[Subdue] Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher ★★★★

[Tien]

"If we were men... She stared at her fingers curled in the dirt. It did not matter. They were not and the history of the world was written in women's wombs and women's blood and she would never be allowed to change it."

What a wondrous magical tale... Granted, it's a dark tale that mirrors the condition of our woeful world yet there are some powerful women here and if anything, it gives the reader a great feeling that women Good triumphed over bad.

The novel opens with Marra, the protagonist & only narrator of this tale, on her quest. A rather impossible magical one. She was already exhausted but others depended on her and so she pushed on. Then the story unfolded with her past before moving onward to her current mission to save her sister.

"I should do something. I should be able to do something. I should be able to fix this somehow."

The tone of the novel isn't angry and angsty but rather one of frustration and helplessness and just. SO. VERY. TIRED. I think we can all relate with those feelings. She didn't give up though because her sister's and her kingdom's safety depended on her success.

I find Nettle & Bone to be a very clever novel as at first I felt that it reminded me of The Wild Swans though instead of saving 11 brothers, she is saving a sister. And then, there were just traces of many different fairy tales that I felt the author pulled a thread out of each and wove a tale of her own making. It was really fun trying to see how many I recognised!

Unfortunately, there is No grumpy dragon BUT there is a grumpy hen - oh she's good! She's really good! LOL

[Theresa]

Tien - I am just starting this! It's Feminerdy Book Club's October discussion!

I've not read past your first line -- so glad it's getting a high rating from you! I'll be reading it this weekend.

[Tien]

Enjoy!!

And you should peek at the last line ;p

[KateNZ]

This sounds so good. Especially the grumpy hen

[Tien]

KateNZ wrote: "This sounds so good. Especially the grumpy hen"

hey, you can have my copy, if you like - are you still coming in Nov? I can set it aside for then ;)

I feel like I need a grumpy hen but I don't think I can deal with the smell LOL

[Jen K]

Great review, I really liked this one too!

[KateNZ]

Planning to come in November for sure. I just need to get all the paperwork through work to get permission to come to the conference!

[Theresa]

Tien wrote: "Enjoy!!

And you should peek at the last line ;p"

I did! I am so ready to meet the grumpy hen!