#Thornhedge #NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-Arc copy of this novel. A wonderful fantasy read. The author pulls you into to story and before I knew it I was done. A must read!

I've loved everything I've read by T. Kingfisher, so the fact that I loved this doesn't surprise me at all--but I REALLY loved it. Thornhedge is a clever twist on Sleeping Beauty that reads as both classic and fresh. I, like the author, thought it was very sweet (even with the notes of horror). I feel like I want to read this one again immediately.

Minutes after she was born, Toadling was swapped for a changeling and spirited away to the Faerie world. Despite being whisked away from her home, she grew up feeling loved and supported by her adopted family, until the fateful day that the fae asked a favour of her. All she has to do is return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a human child... should be easy right? Centuries later a Knight comes across a towering wall of Brambles, he's heard the stories, of a Princess trapped in a tower, a curse that needs breaking. Only this is one curse Toadling will do anything to uphold.

For such a small story this certainly packs an emotional punch, something that shouldn't surprise me because Kingfisher is a master in storytelling. Told solely from Toadlings POV the story flits between her present time ensuring the curse and the person who is under it stay locked in the tower, and her past which show the events leading to now. Toadlings story is both a mixture of happy and sad. Whisked away from her human life, she was taken in by the greenteeth - swamp dwelling creatures in the land of faerie - who raised her as if she was one of their own and introduced her to the world of magic. When she finds herself returning to the human world, she is woefully unprepared for what awaits her, especially when her blessing goes awry and she finds herself the keeper of a child who takes pleasure in harming others. Toadling was such a brilliant character, despite being over 200 years old she still reads as if she was a young person on the cusp of adulthood, and being of two worlds, she spends a good portion of the book longing to return to her family of Greenteeth, whilst also wanting to explore more of the human world.

Being such a small book, Kingfisher keeps our cast of characters small - we spend the most time with Harim, the Knight who stumbles upon Toadlings tower and who is determined to break the curse that's keeping her there. He was your typical Kingfisher male character, someone who is both dangerous and a little broken and I couldn't help but laugh at all his instances of telling Toadling how his mother would scald him for swearing, or not treating her correctly. I also enjoyed the little time we got to spend in the fae world with Toadlings family of Greenteeth. Her description of them certainly gives off a slightly sinister vibe, but you can feel the love she has for these creatures who took her in despite her human birth.

Thronhedge was such a brilliant take on the 'beautiful Princess stuck in a tower, cursed by an ugly witch/faerie' and I adored how she threw the traditional ideals of beauty on their head. Kingfisher really focuses on the idea that beauty is subjective in this book. Toadling, knows she isn't beautiful in the traditional sense, and she knows the family she grew up with would more likely scare people than amaze them with their beauty, but she also knows that looks aren't all that matters, it's whats inside, someone's behaviour and how they act to and around others that really showcase their beauty. Kingfisher still manages to give us all the fairy tale vibes that we yearn for, but she takes the traditional style and throws it out of the window, making it slightly more feminist and showing that beauty is not what makes somebody good or bad, a trend I am seeing crop up more and more recently and one that I love.

If you're looking for a quick and easy read, but one that still packs an emotional punch and gives off big fairy tale vibes, I can't recommend this enough. I would love to return to this world, especially if we get to explore the fae side a little more, and I loved how open ended Kingfisher left the story. I have yet to find a book by Kingfisher that I haven't adored, and I can't wait to pick up whatever she writes next.

I love everything T. Kingfisher has written and this was no exception! The characters are just so fresh and interesting. I was honestly upset that this wasn’t longer. I want to know more about the world and hear more of the story. Overall I really enjoyed it!

As they did with Nettle & Bone, Kingfisher takes us again into a gloriously warped fairy tale where the traditional main characters lurk in the background, and the usual secondary characters become the stars. Toadling is a beautiful, sweet (yes, sweet - you'll understand if you read the acknowledgement) heroine who you will want to pick up and envelope in a huge hug, and Halim is the hero that you wish all stories had. Together they will battle brambles and bricks and an evil beauty who would prefer to break them to pieces. Kingfisher takes the fairy tale retelling genre and makes it entirely their own with this beautifully original story.

it's been a while (it seems to me) since i posted a review. i promise i'm still reading! april has been a busy training month, so reading at my usual fast rate has taken a bit of a backseat. BUT i recently finished t. kingfisher's upcoming sleeping beauty retelling 'thorn hedge' and quite enjoyed it! the story follows toadling, a woman stolen to the faerie world on the day she was born and raised in faerieland. years later, she must return to the human world to give a gift to the changeling that took her place (time moves differently in faerieland, just roll with it). but when the gift goes wrong, everything changes. centuries later, a knight approaches the tower that toadling protects with her life, a tower surrounded by thorns. the knight is here to break a curse, but toadling will do everything in her power to keep the curse in place, for the safety of everyone.

this novella was short & sweet, and had a great story at its heart. it was so fun to read a retelling that completely flipped the script of who we think of as good and evil. perhaps the witch wasn't so wicked after all? there were some kind of gruesome moments (expected from a horror novel writer), but overall this was in line with lots of other retellings. definitely pick this one up when it's released this summer!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

<blockquote>"I can't fight stories," she whispered, and a few tears, dark as ink, ran down her face and tangled in her hair.</blockquote>

I have a pretty mixed history with T. Kingfisher's writing, but there's no arguing the woman knows how to take a story and sprinkle charm all the heck over it. Thornhedge, a re-imaging of Sleeping Beauty, is no different. I actually think the best reading experience for this novella is to go into it blind, so I've listed some vibes, as opposed to plot points, below.

