Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Published by Tor Books on August 19, 2025
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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 knows little of politics but much of poisons. When she is summoned to treat the mysterious illness afflicting the king’s daughter, she finds herself against the clock, desperate to track down the source of the poison killing Princess Snow. But the chance discovery of a strange alternate world inside a magic mirror leads Anja to darker discoveries, including what really happened to Snow’s dead sister, Rose, and why their mother seemingly went mad and cut out her heart.
Aided by a taciturn bodyguard, a narcissistic cat, and a late Renaissance understanding of the scientific method, Anja must navigate the mysteries of the mirror world before the dark queen that dwells within rises to threaten them all.
If there’s one fairy tale that I have never felt particularly attached to, it’s Snow White. But I figure if anyone could put a spin on it and make me actually like it, it’d be T. Kingfisher. Though Hemlock & Silver is a very unique take on the fairy tale, I didn’t find it as compelling as some of the author’s other works, like A Sorceress Comes to Call, Illuminations, or A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking.
“I just want to save people and then have those people go away and, ideally, not take arsenic again. Is that really so much to ask?”
Hemlock & Silver follows poison expert Anja as she gets sucked into a desperate plea from the king, who believes his remaining daughter, Snow, is being poisoned. Realizing she can’t really refuse a king and afraid of the repercussions of her failing to save Snow, Anja reluctantly leaves her workshop to journey to Witherfield where Snow is housed. Anja doesn’t fit into the ranks of either the servants or courtiers, but still manages to alienate everyone to whom she speaks with her incessant talk of poisons and deadly plants and animals.
Unfortunately, Anja doesn’t have much of a personality outside of her poisons, which makes her less relatable. Poisons and cures are her entire life from an early age into her adulthood. She doesn’t seem to have any other hobbies or pastimes. It is all poison, all of the time. She’s definitely not one for children, people in general, or mincing words either. Though I found her social awkwardness endearing at times, it did get a little stale listening to her prattle on. It distinctly reminded me of the female protagonist in another of Kingfisher’s books, Swordheart, who purposefully went on long rambling speeches in order to appear innocuous and unintelligent.
The one person who seems unbothered by her preoccupation with scholarly pursuits and poisons is, of all people, her bodyguard, Javier. When Anja gets sucked into a magical world even more dangerous than that of the royal court, he is there to aid her every step of the way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really attached to either character, as they seemed to be more of their role in the story than actual developed characters themselves. Javier and Anja’s burgeoning relationship felt very random and sparkless to me and I was indifferent to whether they ended up together or not.
My favorite character in the novel by far is a talking cat, who steals the spotlight on every page he occupies. Nobody does sentient animals like Kingfisher. She always somehow manages to make talking animals feel like a no-brainer natural thing. To top it off, she always manages to capture their personalities in such a believable way. If a cat could talk, it would obviously be very contrary and Kingfisher sells that as truth with effortless aplomb.
Like all Kingfisher books, her unique brand of mixing darkness and humor was fully on display. The banter between characters adds great moments of levity to this darker fairy tale retelling. I spent a lot of Hemlock & Silver feeling very in the dark as to what was going on and how it possibly connected to the story of Snow White, which frustrated me a bit, but the quirkiness helped to keep me invested. It takes a long time to get to the part of the story that bears any resemblance at all to Snow White, and I struggled to want to pick up the novel until I got to that point.
“‘This is absurd. Mirrors don’t have other sides. They’re just glass.’
‘Windows are just glass,’ said the cat, ‘and they manage to have another side.’”
The connection to Snow White is very original and explores a part of the fairy tale that often gets lost in favor of other parts of the story, the magic of the mirror. Though I loved this idea in theory, the execution was less enjoyable for me. Anja is relentlessly inquisitive and takes her time trying to test and figure everything out, which is true to her character, but substantially slows the plot down to a halt. I was surprised when suddenly everything was coming to a head, even though Hemlock & Silver was nearing its end.
Outside of the choice to focus on the mirror and not the seven dwarves, a jealous stepmother, or a prince, I was also interested in the world-building. In this world, the gods were terrible and unjust, so people turned to animals to worship, who consequently became saints and overthrew the gods. Though these saints don’t play a huge role in the story, Kingfisher manages to wryly pay homage to them in a fun way at the end of the story that had me smiling.
Though this wasn’t my favorite retelling of Kingfisher’s by any means (that title goes to Bryony & Roses), but it displays all of the hallmarks of her work—dark themes, humor, and incredibly unique ideas. I never regret reading any of her novels. I think Hemlock & Silver is a must read for any of the author’s fans, for those who love Snow White or darker fairy tale retellings in general. However, Snow White fans who are expecting a cut and dry reimagining of the classic, with just one or two spins on the fairy tale, might be disappointed.
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The original Brothers Grim’s Snow White fairly tale was already dark. Feel like elements from that could of been used.
That’s a good point!