Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Title: Hemlock & Silver

Series: n/a
Author: T. Kingfisher
Source/Format: NetGalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy; Retelling
Publisher/Publication Date: Tor Books; August 19, 2025

Goodreads 

Synopsis from Goodreads...

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind...

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on. But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her. Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick. Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

When it comes to T. Kingfisher’s novels, I’ve always been interested, but I’ve never taken the plunge until Hemlock & Silver.

I’m all for a good retelling, and Kingfisher’s latest scratched that particular itch with an imaginative rework of Snow White. While it wasn’t a one-to-one reimagining (and I wasn’t expecting it to be), the story pulled details from the classic tale and wove them around Anja.

Honestly, Anja reminded me of the main character of The Apothecary Diaries. She was aloof, not a people person, and she had this, like, hyper-focus on exploring poisons and remedies (it was her forte). She was smart, to a certain degree, but there were limitations to her perspective, because, for the aforementioned reasons, she could overlook some things.

She was in a situation that required dealing with a multitude of people as well as their expectations and understanding of social conventions. But, don’t expect too much court intrigue, because the story was centered on unraveling the mystery behind the cause of Snow’s illness. The situation wasn’t straightforward. There was complexity to the “how” and “why” things occurred, and I loved how the story came together in the end.

Hemlock & Silver was the first T. Kingfisher novel I’ve ever read, and it certainly won’t be the last.

 

About the author....

Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher is the author and illustrator of far more projects than is probably healthy. She has written over fifteen books for children, at least a dozen novels for adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger” and various short stories and other odds and ends. The daughter of an artist, she spent her youth attempting to rebel, but eventually succumbed to the siren song of paint (although not before getting a degree in anthropology.) Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, went to college at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state. Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in New Mexico, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband and his chickens.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Tor Books) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!