Basically a T. Kingfisher binge!

[chocochipbiscuit]

I originally meant to post about all the spooky seasonal reading I've been doing, but in practice? I've been finishing up my T. Kingfisher binge. And while she does have some delightful horror (I really love the Sworn Soldier series, particularly What Feasts at Night), in practice I enjoy more of her fantasy stories. Even her fantasy often has a darker edge, but mixed with humor and a sort of wry mundane charm that I absolutely love.

So! I'm going to talk about these two books instead.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher - A sorceress intends to marry a rich man, and only her abused teenage daughter and the man's spinster sister can stand in her way!

This is beautifully told and I love the characters. The true horror (much like the darker side of fairy tales) is in just how casually, mundanely horrible the sorceress is; she's not particularly clever or subtle, instead relying on her own powerful magic (and her awareness of social conventions, which can ruin her as surely as a rival sorcerer) to compensate. Her treatment of her own daughter in particular…it's abuse and narcissism to an extraordinary level, and while the magic doesn't explain why she's abusive, it gives her new avenues to exert her abuse over her daughter.

Cordelia isn't allowed to lock the door in her own home, or even to close it. Cordelia is simply 'made obedient' and puppeted by her mother, trapped inside her own body whenever her mother deems that Cordelia hasn't been dutiful enough. Cordelia isn't allowed to have friends or visitors or anyone who might comment on her unusual relationship or rules. Cordelia is pulled from school at the earliest opportunity and then chided for her ignorance and not simply 'knowing' the things her mother expects her to know. Her mother simply treats her as an extension of herself, a thing she 'made,' and thus expects complete loyalty from.

Which—and I think this is one of my favorite things about the book—makes it even more heartwrenching when other people notice. Whether it's the one girl who lives nearby and whom she wishes could be a friend, and who (as one fourteen year old girl to another, who can't really do anything) tries to tell her that "it will be all right," but at least acknowledges that what's happening isn't okay. When Hester (the target's sister) notices and starts worrying not only about how to save her brother, but how to rescue Cordelia. When Cordelia's maid (assigned to her by the Squire's household while her mother is trying to secure the marriage) notices the way Cordelia flinches around her mother and finds Cordelia sleeping in the closet in an effort to hide, the maid also goes to Hester and explains that she thinks "somebody's doing something bad to that girl and I'm afraid for her."

Cordelia isn't alone, even when she feels she is. Not everyone is able to immediately help (or even knows how to help), but it's a sort of warmth and hope that tugs me through.

This isn't marketed as a 'feminist retelling' of anything, but I can't help thinking about this in contrast to things that were marketed as 'feminist retellings' or 'girlpower this or that.' Circe by Madeline Miller left me cold in part because of that lack of sense of community, the idea that the titular character was the 'one good and powerful woman, not like the others' as various terrible things happened to her (or as she did terrible things herself). Similarly, Iron Widow was sheer popcorn fun, but was "our main character is just So Cool and her power level is over 10000 and she's got TWO BOYFRIENDS!!!" and so much of her motivation (this is for my dead sister! this is for girls everywhere!) felt incredibly hollow without her having any sort of connection to other women in her own story.

Also, I love Hester. A 51 year-old unmarried woman with a cane, who remains sharp-eyed and fiercely independent, worried about protecting her brother, the people in her household, and even the daughter of the woman that she's afraid has come to destroy everything. She's remained unmarried in part because of fear of losing her independence, and in part because of fear that the man who has offered (and who she remains deeply in love with!) will eventually regret that choice.

I really crave older women in fiction. Not just for people closer to my own stage in life, but also looking ahead. Hester has her physical limitations, yes, but is just as integral to the novel as Cordelia. And she gets her own romance arc! I love her.

 Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher - Another fairytale retelling, because I just love fairytales! Based on a very simple idea: what if the wall of thorns had been meant to keep Sleeping Beauty in, instead of everyone else out?

Or: our story follows Toadling, a kidnapped human who had been raised by fairies (greenteeth, specifically) until she's becomes more fey and less human, and who now guards the wall of thorns and the creature inside.

It's beautiful and sweet and sad (but there is a happy ending!), and mostly I love this because of the beauty of falling in love and being loved by monsters, how Toadling truly loves and misses the greenteeth that raised her more than the humans who are technically her family of birth. There's guilt (oh so much guilt) about having failed in her appointed task and the long exhaustion of trying so hard to protect a world that she's become increasingly distant from.

It's a lovely novella and I devoured it over the course of two days. (Would have been one if I didn't have to go to work!)

And now, actually moving to horror: I really love the slow horror and atmosphere of What Feasts at Night, the incredible texture and feeling of this small hunting lodge and the way that there's sympathy even for the 'monster,' without excusing it. It's just really good and I still find myself thinking about terrifying silences and PTSD.

In contrast… A House With Good Bones just didn't hit me the same way. There were many elements I loved (the slow horror of the garden, the kind wildlife rehabber with her pet vulture who also happens to practice her own magic, the way that even though I'm not normally a huge insect fan reading a book written through the POV of an archaeoentomologist really gave me new appreciation of both archaeology and entomology!) and I can definitely pick up the themes of monstrous family legacies and loneliness and power turned spiteful, it just…I don't know. I feel a little strange leaving this so ambivalent, especially since I try only to write about books I enjoyed and/or felt strongly about, but maybe I just need more time to think about this one. All its little hooks in my brain and feeling unsettled and unsure what to do with that feeling.

Anyways! This was my Spooktober reading and I hope everyone has a safe and happy season!

Comments

[vriddy]

Fascinated by your descriptions and lovely thoughts around A Sorceress Comes to Call, really cool!

[chocochipbiscuit]

I'm glad you enjoyed! Please tell me your thoughts if you read this too!