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Hemlock & Silver

A spellbinding Snow White retelling - the instant Sunday Times bestseller

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Hemlock & Silver

By: T. Kingfisher
Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
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About this listen

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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

‘A new favourite! Masterful storytelling with creepy magic, and a fantastic cat!’ – Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Spellshop

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. Nothing, 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 . . .

‘A wonderfully offbeat fantasy . . . as delightful as it is impressive’ – Heather Fawcett, author of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Hemlock & Silver was a No. 6 Sunday Times bestseller the w/e 23rd August.

 Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Fantasy Magic

Critic reviews

A darkly enchanting tale of poison and power. Beautifully crafted and utterly spellbinding (Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Book of Night)
A new favourite! Hemlock & Silver achieves the extraordinary feat of feeling both classic and unique. Masterful storytelling with an unforgettable heroine, creepy magic and a fantastic cat! I almost wish I hadn't read it so I could read it again for the first time! (Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop)
Jennifer Pickens narrates this darkly unique retelling of “Snow White.” Anja is an expert on poisons who regularly drinks small doses of them in her quest to find cures . . . Her enthusiasm and wonder are delightfully narrated, and so too is her horror as she learns the truth about the alternate realm and its creatures.
An eerie, immersive dream of a dark fairy tale, both gorgeous and lethal (Stephanie Burgis, author of Wooing the Witch Queen )
This is T. Kingfisher at her finest. Continuing in her tradition of horror-tinged, fairytale-inspired storytelling, Kingfisher pairs a wonderfully offbeat fantasy narrative with her signature wit, which compares favourably with the likes of Terry Pratchett. It's impossible not to root for our clever, unapologetically bumbling protagonist, Healer Anja. Hemlock & Silver is as delightful as it is impressive (Heather Fawcett, New York Times bestselling author of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies)
Eerie and aching, I've loved everything that Kingfisher has written but this might be my favourite (Cassandra Khaw, bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth)
Hemlock & Silver is T. Kingfisher at her best - clever, romantic and a hell of a good time (Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf)
Kingfisher never fails to dazzle (Peter S. Beagle, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning author of The Last Unicorn)
Kingfisher’s fairyland is full of teeth, wonder and horror; what’s dark is very dark, but what’s good will give you warmth. By the last page, my heart was mended (NPR)
T. Kingfisher’s delicate, bittersweet style of fantasy is like nothing else on shelves at the moment . . . a perfect blend of sharp-edged humour and horror-tinged heart (Paste)
A hero's journey that involves a little romance, a medium amount of vomit . . . a great place to start if you are new to her work
A damned brilliant book steeped in Kingfisher’s trademark dark humour and wit that had me intoxicated from start to finish . . . uniquely refreshing and exciting.
All stars
Most relevant
One and only complaint about any of T. Kingfisher's books is that they cannot go on forever. I feel so immersed in the created worlds and adore that the mainly female protagonists are anything but the Holywood heroines. They are real and engaging and smart and flawed. Ok, you might argue that its a little formulaic in that the main character pretty much always is in love with the supporting character by the end if the book, it's always done in such a real, messy, and sweet way that I keep coming back. Plus, the romance is never the only plot line, the surrounding stories are well crafted enough to keep me pulled along. They are also always well read. My favourite audiobook author.

Wonderful reimagining

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T Kingfisher is an auto buy for me, but this my first audiobook of their work. I have to say, the narrator made me enjoy the story so much more. Laugh out loud moments which was the narrator bringing the story to life.

Great story bought to life by great narrator

Great story and narration

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It took me a minute to get into this book but when I did i really enjoyed it. It kept me guessing throughout the whole story and I was hooked and desperate to find out what would happen next.

An interesting take on snow white

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Another great tale from T.Kingfisher . Excellent narration . Recommend. Quirky take on a familiar fairytale.

The cat !!!

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I’m a big fan of T. Kingfisher and her superb imagination, and Nettle and Bone is one of my favourite books. So I was pretty sure I would like this book, assuming the narrator did a good job.

And so it proved. Excellent narrator, and an engaging story. The only place this fell down was the infuriating use of “on accident”, which completely booted me out of the world I was in and back to the present day, where this has somehow become common usage despite the fact so many of us have grown up with people doing something on purpose and by accident. On accident is beyond grating as a result.

I don’t know whether this is a quirk of the narrator or the author, but I do think this is something I’d like a good editor to pick up and remove, because you can’t have a world inhabited by people wearing armour as in centuries past and dump millennial misspeak in it without it killing the vibe.

Thankfully this usage is only rare and the rest was excellent, but I leave this here in hopes the publisher and editor take note.

Fun retelling of a classic fairytale

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