Audio Narration: 4/5
Pausing and inflection is great. Pacing is a bit slowed down sounding at 1.0x but consistent so easy to speed up. Narration sounds great sped up! Voices for other characters are not quite as varied as I usually like, but don’t stand out in any negative way, so I guess neutral I feel neutral about this aspect. Aside from the minor issues, I think the narrator does a great job bringing the FMC to life and the audiobook was such a fun way to read!

A dark reimagining of Snow White that feels familiar, while telling a stunning new version of the beloved fairytale. T. Kingfisher is quickly becoming an auto buy author.

What’s to love…
- dark fairytale
- strong, sturdy, & tall, over 30 FMC that’s smart, mature, and just a bit quirky
- dare I say this is a book features a woman in STEM? yeah I’m saying it. Definitely a woman in STEM - Anja dedicates her life to the study of poisons. It definitely gives off chemist/biologist vibes!
- romantic subplot that is slow burn and epically adorable
- ANIMAL companion (the feistiest cat)
- no spice
- laugh out loud funny
- weird af (and I mean that in the best way possible)

What’s not to love…
- My only complaint is that it starts a bit slow, but once you’re at the 40% mark the pacing is perfect and you won’t want to put it down.

Review: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Princess Snow falls mysteriously ill, the king turns to Anja, an unconventional healer known for her unusual approach—studying poisons by ingesting them herself. What initially seems like a poisoning soon unravels into something far more twisted and magical.

One of the standout elements of this novel is Anja herself. She’s a refreshingly grounded protagonist—smart, sarcastic, and deeply practical in a world that often veers into the uncanny. T. Kingfisher delivers a modern, dark twist on the classic Snow White tale, balancing creepy folklore with sharp humor.

The pacing is tight and engaging, keeping the tension high without ever dragging. I found myself turning pages quickly, eager to uncover the mystery behind the illness and what lies beneath the surface of this haunting fairy tale.

If you're a fan of dark fantasy, clever heroines, or fairytale retellings with bite, I highly recommend Hemlock & Silver. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4.5⭐️

"I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me he had murdered his wife."

As far as hooks go, this book starts off very strong. Anja is a rather unsociable healer who studies (and occasionally consumes) poisons in order to find cures for them. When the king rather rudely shows up in her workroom unannounced, telling her the queen has killed their daughter, so he killed her, and now his surviving daughter may be poisoned, it sets Anja off on a journey to save the princess.

This book is a "retelling" of Snow White, but from a completely different angle and with some generous creative liberties taken. But to take an outdated, tired fairytale and place it into Kingfisher's hands is something you will never regret doing. Her imagination, wry wit, and whimsy know no bounds. She pulls off such creative, fresh stories while somehow not overdoing it. Each world, character, even pantheon feels grounded.

I'm docking a little off of my rating due to some pacing issues. This is common with many of her books. Around the 50-75% mark things tend to meander a little bit. I don't mind it that much but things could've moved juuuust a bit faster.

I'm at the point now where I think T. Kingfisher might be one of my favorite authors. While her books are by no means perfect, I'm such a fan of her style.

I devoured this book. I was hooked from beginning to end. This was my first book by this author, but I will be reading more. That narrator’s did a great job!

Honestly, T. Kingfisher might be my favorite writer of all time. I cannot think of another author whose books are always, regardless of topic, enthralling.

Hemlock and Silver follows Anja, a woman who studies poisons, as she is conscripted by the king to help save his ailing daughter Snow. Anja finds this task seemingly impossible. There is nothing that should be making Snow skick. Anja fears failure, not just because the king may have her killed if his daughter dies, but also because she doesn't want to see Snow die. At the same time, Anja fears her own life may now be in danger. She strives to find the solution to Snow's illness with the help of her bodyguard and a talking cat.

This is one of the more outlandish premises from T. Kingfisher, but somehow the book doesn't feel silly or outlandish. Anja is a woman who analyzes the things around her and dismisses the idea of magic as a useless excuse for not understanding how things work. This analytical lense is laced throughout the book and adds depth to the world and characters. I cannot express how much I love this type of writing. The examining of the world and pushing at things that don't make sense is a fun way to go about worldbuilding.

The way Kingfisher has written this book is slow. The main action of the book comes well into the story, but I never found myself wishing she would "just get on with it", so, if you are someone who doesn't like measured and analytical books, this might not be for you. I feel that this waiting and examining builds to a more satisfying conclusion though.

