After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra – the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter – has finally realised that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a Prince – if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of prince’s, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.
On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former Knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the Prince and frees Marra’s family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.
(For anyone who has read/plans to read this book, let’s just be honest with ourselves and admid we bought it for the demonic chicken.) But just look at that cover! So autumnal. Very much ‘stepping-into-halloween.’ And probably the best part of the book, if I’m honest. So congrats to Natasha MacKenzie for getting another sale in the bag for Kingfisher. This is also my very first T. Kingfisher book! (and I quite like the sound of Thornhedge, so might give that a go at some point).
Nettle and Bone begins with the first few chapters using a dual timeline with a flashback that went on for so long, I forgot what was happening in the present day. The present timeline begins with Marra in a place known as the Blistered Land, a cursed and dangerous wasteland home to some unfortunate people and a few angry cannibals, and she’s there to make a dog of bones as part of her three impossible tasks. It’s an intriguing setting and a promising start, but we never find out how or why the curse has happened, and it’s never mentioned again.
The past storyline explores Marra’s upbringing as a princess, being the youngest of three sisters, and seeing said sisters married off, both to the same Prince, after her eldest sister dies. Marra ends up at a convent where she helps the apothecary in matters of childbirth and to me, and the whole thing had me thinking of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is a book/theme I’m not keen on (so not a great start) but it lends itself to the darker side of fantasy that the cover depicts, so it had a lot of promise.
And then, similar to Stephen King’s Fairytale, there’s a change of tone a few chapters in as the book shifts into a slightly dull, run-of-the-mill YA fantasy novel.
Marra is on a quest to save her sister Kania from a cruel Prince (not that one) who’s protected by magic, and can’t be killed. She’s joined by the grumpy old dust-wife who’d set her the impossible tasks, a pleasant, scatty, yet helpful fairy godmother, (both of whom do more for the plot than Marra) and a Knight without a place to call home, and who is shamefully underused as a character. Such wasted potential! (The plot touches on the beginnings of a blossoming romance between the two, but I just didn’t feel it). Most of this section of the novel is on the road, and you’ll wonder why no one thought to pack any FOOD I swear to god, the incompetence. They have a former knight and a savvy dust-wife, yet no one thought to pack a sandwhich?? (And people call Marra the slow one!)
Speaking of Marra, she didn’t seem all that fleshed out to me. I thought I’d be getting a Princess Fiona type of princess, but she’s barely a princess except in name (a fact we’re constantly reminded of, lest we forget). She’s defined by her relationship to her sisters, and she knits. (I know people pick holes in the fact she’s thirty, saying she’s too immature, but we see early on as a young child she only has an innocent understanding of the world, and then gets shipped off to a convent where interaction with the outside world is minimal at best. Not really fair to compare her to modern day 30 year olds of the real world, is it?) I will say it’s refreshing to have an author give us a main character who’s more reserved and a little more dependent on others than most. There are people like that in the world, after all, but as a result, she has no agency beyond being the person who sets things in motion. Most is left up to the expertise of her new friends, while she tags along for the ride in an emotional panic.
I feel the story would have worked so much better had Kingfisher switched the two sisters and we had Kania as the youngest, going out to save Marra from the Prince, with a steadfast plan, and sandwiches.
I found the pacing a bit sluggish, and there wasn’t a real sense of buildup to anything. In part, because they weren’t met with any real difficulties. Where Marra was the inciting incident, the rest of them were easily the deus ex machina (though not as much as that saint from the goblin market!) Speaking of – chapter eighteen was the only one that sparked any interest. The unexplored Blistered Land, chapter eighteen. Those are the highlights.
Overall…the book was fine. It was a little disjointed in tone and not as dark as I would have liked, but an easy read. Albeit an underwhelming one. The impossible tasks should have comprised the majority of the plot, not glossed over during the opening chapters, and the goblin market felt so out of place, but there was some good characterisation from the dust-wife and the fairy godmother. But I wanted more from the demon chicken. You could put Nettle and Bone in the same category as The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry (and make of that what you will), and if you liked one, there’s a good chance you’d like the other.
And why is it even called Nettle and Bone? Barely relevant.
2/5
WHEN THE BOOKENDS 