A Sorceress Comes to Call

This dark fantasy is part twisted fairytale, part Regency house party. Fourteen year old Cordelia’s mother is a dangerous sorceress capable of controlling others, as Cordelia knows from frequent personal experience. When her mother sets her sights on marrying a country squire, she takes Cordelia to stay at his house.

The story alternates between Cordelia and Hester, the squire’s middle-aged spinster sister. I love how Hester’s response to a threat is to keep her head and to summon friends she trusts. I also love that it is Hester, with her non-nonsense attitude and her aching knees, and not the youthful Cordelia, who gets a romance subplot.

Although the fairytale aspect was darker and more twisted than I’d definitely prefer, it show more was more or less what I was expecting from Kingfisher, so I wasn’t unduly bothered. I like how Kingfisher balances horror with humour, hope, friendship and found-family.

Imogene’s suggestion was rather more practical. “Let’s just kill her,” she had suggested, “and dump the body somewhere, and never tell anyone about it.”
“Can we actually do that?” Cordelia had asked.
“No,” said Richard.
“I don't see why not,” said Imogene.
“No one is killing anyone, ” Hester said firmly.
“Thank you,” said Richard.
“… At least not until we’ve figured out how to keep her from doing something horrible and magical that takes us all with her.”
Richard, who was fundamentally an honourable man, folded his arms and tried not to look completely appalled. “I was not expecting this house party to involve quite so much premeditated murder,” he muttered.

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I'll admit: I was a little sad this didn't have more of "The Goose Girl" in it. I read Shannon Hale's rendition as an appetizer, but the only commonalities I really found were a young protagonist who learns bravery, and Falada the horse. I can't tell if the marketing was misleading or if I'm missing something!

While it takes the same tone and humor as many of Kingfisher's other fairytale retellings, this story is notable in its portrayal of an emotionally and physically abusive mother-daughter situation. Cordelia, a demure and repressed young girl, has grown up isolated and puppeted by her sorceress mother's magic. If she so much as speaks against her mother, her entire body can be possessed and forced to act against her will and show more conscience. There is seemingly no hope for her, as her mother Evangeline plans to marry her off to whichever wealthy old man will have her. But first, Evangeline must marry into money to pay for her daughter's season. Enter the Squire and his spinster sister, Hester.

While Evangeline is busy tempting and casting spells on the wealthy Squire and digging her claws into his fancy estate, Cordelia begins to seek help and refuge in Hester and the kindly servants of the house. What ensues is an exciting game of cat and mouse, as the rest of the house begins to band together to take Evangeline down and save the Squire and Cordelia from her grasp... but she's definitely no "good witch" and fights dirty.

This was a great read, with a lovable cast of supporting characters who are committed to doing what is right, even in the face of supernatural horror. Great if you like your spooky fairytales with a dash of found family and revenge. show less

Do you like retold fairy tales? Does it matter if all of the pieces come from different tales, even different genres? Take a threads of The Goosegirl, twisted like a paper chain of mobius strips, half that of Cinderella to which the same has been done, paint with Heyer colors but in Bronté tones, and as long as Beauty is the Beast, that's sort of what A Sorceress Comes to Call delivers. Maybe it's a cozy house party horror story?

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's "Goose Girl", rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding show more away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Dark it is. A dark retelling of a fairy tale I myownself think is entirely too dark anyway. A deeply unhappy story that centers on the evil deeds and wicked heart of Evangeline (Wikipedia will tell you the roots of this name) as a sorceress, "one who influences fate or fortune," in its original meaning; the sense is always pejorative. It certainly needs to be in this case, as Evangeline (I don't trust y'all to go look it up: the mother's name Evangeline is a diminutive of Latin "evangelium" ("gospel", itself from Greek Ευαγγέλιο "gospel", meaning "good news"...the christian gospels, in other words, those horrifying fonts of millennia of misogyny and detrimental social control, applied to an appalling, cruel, controlling mother) is following the Grimm plot closely in her actions.