Bumping my rating up to 4.5 stars because I’m still thinking about this book! I was extremely excited to get selected to listen to this audiobook in advance of its publication date. I love twisted fairytales, and this one did not disappoint! I really liked Anja’s character, and I enjoyed following her journey to determine the cause of Snow’s mysterious ailment. The secret world of the magic mirror was so fascinating. I really enjoyed Kingfisher’s writing and world building. The narrator, Jennifer Pickens, was also amazing! This creepy quirky Snow White retelling is well worth the read if you enjoy dark, twisted fairytales. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with this ALC in exchange for an honest review. This was a fantastic read!

Hemlock and Silver Honest ARC Review:

4.5⭐️

I loved this!
I am a huge fan of T. Kingfisher as an author and have been looking forward to more of her work.
This dark and interesting retelling of Snow White pulled me in from the first chapter! The story was captivating and the world building was creative and fascinating.

Anja, a skilled healer and poison expert was called by the King to aid with the healing of his daughter.

With the help of Aaron and Javier, the Kings guard, Anja explored everything in the kings daughters room and daily life in order to discover with had made her ill. Anja was incredibly curious. From a young age, she explored poisons and antidotes, even experimenting on herself in order to find a cure.

As Anja explored, she found that Snow ( the kings daughter) may not have been poisoned at all but that her illness may have been related to mysterious mirrors or portals in her room.

The story seemed to develop slowly at first as T. Kingfisher was descriptive and gave insight into the experience of Anja. Before long, the storyline had plot twists and turns, picking up pace. Before long, with reader is taken on quite an adventure filled with plenty of intrigue.

This was beautifully written, descriptive and interesting. A bit darker than the original tale, Hemlock and Silver was engaging and entertaining.

If you enjoy getting lost in a world of mystery and intrigue, this is a great addition to your TBR! I really enjoyed it and highly recommend reading Hemlock and Silver.

Thank you so much Net Galley and MacMillan Audio for sharing this ARC with me.

T Kingfisher is an auto read author for me. I smashed the request button so fast I didn’t notice what this was about. A Snow White retelling? Yes please.

The way this was from a scientist that is mainly interested in poisons and antidotes made this so interesting the way the tale was flipped on its head and had horror elements, romance and science/magic was absolutely my jam. I loved the writing, characters and plot.

Absolutely recommend this.
The audio book narrator definitely added to the experience. Great audiobook.

Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan audio for an alc.

This book is like a medical mystery crashed into a fairy tale in the best, weirdest way. Anja is a poison researcher and healer who basically microdoses death for science, and honestly? I respect the hustle. She’s practical, stubborn, a little socially awkward, and so good-hearted it hurts.

She gets pulled into a twisted retelling of Snow White when the princess falls mysteriously ill , and that’s when things get real strange. There’s a magic mirror. A creepy, parallel world. A narcissistic talking cat (who I would die for). And shadowy creatures that gave me actual chills. The worldbuilding is so vivid and eerie without needing 500 pages of lore dumps.

Anja is the kind of protagonist we don’t get enough of, older, smart, compassionate, and absolutely done with people’s nonsense. I loved how the story handled science and magic like they weren’t enemies but different tools. There’s real emotional depth here too, addiction, grief, healing, woven through the fantasy without it ever feeling preachy.

If I had one nitpick, it’s that the romance subplot felt a little underdeveloped. But honestly? I didn’t care. I was way more invested in the mirror world, the cursed magic, and Anja being a total legend with a mortar and pestle.

This is dark, clever, feminist fantasy that feels like a Grimm tale rewritten by someone who actually cares about women and weirdos. Absolutely recommend.

Why is Kingfisher so darn creative? A woman, Anja, who is an expert in poisons is brought to the royal residence by the king because he is afraid someone is poisoning his daughter. Anja can't rule out poison but she can't figure out what the poison is or how the princess is being dosed with it. A sexy guard, a talking cat, an alternate world, and a poisoned apple all work together to bring this story to vivid life.
I was so invested in this book. Both the writing and the narrator were incredible.

T Kingfisher's writing style is just perfection. I love the gothic vibes and fairytale inspiration. I'm so happy to have been approved for the ALC and the narration is fantastic.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ALC

First published: 19/08/25 (ARC)
Genre: Fantasy, horror, fairytale retelling
Page count: 368
Format read: 🎧 (narrated by Jennifer Pickens)
Others read by this author: Nettle & Bone, What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night, The Twisted Ones, A House With Good Bones, The Hollow Places, A Sorceress Comes to Call
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Thankyou to T. Kingfisher, Macmillan Audio, & NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of Snow White, sees posion-expert Anja recruited by the king in an attempt to discover the source of his daughter Snow's ill-health. With the help of her bodyguard Javier & sort-of-cat Greyling, Anja attempts to use her scientific methods to unravel a world of magic, mirrors, & mortal peril.
At this stage I can't imagine T. Kingfisher ever writing anything I don't love. Hemlock & Silver is another wonderful horror-tinged fantasy with a fabulous plus-sized thirty-something heroine, which will never not be refreshing in a genre filled with svelte teen girls. I loved the relationship between Anja & Javier, I loved Anja's utter distain for pre-teen princesses, but most of all I loved Greyling. For all that Javier is convinced that he can't be a cat because cats can't talk, I am convinced that if cats could talk, they would sound exactly like Greyling.
Another excellent horror/fantasy adventure. If you liked Nettle & Bone & A Sorceress Comes to Call, you will love Hemlock & Silver.

