This was such a fantastic adventure of a book! I am so glad that I do not have T. Kingfisher's imagination for macabre frightening creatures but I do love reading about them. She always has the perfect balance of humor, adventure, romance and pathos. Her characters come alive off the pages from the very start. I loved this and will highly recommend it to all readers of fantasy.

The narrator was fantastic - the characters absolutely came to life.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Kingfisher is a hit and never misses!
This was a dark and beautiful reimagining, a must read for everyone who loves her work. The narrator did an amazing job as well, very emotional!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

4.75/5 stars

I freaking LOVE T Kingfisher so much - the way her brain works is a MARVEL. This is an amazing example of how to twist a fairy tale but make it something completely it's own. It has the key components of a princess named Snow, a poisonous apple, an even queen, and magic mirrors.....but that's where the main similarities end. It's dark and twisted but also funny and romantic and cute. I absolutely adore Anja and Javier and Aaron and Lady Sorrel - the whole cast is amazing.

The story writing can't be beaten and I will never stop being amazed at how she combines levity and humor with grim and dark storylines. Forever one of my favorite authors, and this has quickly become one of my favorites by her.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!

updated to 4.5 stars because the narrator did a fantastic job

in the past six months, i have read a large majority of t.kingfisher’s backlist and have become obsessed with her writing — both her horror and fantasies are terrifyingly creative and satirical, and extremely attention grabbing.

while i loved this dark snow white retelling — which also reminded me of alice in wonderland because of the talking cat involved — i found myself dragging through the first 40%. the plot really didn’t pick up until halfway through, which to me was a tad disappointing.

but of course, t.kingerfisher’s writing knows no bounds, what with her descriptions of creepy crawling centipedes with fingers for little legs and creativity by depicting an entire alternate world in mirrors.

as for the narrator, she did a fantastic job. i always think satirical humor works best in a narration, and t. kingfisher's narrators nail it every time!

overall, this was a great read!

Hemlock & Silver is a darkly enchanting retelling of Snow White that blends fantasy, mystery, and light horror with a deft, imaginative hand. Healer Anja, known for her unconventional use of poisons, is summoned by the king to save his mysteriously ill daughter, Snow. What begins with the feel of a fantasy-tinged historical fiction soon unfolds into a tale full of creeping magic, sentient cats, and an eerie mirror realm. Kingfisher’s storytelling is atmospheric and sharp, with moody touches, like the audiobook’s intro music, that set the tone perfectly.

If you’ve read T. Kingfisher’s horror based work, this won’t hit quite the same. The horror elements are here, but they’re lighter, more fairy tale than full dread, and feel whimsical. Still, with echoes of Coraline, poisonous apples, sinister reflections, and a venomous snake on hand, the story is clever and unsettling in all the right places. A fun reimagining that avoids feeling overdone, even when it leans into the fairy tale roots.

T. Kingfisher starts with a hint of a “Snow White” retelling that zags into a slight “Through the Looking Glass” fantasy. Anja is a funny, smart main character whose thirst for knowledge about poisons and their antidotes drives the first portions of “Hemlock & Silver”. After the transition to Silver and back, relationships develop between Anja and her bodyguard, Javier, and between Anja and Grayling, a cat (TBD). It’s a thrill to get enthralled in this dark fairy tale mystery fantasy. Jennifer Pickens’s narration kept me engaged until the very last word. So what exactly is making Princess Snow sick? Why did the King murder his wife? Questions will be answered on publication day, 8/19/25. This audiobook has become my new favorite and these characters, my new friends. I look into mirrors now. ALC was provided by Macmillan Audio via NetGalley. I received an audiobook listening copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hemlock and Silver is a gothic, eerily atmospheric reimagining of Snow White—told through the eyes of Healer Anja, a pragmatic poison-antidote specialist trying to uncover the truth behind “Snow’s” mysterious illness. T. Kingfisher masterfully weaves together elements from multiple folk traditions—mirror worlds, changelings, cursed apples—creating a story that feels both timeless and wholly original. The mirror cat brings to mind the Cheshire Cat with its sly, unsettling presence, and the story teases out shifting allegiances and hidden motives as it builds toward a thrilling climax. Narrator Jennifer Pickens is superb, using tone and character nuance to fully immerse the listener in this haunting, sharply told tale. A must for fans of dark fairy tales, folklore-infused fantasy, and clever reimaginings that breathe new life into old stories.

Thanks to MacMillian Audio for this ALC. This is my honest review.

