Just finished Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, and I’m kind of torn, though not surprised, based on my past experience with her work.
I’ll start with the positives: the story itself is solid. The premise is fun, dark-fairytale adjacent, and creative enough that it kept me reading. This wasn’t a DNF for me, and that says something. Kingfisher clearly has good ideas and knows how to structure a story that moves.
That said… I’ve realized I just don’t click with her prose or her characters. I’ve read one of her other books before and felt pretty much the same way. It’s not baddd, exactly, it just doesn’t speak to me. The characters feel forced, like the author is pushing them onto the page and insisting I like them rather than letting them grow naturally. Even the dialogue feels a bit off to me, quirky in a way that pulls me out of the story instead of pulling me in.
I never fully connected with anyone in her books, emotionally or otherwise. And for me, that’s a dealbreaker when there are so many books out there with characters that feel alive, messy, and deeply human. These just… didn’t.
So yeah… fun book, interesting concept, glad I finished it. But I don’t think T. Kingfisher is an author I’ll be revisiting. Maybe it’s just me, and I’m sure a lot of people love her work, but this one didn’t land the way I hoped it would.
Curious if anyone else feels this way, or if I’m just missing whatever magic everyone else seems to see.
by Caffeine_And_Regret