- Subverting tropes
- Relatable MC
- Fairies actually acting like fairies
- Readable in one sitting
- A Muslim knight who's not very religious but apologizes for cursing because his mama raised him right

My review on Goodreads:
T. Kingfisher's legendarium is one where tales of faery that we thought we knew are shown through a prism, broken up into different strands, and wonderfully reassembled into a new and strange land of faery. This novella is a brilliant illustration of what she does with a tale we are all familiar with. Naming that tale would be a small spoiler so read this and discover for yourself.

T Kingfisher has such a warm, funny voice. I'd probably die for Toadling, honestly. She was sweet and unique and charming and, as a lifelong lover of frogs and toads, she was basically my perfect protagonist. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for something light and charming, a very common request these days.

Sleeping Beauty, but make it WAY more complicated.

I pretty much love everything I've read by T Kingfisher, so it's a no-brainer that I would want to read this novella; I don't think I even read the blurb before requesting it. And I have no regrets, having just read it in a sitting (it's under 100 pages, so not THAT extreme).

Toadling has been sitting behind, and sometimes within, a hedge of thorns and brambles for centuries. She's despaired of knights and adventurous boys coming along with axes to try and cut down the hedge, because she really doesn't want them to. One day, when it's been a long time since anyone approached the hedge, Halim camps outside the wall... and she ends up speaking with him.

Toadling is not who you think she is, and this story is not what you might expect. It's wondrous and twisty and a bit heart-wrenching, and all in all a really great story. I love Toadling and I will not look at Sleeping Beauty the same way again.

I LOVED Thornhedge. T. Kingfisher retells Sleeping Beauty in a way I’ve never read before… by asking, “What if the person sleeping is the villain?”

I am not a fast reader, but once I sat down to read Thornhedge, I couldn’t put it down. I finished the entire book in a single day. Granted, it’s not a long book at only 128 pages, but for me, that’s a lot to finish in a day.

The only thing I wish this book had was MORE. I need more of Toadling and the knight, Halim!

Thornhedge is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but not in the way that you'd expect it. This is a quick, dark, quirky, and heartwarming read. This certainly won't disappoint if you already love how T. Kingfisher writes. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I highly recommend reading this August 15th!

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the chance to read this early in exchange for a review!

A wonderful fairy-tale re-telling wrapped up in a short novella. It's cute and quirky, and oddly dark without actually being creepy. You have to love a re-telling where the usual suspect to play the villain is actually the hero.

A vivid retelling of Sleeping Beauty, turned on its head and reimagined. At once full of doom and hope, beauty and evil, Toadling's story is captivating and engrossing.

Oh gosh. I loved this little book. Toadling has quickly become one of my all time favorite characters. This weird little Sleeping Beauty retelling, with a bit of horror and a lot of monsters, is so full of love, and faith, and turning into a toad when you're nervous to hide in the mud. Honestly that's a skill I wish I had.

I have such a hard time reviewing books when I love them this much.

Toadling has been guarding the thorn filled hedge around the castle for a long, long time. Someone sleeps in the castle tower, and she does not want them to wake. But the world has moved on, as it is wont to do, and history has faded into myth. The likelihood of someone showing up to free the sleeper seems small. Until one day, a mediocre knight who likes stories arrives, and everything changes.

This is the perfect novella. It never loses its fairy tale feel, but the characters are still developed and real. Halim, the knight, may not be a very good knight, but he is a wonderful character, and I loved the interactions between him and Toadling. The writing gives such a good visual of the castle keep and Toadlings home, and even though there are some horror filled bits, it's also full of humor and kindness and love. I cannot recommend it enough.

I really enjoyed this book. I love T. Kingfisher as an author and her ability to tell a great story in a succinct way. Our library will definitely be purchasing.

I do love this author. This is a pretty low-stakes read, easy and fun while combining different fairy-tale elements into something, if not completely new, then at least refreshingly remixed.

Some character musings were strongly similar to A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking-- mostly a sort of "literally anyone else could have done this better but I'm the only one here." It felt a little samey to me, like maybe everything was a bit rushed and there wasn't room to repackage? Or maybe the author was working through something that's bleeding through into multiple books.

The general feel and the elemental magic reminded me of Silver in the Wood. The greenteeth of course made me think of The Wee Free Men while the literally-anyone-else matched closer to Wintersmith.

eARC from NetGalley.

So what did we learn here, children? That not all victims of a sleeping spell are innocent. Sometimes the Princess is a psychopath and must be stopped for the safety of everyone. And if you refuse to feel empathy and be kind even after people have given you love and so many chances, the patient ones will eventually push you out the tower window.

A quick paced retelling of Sleeping Beauty that packs some delightful worldbuilding and character-development in not too many pages. It's more violent and a bit darker than some might expect, examining what it means to be a monster or a hero.

An utterly sweet and whimsical novella, Kingfisher once again deftly weaves a classic fairytale into her own unique tapestry where beauty can hide great evil and ugliness can hide a gentle heart.