Nettle and Bone Taught Me About Happy Endings
This fairy-tale based fantasy novel shows that a good outcome is earned and not destined
A heroine doesn’t have to be an elven warrior princess or the Mother of Dragons.
Sometimes, a timid, 30-year-old nun with a heart of gold will do the trick. Ursula Vernon’s (who writes as T.Kingfisher) dark fantasy story places Marra, the third daughter of a minor royal house, at centre stage. For years, she spends her days doing chores, content to be left to her own devices and largely ignorant of the duties and lives of her sisters who end up married to the same abusive prince. Vowing to get rid of the Bluebeardesque royal, Marra assembles a rag-tag group of companions to help her, counting a grumpy dust wife, a reluctantly evil fairy godmother, a suicidal knight, a possibly demoniac chicken as well as a bone dog.
Dark without being bleak, funny without being inconsequential, Kingfisher balances her themes-which range from female agency and ageism to sexual abuse-with aplomb. Akin to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in delivering a bucket load of whimsy without losing out on either substance or humour (she’s also the only horror writer I can think of who can adopt a cozy yet chilling tone-check out The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places!), Kingfisher manages to both delight and provoke.
The ways in which power and money can buy protection and privilege, how easy it is to judge and hate those we deem strange or uncanny and what can be accomplished when the so-called ‘powerless’ band together are some of the specific issues Kingfisher investigates. As such, it’s a singularly relatable story that might appeal to readers who suspect that fantasy novels are too outlandish to address real-life problems.
There’s much to enjoy here, seeing as Nettle and Bone does not have one, but two main characters who are elderly and still get to go on a rollicking adventure. The story also has Marra breaking with conventional beauty standards by detailing how she sacrifices her tooth to save a knight from fairy bondage, an act that doesn’t repulse him but rather sparks his interest in her. Taking a stab at the reality of good and evil, Kingfisher also subverts traditional fairy tale tropes: the idea that an evil fairy godmother is irredeemable (in the story, Agnes would be best classified as a ‘poor dear’, naming her chickens, being afraid of hurting mice and unwilling to use her power) or that magic can solve all problems (here, it is controlled by a small sub-set of agents and is exploited by higher institutions and powers).
My favourite scene in the novel is the one that takes place at the Goblin Market. Reminiscent of Christina Rossetti’s famous poem ‘Goblin Market’, one of the poetic corner stones of fantasy literature (next to The Faerie Queen, Jubilate Agno, Ozymandias and Jabberwocky), it’s a passage that brims with creativity. ‘I could just go hog wild and write all these weird characters in that didn’t have to follow the rules of the rest of the book. I didn’t have to worry about where any of them came from or what to do with them, I could just have fun with the imagery,’ is how Kingfisher describes writing outlandish characters such as the Toothdancer. (Anyone hankering for more on that front, check out a similar scene in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust!).
It’s a shame that the characterisation isn’t more complex or the world-building more elaborate, given that the story sports both interesting characters and takes place in a setting that includes a country of the undead, novel saints and Gods as well as a plethora of original magical creatures. But perhaps the main message of the story is more clear for the slightly bare bones nature of the story- the idea that a hero isn’t just an unrealistically powerful and noble person but someone who has to fight because those in charge will not lift a finger to help and that change, therefore, is hard-earned and not easy or instantaneous.
At first glance, Nettle and Bone may not be a riveting or compelling read but it grows on you, being a slow-burn kind of story. If you come expecting the splendour of Gondolin or the greatness of Minas Tirith, you will be disappointed but if you are willing to wile your time away in Rivendell, or, better yet, in a comfortable hobbit hole, you will not be disappointed.
