In the hands of another author this could have been a ho-hum retelling, but Kingfisher never does “just another fairy tale.” What we get instead is something that feels familiar yet consistently subverts expectations. That exact balance is what makes her work so addictive. You never quite know what’s coming, but you do know it will be fascinating.

Reading the blurb, you’d be forgiven for thinking Snow White is the main character, but thankfully we’re given Anja, someone far more nuanced. She’s sharp and flawed, self-aware in a way that borders on comically brutal in her inner monologues, and often feels endearingly unbalanced in the best way. There’s an awkwardness to her, almost spectrum-coded, that makes her voice all the more compelling.

Like much of Kingfisher’s work, the story doesn’t shy away from brutality. The world may first appear familiar and fairy-tale-bright, but the darker turns always serve a purpose. The Snow White echoes that remain are used to devastating effect, with the mirrors and the iconic red apple reimagined with ingenuity and weight.

The creature work here is a particular highlight. It’s eerie, unsettling, and perfectly revealed, and beautifully offset by Grayling, the wonderfully arrogant cat who repeatedly steals the show (and had me laughing out loud more than once).

Don’t expect a lovely sing along storybook. This isn’t that. Expect something stranger, sharper, and far more memorable.

I don't think Kingfisher can ever miss for me, as this was another fantastic fairy tale retelling!
I'll just make a list of what my favourite things here were, cause that's probably as coherent as I can be when it comes to Kingfisher's bangers.
- A 35 year old female MC that isn't stick thin, and that is weirdly obsessive about poisons.
- As always, great romance with a very sweet but strong man. No toxic masculinity here, no sir!
- Very interesting version of the snow white fairy tale. She took all the elements of it and really blended them together, so much that I often forgot I was actually reading a snow white story - but also all done so well and with so much originality!
- So much heart in this. Loved it.

🍎 The cover screams poison and adventure. The cover illustration is a dead giveaway of the contents of the book: a whimsical retelling of the Snow White fairytale. There's the apple, and there's the poison. There's a specific symbolism there, especially with Anna, the main character, being obsessed with the venomous snakes and poisonous plants. Fun fact: I had to look up "hemlock" fifty pages in (funny how it was staring at me from the center of the page) because I didn't know what plant it was more exactly.

🍎 Mysteries of the Looking Glass. Now that I think about it, I feel like TK mashed together various other fairytales, including the story of Alice and her Cheshire Cat. She added the silvery sheen of the glass, an one-eyed elusive cat, and a knight in shining armour (non-iron). They all went in and out through the mirror, trying to figure out how the world worked.

🍎 The twists were predictable, although I did indeed miss one of them (the ambusher who crashed the mirror). But the rest? They played out the way I thought they would, leading to an ending that felt a bit anticlimactic.

🍎 Humor falls through the cracks. The narrator has a very distinctive voice, infused with humor, plenty of swear words, interwoven streams of consciousness, and a very matter-of-factly vibe. Honestly? I would have preferred a darker and more serious approach, especially since she was supposed to be a level-headed scholar specializing in poisons.

Big thanks to Netgalley and Tor Books for the ARC!

I am never going to be able to look at mirrors in the same way again.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read the eARC for my honest review.

T.Kingfisher has done it again! A beautifully woven, thought-provoking, fairy-tale retelling about Snow White.

Anja is an expert on poisons; she is a problem solver who is determined to find cures and isn’t the best at social situations (me too girl). Her inner dialogue was enchanting and had me cackling.

The King shows up to request her help to save his daughter Snow, who he believes is being poisoned.

Anja travels across the desert with the king's retinue, her two guards and a poisonous snake… and this is only the beginning!

Kingfisher is a master storyteller who crafts beautiful worlds, that tend to be cosy, relaxing, slow paced yet have dark themes mixed throughout. I haven’t read any of her horror books yet, but I must say the whole aspect of the mirror world really creeped me out, the tension kept building, little things kept happening and the suspension was unreal.

The romance is a sub plot and doesn’t take away from the story, hell you don’t even realise there could be a romance subplot until about 50% in! But the romance is so beautiful, had me giggling, kicking my feet and sighing!

"That's humans for you, I suppose. In dreadful danger, with the weight of the world crushing us down, we'll somehow still find ourselves thinking, I wonder if he likes me?"

I will say this is the one book of Kingfishers that actually left me wanting more, an extended epilogue would have been really good, but I understand. It did wrap up nicely and wasn’t required, just would have been nice (I'm greedy, okay).

It was a little slow in the beginning, but I'm not sure if that's because I am used to listening to all her books on Audio, 4.75 stars for me.

T. Kingfisher remains the undisputed queen of cozy-creepy, and Hemlock & Silver is another jewel in her thorny little crown. It begins as a deliciously dark retelling of Snow White, but instead of apple-cheeked innocence, we get Anja, a 35-year-old healer with a specialty in poisons, a blunt mouth, and the kind of dry humor that doesn’t even realize it’s funny.

She reminded me a lot of Robert Jackson Bennett’s Ana Dolabra. If Ana were dropped into a folkloric tangle like this, she’d look a lot like Anja: practical, prickly, and irresistible on the page. Snow White herself mostly hovers in the background while Anja and her companions (human and otherwise) solve a mystery that refuses to resolve the way fairytales are supposed to.

For me, the first 40–45% was the clear highlight. That’s where Kingfisher’s worldbuilding shines: weird magic, clever setups, slow-burn tension, and characters who pop off the page. I was fully locked in; no notes, five stars incoming. Then came the twist: a portal fantasy shift around the halfway point. Personally, portal fantasy isn’t my jam. The change of setting and scope pulled me out a little. I even paused for a quick gaming break (only a few hours) I still finished the book the same day, but the vibe shift softened my enthusiasm just enough to land at a solid 4 stars instead of a glowing 5. To be clear: this is taste, not a craft failure; readers who enjoy portal fantasy will likely be thrilled with where it goes.

A sharp, funny, cozy-dark fairytale with a heroine I adored. Even with my portal-fantasy bias, Hemlock & Silver is an easy recommend and another reminder of why Kingfisher wears the crown.

Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.

My first T. Kingfisher! I love fairytale retellings and the premise of this immediately caught my attention. I appreciated how Anja, the FMC, was crafted as a 'normal' person just trying her best in the face of difficult and dangerous situations and self doubt. There was a wit and humour in the writing style that I was pleasantly surprised by in such a dark and eerie world. It added to the charm of the story and endears Anja to the reader when she is otherwise quite singularly focused on poisons (and eventually Javier - a character I thoroughly enjoyed and who brought a very sweet romance sub-plot with him).

Was excited for a Snow White retelling, however I just found i had no connection to the main character. This made it hard for me to have an investment in her.
I enjoyed parts of this but found my mind wandering an awful lot and it took me a week to finish.

Felt very YA so I presume this is it as I often prefer darker themes and writing. However I believe many will enjoy this

I loved this so much!

A Snow White reimagining from the POV of the woman trying to find out who’s been poisoning her was way more exciting than I thought possible.

I loved the humour, the pace - everything blended so well together.

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. Nothing really happens in the first 40% but it’s never dull - which is usually my problem when there’s no action. This is the kind of book you read when you want something simple but clever.

I usually rush through books but I had fun taking my time to follow Anja’s journey.

I was also super impressed by the mirror gelds 😭 they were just so cool and creepy!!