This is my first full length T Kingfisher. I previously read some of her novellas. This is a Snow White retelling. After the death of his wife and his other daughter Rose. The king has enlisted the help of Healer Anja to keep Snow safe. Healer Anja is well versed in poison and that is he is most worried another because Snow is dying and he believes she is being poisoned.
I loved the idea that the evil queen and Snow White is not a stepmother. This take is just different from retellings that I have read and I absolutely devoured it. I love the poison aspect too. Anja’s character intrigued me. And not only is this just a fantasy T Kingfisher also gives that element of romance in it as well but it is definitely subtle and I loved it.

I got to experience this as an audiobook and the narrator, Jennifer Pickens, did an absolute fantastic job. I love the different voices, especially the one for the cat. This was my first audiobook by this narrator and now I need to go read T Kingfisher other books because this narrator has done other books by her. And then go through and see what other books this narrator has done and start listening to them because I think this is gonna be a new favorite narrator.

Thank you to McMillan audio for the complementary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Any new T. Kingfisher book is automatically on my tbr (maybe not all the horrors ones though) and if it’s a fairytale retelling, that’s just a bonus. I was very excited to receive the ALC of this one from @macmillan.audio and breezed through it in just a couple of days.

It’s been just about a couple of decades since I’ve read Snow White, so you can guess that I don’t remember anything of it. So while I can’t judge this book based on how close it is to the original, I quite enjoyed this one. The writing is irreverent as expected from the author, though maybe it’s slightly less humorous than her other fare - this can also be due to the fact that a child is being poisoned and our main character has to save her. As it’s told entirely from the MC Healer Anja’s pov, her self deprecating voice comes across very well in the internal monologue.

What’s surprising is that the fantasy elements don’t even show up until half the book is done. It keeps reading like any historical fiction novel, until we are suddenly thrust into the mirror world along with Anja, and it was interesting to see a rational and scientific mind like her grapple with the possibility of the existence of magic. While the fantasy world was expected - because ultimately this is a Snow White retelling - I think I enjoyed Anja’s passion for diagnosing poisonings and researching antidotes more. She is ably helped in her endeavors by the broody bodyguard Javier and it was so lovely watching their relationship develop.

Overall, this was just a fun novel, especially with some wonderful narration by Jennifer Pickens. It may not be my favorite Kingfisher, but I don’t think she can write anything that’s less than enjoyable. I also immensely appreciate the fat representation as well as a single female protagonist in her mid 30s. The next book by the author is a horror, so I may not read it, but can’t wait to see what her next fantasy will be.

Healer Anja has a passion for poisons. Or rather, for finding their antidotes. Into her mid-30s, she's made a name for herself as she doggedly pursues cures for common poisons. She's the first to correct you that she's not a healer, since she prefers solving problems to bedside manner, so she's shocked when the king arrives on her doorstep and insists that she come heal his 12-year-old daughter Snow, who he suspects has been poisoned. Less of a request and more of a demand, Anja travels to the palace, where she's ready to find the root of Snow's suffering.

T Kingfisher's reimagined dark fairy tales are some of my favorites to read. They take the threads and some of the themes of the original stories and twist them around, giving them a light horror element and a completely different angle of approach. (Others include Thornhedge, Nettle & Bone, and the Raven and the Reindeer.) Instead of a linear retelling, Kingfisher takes the element of the Queen's mirror and writes a whole new world, literally, relying on the now-dead Queen's magic. Her worldbuilding is spectacular, borrowing only the elements that she needs from the original, and then crafting a kingdom seen through the eyes of a middle-class middle-aged scholar woman. Elements of suspense and horror haunt the tone, but don't make the story scary overall. Add a dash of [closed door] romance, and the book strikes a lovely balance.

Anja is a prickly, straightforward, practical, and very relatable main character. She has the experience of age that she uses when it comes to solving problems, and the doggedness of a scientist in pursuit of an answer. She's funny when she doesn't mean to be, and has the embarrassing trait of speaking her mind, which wouldn't be a problem except she then has a tendency to talk about her snakes and roosters and poisons and antidotes, which don't make for good dinner conversation around courtiers. I loved the insight we get into Anja's perspective, which serves as narrative driver but also as worldbuilding device.

I always love listening to fairy tales, and I think Kingfisher's stories relate well over audio, as the worldbuilding comes from perspective and action, rather than any info-dumping. Jennifer Pickens narrates Hemlock & Silver, and I think is well-suited to conveying Anja's perspective.

Another hit from T Kingfisher, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors!!

What worked for me: honestly, everything. I loved the setting, the plot, the magic...the question should really be what didn't work for me, and the answer would be, it feels impossible to fall in love in 7 days, but what do I know, really.

A banger of a book (I wish literally, alas) that excels on audio.