Hemlock & Silver

by T. Kingfisher

Fantasy

Fairy Tale Retelling

Dark Fantasy

368 Pages

"T. Kingfisher does it again—Hemlock & Silver is darkly enchanting, wickedly funny, and utterly unputdownable. A Snow White like no other."

Synopsis

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison—not to die, but to save lives. She seeks cures for those everyone else has abandoned, building immunity and testing remedies through her own unorthodox methods. Her quiet, herb-obsessed existence is interrupted when the King summons her with desperate news: his daughter Snow is dying, and conventional healers have failed. The King hopes Anja's unconventional approach might succeed where others couldn't. Armed with a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and her unwavering faith in the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat the dying princess. But nothing in her extensive knowledge seems to work. Traditional remedies fail, experimental treatments show no effect, and Snow continues to fade. That is, until Anja discovers something impossible—a secret world hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm, existing beyond the laws of nature she's spent her life studying, may hold the key to understanding what's making Snow sick. But venturing into a place where magic trumps science could be more dangerous than any poison Anja has ever consumed. The cure she seeks might be waiting in the mirror's depths, or it might be the thing that kills them all. In this reimagining of Snow White steeped in poison, intrigue, and magical treason, T. Kingfisher weaves a tale where science meets sorcery and healing becomes its own form of dangerous magic.

Our Take

New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) delivers another brilliant fairy tale reimagining with Hemlock & Silver. What distinguishes Kingfisher's retellings is her ability to honor the original story's bones while completely transforming its flesh—this Snow White features a pragmatic healer protagonist who approaches magic like a scientific problem to be solved. Anja is a quintessential Kingfisher heroine: competent, funny, deeply practical, and refreshingly lacking in false modesty about her abilities. The tension between her scientific worldview and the undeniable magic of the mirror realm creates fascinating conflict and character growth. Kingfisher's trademark humor lightens the darker elements without undercutting stakes—the narcissistic cat alone is worth the price of admission. The worldbuilding is rich and textured, with Kingfisher's background in biology informing Anja's herbal expertise in ways that feel authentic and fascinating. The romance, when it arrives, develops organically through mutual respect and shared competence rather than instalove. What makes this exceptional is how Kingfisher subverts expectations at every turn while still delivering deeply satisfying fairy tale beats. The magic mirror becomes genuinely creepy and mysterious, a threat that can't be solved through conventional means. For readers who loved Nettle & Bone or A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, this offers similar pleasures—dark whimsy, capable heroines, and fantasy that balances humor with genuine peril. Hemlock & Silver is Kingfisher at her finest: clever, funny, enchanting, and utterly her own.