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan for this magical, most anticipated ARC!
This really is becoming the year of T Kingfisher for me, especially after loving A Sorceress Comes to Call as much as I did!
Healer Anja is a great main character, a full on hyper-fixated overthinker, who takes no nonsense and is determined to walk her own path despite the fairytale pulling her in the opposite direction. Once again, Kingfisher’s ability to write relatable female characters with a whole bunch of quirk and whit means the world to me, let alone the ability to write romances that feel inclusive, natural, and humorous. When I think of T Kingfisher, I now also tend to think of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett, who have that same spark of hilarity. What I also love about this one is the worldbuilding, with all of the Saints and the beliefs behind them, something that feels more fleshed out than the worldbuilding of the books before. It also plays around with Snow White in a way that I haven’t really seen before.
As for critiques, the ending is very well tied up and satisfactory, but did slightly feel like it forgot where it began? The plot is also a little bit slow and has a few false starts, which is exacerbated by the fact that the characters can be slow to realise things, despite that the plot and the story revealing things to the reader a little sooner....
Overall, my worry is that after a few more of these fairytale adaptations, they could get a tiny little bit formulaic. Will I keep reading them, regardless? Of course I will, because I love them. But I do worry that other readers may not be as satisfied.

I normally enjoy this authors book but this one didn’t work for me unfortunately. I really wanted to love this one.

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this. T Kingfisher is a very solid 3-4.5 star author for me, and this is one of her best, in my opinion. I loved the desert setting - it evoked a North African/Middle Eastern-inspired world for me. I also appreciated the worldbuilding in terms of the gods and saints, and how Anja, the main character, relates to faith and the idea of magic from her more scientific perspective as a healer.

The mirror magic/horror is fantastic. Things get very spooky and atmospheric, and Kingfisher makes great use of the otherworldliness of mirrors. I loved everything from the cold, grey landscape to the nightmare mirror-gelds that get created out of the glimpses of people caught between two mirrors (honestly obsessed with them).

I enjoyed Anja as a main character. She's awkward and self-effacing, but extremely competent (in terms of her profession/lifelong special interest in poisons, if not so much in social situations). Shoutout, as ever, to T Kingfisher for having fat women as main characters and not being weird about it. The wry, witty first person narration is fun (and sometimes made me laugh out loud), but it also gets a bit repetitive and circular.

I do sort of feel like this is sold short by being positioned as a reimagining of Snow White. It's very much drawing on elements of that story to make something new, rather than being a retelling, and I thought it did a great job of that.

I was about 65% of the way through the e-book when my audiobook pre-order arrived, so I switched over to listening and really enjoyed that version as well. I can see myself re-reading this, so I don't regret not cancelling my pre-order when I was approved for the ARC.

☆☆☆☆

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Tor for this audio ARC.

T. Kingfisher has a unique talent for weaving whimsical retellings that feel fresh, cozy, and clever, and Hemlock & Silver is no exception. This book really showcases her ability to blend humor, magic, and just the right amount of tension. These are elements I’ve come to love from her.

(view spoiler) Kingfisher’s pacing and character work are much stronger here, and there’s a wonderful mix of heart and mystery that makes it a great read for fans of fantasy that balances darkness and light.

Now, if you’re familiar with the fairy tale at the heart of this story, you might find the plot predictable at times. But honestly, that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment. Kingfisher’s signature wit and warmth breathe new life into the familiar, making even the predictable moments feel engaging and fun.

Overall, this is a cozy, enchanting read that leaves you both satisfied and eager for more of Kingfisher’s signature storytelling. Highly recommended if you're looking for a story that offers both charm and depth.

This was so fun! This is my second T. Kingfisher novel and I will definitely be back for more. It's so refreshing that she writes female characters in their mid to late thirties, who are not only interesting and likeable, but who have all of the life experience and aches and pains you would expect from a character that age. Anja, with her thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm for the world around her was a joyful POV to read from.

Hemlock & Silver is such a unique take on the Snow White fairy tale. I truly never knew where the story was going and I was surprised at every plot point. I didnt know T. Kingfisher had written horror before but oh boy can I believe it now. It's hard to talk about those points without spoiling the story, but let's just say it often made me feel eerily unsettled if I was reading the book at home alone.

In contrast, when the creepy things weren't happening, the story was quite cozy and comforting. Truly an original writing style. If you love fairy tale re-tellings, good side characters, quirky worlds and excellently realistic female protagonists, you will love this book.

