Thornhedge - T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge

By T. Kingfisher

  • Release Date: 2023-08-15
  • Genre: Fantasy
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 104 Ratings

Description

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novella!

From New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.


*The very special hardcover edition features a foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*

There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

"The way Thornhedge turns all the fairy tales inside out is a sharp-edged delight."
—Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor

Also by T. Kingfisher
Nettle & Bone
A Sorceress Comes to Call
What Moves the Dead
What Feasts at Night
A House with Good Bones

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Reviews

  • Sleeping Beauty Reimagined

    5
    By Prairie_Dog
    “Thornhedge” is another beautiful fantasy novella by T. Kingfisher, which is the pseudonym Ursula Vernon uses for her works for adults. It takes place in a medieval alternate world that features magic, fairies, and changelings. Our protagonist is a delightful girl known as Toadling. Toadling was originally a human girl kidnapped as a baby and replaced by a high-fairy changeling. She was raised in Fairy by aquatic monsters known as Greenteeth. However, she was happy and loved and all was well, till a goddess selects her to deal with the problem of her replacement. This is a very different retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty, one that turns the very premise of the story around. It’s just long enough to tell the story and leave you wanting more. It even hints at a happy ending. It’s really quite good, which is probably why it won the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella!
  • One of my top 10 favorite books ever!

    5
    By emmareads1234
    Incredibly beautiful and poetic, this book made me so happy. It is well written and the story will stick to your mind forever. Buy it!
  • A sweet fairy tale

    4
    By garlglittergold
    A refreshing take on a classic story. The heroine was sweet and although not a beautiful princess, was someone you wanted to find love and happiness from the very first few pages.
  • Charming, poetic, and delightful

    5
    By copper9lives
    Fairy tales are often so stuffed with allegory and other other such contrivances that the tales themselves are thin, weak fare, and the characters pale as spring ice… this was not that type of fairy tale. The characters may have been humble, but they were a rich feast of conflicting complexities, filled with surprising and beautiful human truths — in bits and pieces and sudden deluges, the way wisdom comes for us all. The language held the cadence and lushness of the most high-gothic fairy tale imaginable, but with a believable and artistic voice… it was scrumptious. And I agree, Ms. Kingfisher… the story IS sweet. Even if the Faerielands are as bright and dark and chaotic and deadly as I grew up knowing. So thank you, and my thanks to Toadling, for illuminating the path of this journey.
  • An even better telling of Sleeping Beauty.

    5
    By Risrita
    This was lovely and sweet. A beautiful different take on the story of Sleeping Beauty. From the first sentence to the last it was a joy to read.
  • It is totally a sweet story!

    5
    By Archangel Beth
    Even if the greenteeth are monsters. It's a good little story, and mostly quiet and soothing and anout Doing One's Best.