Novel Review: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
I read Thornhedge and Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher in a single sitting yesterday. Yes, I have problems, but I don’t have any problems with the books. They were great. Once I started, I couldn’t resist staying up all night to finish them. So today, instead of doing another site update, I’m going to try to collect my thoughts on Thornhedge. I’ll do a writeup of Nettle & Bone at a later date, but Thornhedge left a bigger impression on me and I really want to talk about it. Thornhedge isn’t very long and I’m going to spoil everything so please, please, please avoid reading any further if you’re planning on reading it yourself!
Thornhedge is a modern fairytale. It centers of the life of Toadling, a fairy who can transform herself into a toad. She was born a human but was raised in the fairy world when she was taken as a baby and replaced with a “changeling.” She is later tasked with returning to her home to bless the changeling so it would “do no harm.” When she gets the incantation wrong, she is instead tasked with the responsibility of not allowing the changeling to do harm. The changeling is a monster in human flesh and after committing a series of murderers, it is put into a deep sleep and sealed away. Still bound to her duty to keep it from doing harm, Toadling remains by the tower the changeling is bound to for centuries until she devises a plan to kill it.
I knew going in that I was going to love Thornhedge. From reading the synopsis alone, I knew that the story has everything that I adore in fiction: fairies, knights, princesses, curses, and a secret tower. The characters in Thornhedge are written really well and I love them all. The novella is short, only about 100 pages, but I left feeling like I’ve spent an entirety with them. Toadling is just a darling. She’s charming and dutiful and I was rooting for her through the entire book. Halim is just so perfect. He’s shy and kind of a loser but very chivalrous and such a sweetheart. He’s literally husband material. I loved his character so much.
I love, love, love the idea of the princess being a monster. She’s just horrible. She tortures animals, murders her attendants without mercy, and even reanimates her prey. I like the idea of an absolutely irredeemable villain and Feyette was the perfect example of one. This isn’t really a gripe at all because I feel like the ambiguity of the conclusion, but I really want to know who or what she was planning on summoning. Did she just want revenge on Toadling and her kingdom or did she have greater ambitions? I left wondering how powerful Feyette really was or could become and what it would have looked like had she awaken and escaped the tower herself.
I’ll end this writeup with a confession: I actually started writing a story similar to the premise of Thornhedge a while ago. I stopped writing out of fear of my housemate finding it and general embarrassment over my inabilities as an author. Reading Thornhedge has given me the motivation to return to that story. I have a clearer vision of what I want it to be and although I’m still terrified of my housemate finding it and getting angry, I really, really want to write something now. So thank you, T. Kingfisher, for helping me find that spark again. I’ll never be able to write anything on the level of Thornhedge but you’ve inspired me to give writing a story another shot.
2/8/2024