This was fantastic and exactly what I expect from a T. Kingfisher novel. Seriously just let me inside her brain! I loved how this took the framework of snow white and then created a completely different story. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong. And the horror aspect of the story was at just the right level for me, more on the creepy crawly and less on the nightmarish horror.
In addition to having a wonderful perfect brain that comes up with insane stories that i EAT up, I love T. Kingfishers romances, they are never overbearing or even a primary part of the story, but are still rich and captivating and this was no different.

Maybe it was all the hype around this book, or maybe my expectations were just too high, but sadly I didn’t fall in love with it. As a Snow White retelling, it had some really fascinating twists, but honestly, it didn’t fully grab me until about 60% in.

I really liked our MC, Anja, it was so refreshing to have an older protagonist (we need way more of this!). That said, she felt a bit flat at times. Her connection with Javier was sweet and grew nicely as the mystery unfolded, but my absolute favorite character has to be Grayling 🐱.

The biggest issue for me was pacing, the story just dragged in places. Overall, I enjoyed parts of it, but I really wish I could have loved it more.

If it allowed me to give more stars I would!

This is my first T. Kingfisher despite having a few of their other books on my ebook reader.

It's a very twisted retelling of Snow White and I am not sure what else to say about that withoit spoiling anything.

I loved it.

I would recommend it if you like a good healthy mix of comedy, romance, mystery, and horror. There were times I was recoiling in disgust and fear and others when I was laughing out loud or swooning!

thank you Netgalley UK for an early readers copy (ebook)

I don’t mind a slow plot but the first third of this book was so slow and it took me a while to get used to the writing style. The main character was refreshing and I liked the talking cat, but didn’t love the plot overall.
This was my first book by T Kingfisher. I was expecting it to be quite dark but it was very ‘cosy’.
I just happened to be playing Strange Horticulture on the Switch while reading this book, so I enjoyed the info dumping of plant, herb and poison knowledge probably more than I usually would.

It’s no surprise this is another hit from T. Kingfisher! It has all of the things I love about her books: the humour, the mystery, the cute and tentative romance, as well as refreshing portrayals of female main characters. Anja is a brusque woman with a passion for poison, more comfortable with her venomous adder than people. Her narrative is amusing and she leads us on a fascinating journey as she tries to uncover the poison at play. I have to say the book did take an unexpected fantastical turn and it took me a while to warm up to the twist but T. Kingfisher did win me over in time and I was once more fully invested in the plot, with all its quirks and host of wonderful characters. The romance is more a side plot but the kind that had me fizzing with the perfect amount of awkwardness and blushing. If you haven’t read any T. Kingfisher books, what are you waiting for? I’m yet to read a single one I wouldn’t recommend!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

I have to start by saying I adore T Kingfisher so I knew this would be a high star read. I also have to say Snow White is one of my favourite fairy tales (all versions but particularly Grimm’s) so knowing this was a retelling or alternative was something that really got me excited. Thankfully I was not disappointed. This is arguably my favourite book by Kingfisher today, beating Nettle and Bone. I adored Anja (bonus points for being the same age as her). She is quirky, interesting and best of all independent add in a narcissistic cat (the only acceptable narcissist) and I was in love.
I devoured this novel in one sitting and I instantly got a physical copy ordered. We have Kingfisher’s amazing knack for storytelling, worldbuilding and characters all coming together to create a gripping retelling and one I will be raving about for months.
As always thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

Snow White has never felt this sharp-toothed or shadow-drenched. Hemlock & Silver is a fairytale turned fever dream — eerie, witty, and unsettling enough that I meant to read a single chapter and ended up awake past midnight, completely absorbed.

What I appreciated most is how the book manages to be dark without ever feeling joyless. There’s a sly humour tucked between the shadows, and Anja’s resilience makes her easy to root for from start to finish. It’s a story with teeth — poisoned apples, fractured mirrors, danger in the glass — and it's perfect.

Hemlock & Silver is Snow White reimagined as gothic mystery, equal parts sharp and haunting, with a heroine I’d gladly follow into another tale.