Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

2 reviews

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

sarrie's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 

Fairy tales that have been turned on their heads, or twisted in some way aren’t always a win for me. They’re usually dark and gritty, somehow terrible in a new and more grotesque way than they were previously and I’m not down with that most times. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher does it right in my opinion. It’s a simple, and not mind blowing story, but sweet and endearing. Granted there are children eating fairies, and the corpse of a woman raised by a crazy child - but it’s still sweet! 

This is the story of Toadling, a changeling taken from the human world and replaced by a fairy. She is not needed by the Fae, instead they throw her away into a swamp like location and the Fae there (who typically just eat the changelings) decide by some whim to raise her. She absorbs and learns some basic magic, the primary of which is taking the form of a Toad. Sometime after she’s sent back to the human world for a task, and from there our story unfolds. 

The biggest theme that I took away from this story is when do you stop paying for mistakes. That’s something I don’t see a lot, and though it’s touched on lightly I really enjoyed the look at it here. Toadling takes responsibility for a mistake, and perhaps pays too much but she’s an endearing and small and sweet character. You can’t be too mad at her. I wish we’d gotten more of our second human character and perhaps more time in the Fairy realm but what we got I loved. 

This is the type of short fiction I adore, and while I know it won’t be for everyone I greatly enjoyed it. It’s funny, sweet, and at times dark. But it’s never over the top or heavy handed on those things. A fantastic new T. Kingfisher and one I’m looking forward to adding to my collection. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Murder, and Domestic abuse