Nettle and Bone (T. Kingfisher)

Nettle and Bone
T. Kingfisher
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: In fairy tales, the princess who marries a prince gets a happy ending... but not Marra's sisters. As the third daughter of a minor king and queen, she watched as Mother sent eldest Damia off to marry Prince Vorling of the Northern Kingdom, there to secure peace for their own small nation - only for her to return in a funeral shroud not long after, victim of an unfortunate accident. When Marra's second sister, Kania, is sent to marry Vorling in Damia's place, Marra is packed off to a convent to serve the Lady of Grackles (and be kept safely out of the way, against future political need). But when she visits Kania years later for the birth of her neice, Marra realizes something is very, very wrong in the Northern Kingdom. Damia died of no accident, but was killed by her husband, and Kania will only last until she's delivered the male heir he needs... if that long. And if she fails, Mother will not hesitate to sacrifice Marra for the safety of their realm in yet another doomed marriage to an abusive and murderous man.
Eventually, she comes to one conclusion: the only way to secure the safety of her sister and herself is for Prince Vorling to die.
Thus, Marra sets out in secret from the convent, to find a witch to help her do what she cannot do herself. Her journey will take her to cursed lands and goblin markets, facing impossible challenges and unexpected dangers at every turn. Along the way, she might find the hero she needs - or she might find nothing but her own grave.

REVIEW: It's been a bit since I read a story that earned that elusive full fifth star in the ratings, with that little extra inexplicable click or spark that kicks it over the top. Nettle and Bone managed that feat, somehow packing a full novel's worth of story and character and worldbuilding and depth into fewer than 250 pages.
At the start, Marra is an atypical heroine for a fantasy story, for all that the reader first meets her in a bone pit wiring together dog bones while hiding from cursed cannibals. She's not a slim, beautiful princess, but a bit short and a bit round and a bit plain, plus more than a little sheltered, without the sass or pluck or inherent cleverness that would mark her for great things in other tales. Her relationships are complicated things, especially with her close family, and she struggles sometimes to reconcile how, for instance, a mother who loves her and her sisters can also callously slide them about the political game board, the good of their little kingdom always winning out. Marra tries to tell herself she's exempt from these manipulations, especially during her years of peace and simplicity at the convent; even when the full truth finally settles on her, seeping through naivete and ignorance and willful blindness to cruelties and truth she just does not want to believe, she clings to her own insignificance as an unattractive third daughter as proof against misfortune... but, even if she is safe (which she knows, deep down, she is not), she finds she cannot live with Kania's suffering at Vorling's hand. Nor is it so simple to just strike down Vorling through poison or a hired sword; he and his entire line are protected by birth gifts from a poweful godmother, far stronger than the one that blessed Marra's line (a fairly feeble gift of health, which clearly didn't do Damia much good against Vorling's rage). Thus begins her quest to find a way to circumvent the magic, a journey that brings her to the doorstep of an irascible bone-witch tending a long-forgotten graveyard with a demon-souled chicken as a familiar. Under pressure, Marra finds strength and determination as she's faced with three impossible tasks before the bone-witch will deign to help her, but that's just the beginning of a truly arduous journey. Victories are not easily gained, and even most of the way through she has no idea just how she's going to save Kania without dooming her own kingdom to the wrath of a much larger nation, but she manages to keep going, mostly because she has no other choice. Along the way, she gathers more sidekicks, including Bonedog (the dog made of silver-bound bones, as loyal a mutt as ever lived... or died... or lived again) and a disgraced knight of a distant land. Nobody is flat or obvious, their interactions interesting and sometimes quite fun and lively, nor is anyone beyond mistakes. Around them, an interesting world unfolds, some bits familiar from old fairy tales and others being unique, or at least assembled into something new and intriguing. There are a few sparks of romance, but nothing that comes to dominate the plot, as they all have much bigger issues to cope with. The tale unfolds without many obvious twists, all building to a solid and satisfying climax and resolution.
Despite a little initial wariness about the protagonist Marra, I was won over quickly enough. I can't think of a single quibble worth noting here, so I went ahead and crowned this book with the top rating.

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