. I'll admit that this isn't my favorite of their books that I've read—I thought it a little slow at times and sometimes I wanted a deeper conversation about things than we were given—but I sure did enjoy the heck out of it.

So much about Marra—who I am convinced is neuron-divergent—is relatable. She's practical as all get-out and is getting the job done, but she's an angsty, insecure mess the whole time she's doing it. Yeah, I felt that in my very bones.

The romance is super subtle and I adored it. All of the side characters are marvelous and there is just so enough absurdity that happens. (I laughed often.) I am sad to be finished and look forward to my next T. Kingfisher book.

A little late with the review for my ARC, but I knew I'd get to it eventually.
And I am glad I did.
Goblin markets, evil princes, and dogs made of bones, oh my! It's a dark fairytale with a touch of humor (thanks to an ornery gravewitch and her demon-possessed chicken). The characters are strange yet loveable, the story is unique and entertaining, and there's just a smidge of romance that even had me yelling "just kiss already!" My only critique is that the very beginning was a little disjointed as it jumped around in time from Marra completing the second impossible task to her childhood and back again and then back again. This felt a bit distracting and was partly why it took me so long to get into the book. But the story progresses in a linear fashion after those couple quick jumps and from there its much smoother sailing.

Special thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Marra is the youngest of three princess'. When the Oldest dies under mysterious circumstances and she finds the next oldest sister in danger she must act to protect her family. With the help of a witch who speaks to the dead, a fairy godmother, a knight and a dog made of bones she quests for vengeance and to save her remaining family.
I am a new fan of T kingfisher and every book I have read so far I have absolutely loved. This story is no exception. An endearing cast of strong female characters makes this book very readable. This book has the perfect balance of classic and fairy-tale like fantasy along with genre busting themes and a women driven plot. I would highly recommend this book.

so this is one of those authors who in book groups get named alot and so when i saw this book on netgalley i thought i would give it a good and see what its all about.

this book was a fun read and but i found parts of it slow but i am glad to say that they didnt stop me reading it or did it make me feel like putting the book down and leaving it a while. the story line was okay and that up and down flow which is why it keeps you locked in but the characters are where it was all at. their growth and sass was just what i wanted in the book and so i am glad i stayed for them.

have been told this is a series and so i am hoping i will see more of what i want in this book in book 2

This was a very entertaining read. The author's descriptions and writing style are enjoyable and the pace is fast. Marra's internal thoughts made me laugh and I loved the dust-wife & fairy godmother interactions and they made for a great road trip. I did appreciate the chicken with a demon as well, as the dust-wife was dead serious about it, but everyone always assumed she was joking. I can't wait to get others to read this.

5 stars
T. Kingfisher is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. Nettle & Bone is an excellent book for fans of A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking who want a somewhat darker tale for an older age group, though I think even younger readers would benefit greatly from reading this if they are interested.
The cast of characters is delightful, and the plot rolls along quite nicely, though I can honestly say I could never guess what would happen next after each scene.
The story features the impression, which I find very honest, that everyone is muddling along as best they can with the tools and circumstances given to them. Heroes, villains, and side characters alike are all doing what they can in a difficult world. Amidst truly entertaining adventures with magic, fairies, and distant kingdoms, the characters find the time to consider profounder truths.
A fairy tale for the soul, Nettle & Bone is a book I think all story lovers should read.

Kingfisher is an author who consistently does not disappoint, her prose and wit will always remain top tier and I will pick up every book she writes. That being said, I loved this novel! It's different from her horror novels yet still maintains the dark atmosphere prevalent in all her novels.

Marra and her gang of friends were a delight to read about and I loved their banter throughout the book. Although the plot seemed relatively simple, I found that Kingfisher made it work. Common tropes, such as fairy godmothers and defeating an evil king were subverted and Kingfisher put her own spin on it - it was great.

Overall, this was a great fairytale-like story to sink your teeth into and I promise you will not regret it.

3.5 stars. Short and wholesome, but this honestly started off so much stronger than it ended. I loved the dark and creepy vibes I was getting initially and then it just turned into pretty standard medieval questy fare.