I don't know what to think of the inspiration of the story. I'm positive Author Vernon (real name) did not know the results of the 2024 US election as a matter of fact before this book came out in that August. I am a bit chilled by its timeliness, a story of an evil old sorcerous person manipulating a good, innocent girl to her detriment. I wish I was writing this in a spirit of "how did she know we'd defeat the evil old sorcerous party" instead of "if only we'd defeated the evil old sorcerous party" but here we are.

It felt to me, all the way through the read, as though I was being Entertained, that the trademark Vernon wittiness was deployed not organic to the story. It isn't a story where wit, comedy, humor in general, sit naturally. I was abused by a mother much like Evangeline: cold, manipulative, withholding, but always hiding behind a good god-fearing front. For me the read was a return to the times of my life where my anxiety issues were installed. It's a testament to how very effective Author Vernon's skill at storytelling is that I finished and rated the read almost five stars! It's a deeply anxious story, a mother who is not a nurturer or a caregiver in the good sense but rather one who gives her child victim cares that will last a lifetime of therapy. (Why has no fantasy novelist given their MC a therapist?)

My anxiety attacks aside, the story is true to its source material in its claustrophobia, its sense of physical as well as emotional deprivation of freedom. Cordelia's enforced motionlessness probably triggered more awful memories for me than anything else, and made me long for my Falada: The 1968 Bonneville belonging to my mother that I used to escape the misery of my "life" with her. I'm glad I don't have to re-read the book!

It sounds like I should be zero-stars-do-not-recommending it, doesn't it? So look at those almost-five stars and ask what the hell happened here.

Stories are the way people make sense of Life with the big "L" so they are good at their job when experiencing them is a powerful, bone-rattling experience. I think you can see this read rattled me! It shook my angry absorption in the horrendous return to 2016 into a new shape. It reminded me, by evoking feelings from the childhood I endured, that all things end. That even after they end, the consequences carry on...for good or ill, as we ourownselves choose to use them. That even in the midst of misery, someone we do not expect it of is aware of our problems and willing to help.

Rays of hope like this story represents are never more welcome than they are right now. show less

A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher. Cordelia's mother is a sorceress. When mommy dearest connives to get them invited to stay at the manor house of a bachelor squire, his keen-eyed sister, Hester, is suspicious of the lovely "widow" and her scared-mouse daughter. Cordelia is terrified and doesn't know how to protect these new friends from her mother's machinations. I loved this. Hester and her friends are awesome. Cordelia's situation is horrific. Hits a creepy/amusing/satisfying balance and I'll want to re-read. Probably going on my top-ten list for 2024.

Yowzer! T. Kingfisher delivers again. A Sorceress Comes to Call has about the same level of darkness as The Seventh Bride, but I liked this one a bit more. There were several "OH NO" moments, and a few genuine gasps on my part. Cordelia's sorceress mother often controls her like a puppet, and her naivete really tugs at your heartstrings. This is a portrait of an abuse victim learning very slowly to stand up for herself, and protect others even at her own expense.I would have liked the sorceress to have had at least one redeeming quality, but I couldn't find any. I detested her right out of the gate.

Cordelia's mother is a sorceress, and a scary one. Cordelia must behave, and if she doesn't, her mother makes her "obedient" by controlling her body with magic. When her mother loses her benefactor, she sets her sights on marrying an old rich man, and promptly manages to move herself and Cordelia from their isolated cottage into the home of the rich Squire she has her eyes on. Cordelia is terrified -- she's never lived in such a grand house, and one wrong move could turn her mother against her immediately. But at the same time, for the first time in her life, she might actually have a reason to hope, as the Squire's house comes with some potential allies -- his spinster sister Hester and her friends have sharp eyes, and they can tell show more that something's not quite right.

Kingfisher does it again with her signature blend of compelling fantasy storytelling, laugh-out-loud humor, and just a dash of horror. This is a very loose retelling of The Goose Girl, but you can enjoy it without knowing anything about that fairy tale. Hilariously, Kingfisher notes in the afterward that this book is what happens when she tries to write a regency romance novel, which I think says a lot about how her brain works :) Anyway, if you've read and enjoyed other Kingfisher, you'll love this book too. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, I think this standalone novel is a great place to start. show less