Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Narrator: Jennifer Pickens
Published by Macmillan Audio on August 19, 2025
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Fantasy
Length: 11 hrs 50 mins
Pages: 393
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Libro.fm
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From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.
Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.
Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.
But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.
Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.
Or it might be the thing that kills them all.
A couple of caveats: this is the first book by Kingfisher I’ve read and I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings, even if I don’t read enough of them.
In this loose retelling of the Snow White story. We have Snow White, of course, apples, and mirrors, but no dwarves. Our main character is a healer, Anya, a poisons expert who is summoned by the King to discover how Snow is being slowly poisoned. Anya, of course, has no choice but to go. Anya is essentially a spinster who has devoted her life to her studies, made possible thanks for her father being a wealthy merchant. She’s smart but her discussion of poisons and poisonous plants tends to be a bit much for people in social situations. Anya is aided in her investigation by two of the royal guards, one of whom is a potential love interest, and a talking cat, who is just as haughty as you might expect. .
I got caught up in the story. The opening was maybe a bit slow but after that it moved along well. I’ll grant you, the world was rather standard fantasy and you can see some of the plot points coming, but i enjoyed it. I listened to the audio and the narrator did a good job pulling me into the world and maybe allowed me to ignore some of the pieces that didn’t quite make sense.
About T. Kingfisher
Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher is the author and illustrator of far more projects than is probably healthy. She has written over fifteen books for children, at least a dozen novels for adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger” and various short stories and other odds and ends.
The daughter of an artist, she spent her youth attempting to rebel, but eventually succumbed to the siren song of paint (although not before getting a degree in anthropology.) Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, went to college at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state.
Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in New Mexico, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband and his chickens.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: