A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

TL;DR: A darker Kingfisher than I’m used to be still just as delightful.
Source: NetGalley! Thank you to the publisher!

Plot: A truly abusive mother and her daughter go seeking a rich husband, and her daughter finds a way to fight back. I actually was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Characters: As is the usual with T. Kingfisher’s characters they are unique and quirky in their own ways.
Setting: A very regency/Victorian in style setting. I quite liked it but I could see others not.
Magic: It was mostly used by the ‘villain’ of the piece, so seemed quite nefarious but I think it was an excellent system for the setting.

Thoughts:

Yet another lovely T. Kingfisher down. I really love Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher, and this one is no exception. In fact this would have been a fast DNF for me if I hadn’t trusted her with it. This one follows Cordelia whose mother is a horrifyingly abusive controller (something I can’t stand to read 90% of the time) and how she finds a group of friends and new family to help her break away and stop her mother.

This one is surprisingly dark as well. Cordelia’s mother can not only perform small sorceries, such as drawing an eye somewhere, but she can also inflict ‘Obedience’ on her victims where she completely controls their bodies while they are aware and conscious. This includes murder, several in fact.

The characters on this are just as unique and quirky as you can expect with a T. Kingfisher. Cordelia is one of two primary points of view, the other being a woman in her 50s who quickly becomes an aid to the other girl. The relationship the two strike up was so wholesome, I’m not going to lie. I loved that the most.

With a darker bits than expected A Sorceress Comes to Call is a great example of how good T. Kingfisher can be even with heavy and hard topics. This is definitely one I recommend in general, and especially for fans of her work.

4 out of 5 steady little ponies