Yep, another fun and quirky and creepy book from T Kingfisher! Hemlock & Silver stars Anja, a woman whose specialty is poisons and finding their antidote. When the king's daughter, Snow, seems to be sick from poison, he recruits Anja to find out what is going on and to fix it.

Anja is brilliantly written, as per usual, and is a likeable and goofy strong female lead. There are plenty of other characters, though few are featured very prominently, and I didn't mind that. There's a little romance, and I always appreciate that when Kingfisher adds in romance, it's never too over the top to where it takes away from the main story. This one was cuuuute. And of course, there's a talking cat.

For a twisted take on Snow White, it was really pretty unique while keeping a lot of original story elements (mirrors, apples, evil queens). The pacing was a little odd throughout some of it, but I didn't mind too much. The narration was great as well!

In conclusion, I really liked it! Recommended for people who like Kingfisher, or sorta creepy fairytales, and people looking for something to add to their Halloween-time TBR!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the e-ALC!

I loved this! Jennifer Pickens Was an excellent choice for portraying Anja’s nervous but intelligent energy. It’s nice to have narration match the book so well. I loved the discussions about poisons and anecdotes and how the information was delivered to the audience effortlessly as Anja’s anxious inner monologue. I love to see women doing science in fiction. Hemlock & Silver is perfect for fans of The. apothecary Diaries.

Every kingfisher book always has the nostalgic feeling of classic fairy tales. I loved that the main character was a big, strong and smart woman, healer Anya really is an amazing and well developed character

Standalone fantasy with just a sprinkle of romance. It was atmospheric without being horror forward. I love the FMC and all her animal side characters. Especially the snarky mysterious cat. If a cat were to talk I would imagine them acting just like this one. Unbothered.
Loved this take on “Snow White” where our main character is neither Snow nor the evil step mother. She’s a smarty spinster poison expert who is reluctantly whisked away to help the kings daughter.

This was my first book by this author and I’m excited to see what else she has!

Hemlock & Silver is classic T. Kingfisher: eerie, clever, unexpectedly funny, and brimming with emotional depth. This time, she takes on “Snow White,” twisting its familiar elements into something hauntingly original and undeniably compelling.

Anja is a refreshingly practical protagonist: analytical, sharp, and wholly dedicated to her poisonous art in service of healing. I loved her mind and her grit. The supporting cast adds charm and tension, especially a narcissistic talking cat and the mysterious realm behind the mirror that gives major Alice in Wonderland-meets-Crimson Peak energy.

The story doesn’t shy away from horror either. There are genuinely creepy moments, and the dark mirror realm is unsettling in the best way. Still, there’s heart at the core of it, especially in Anja’s determination to save Snow and uncover the truth.

Jennifer Pickens’ narration was stellar. Her performance captured Anja’s intellect, dry humor, and growing unease with perfect precision.

This is a must-read for fans of dark fairytales, creepy fantasy, and protagonists who lead with intellect over swordplay. Hemlock & Silver was haunting, witty, and totally immersive.

I loved this book! The beginning feels a bit slow but hang in there because it just keeps getting better and better! Oh and when you think you’ve got the story all figured out…you don’t! Lol. 😊. T Kingfisher is quickly becoming an auto buy for me. Love the story, love the writing style, overall a great author!

Thank you NetGalley!!

Hemlock & Silver is a richly atmospheric fantasy that blends whimsy, darkness, and heart in a way that feels both classic and fresh. T. Kingfisher crafts a strange and enchanting world filled with clever twists and characters who are practical, relatable, and quietly brave. The tone has echoes of Alice in Wonderland, only with more grit and a world that's just a touch less surreal. It’s a fast-paced, emotionally satisfying journey that balances dry humor, eerie beauty, and quiet strength. A perfect read for those who like their fairy tales with teeth.

holy crap that was so good. i think that was the fastest i've finished a book this long in a while! i love the elements of alice in wonderland/ through the looking glass. that was amazing!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy! ♡