This isn’t the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.

It’s the one where she kills him.

Marra never wanted to be a hero.

As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.

Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:

• build a dog of bones
• sew a cloak of nettles
• capture moonlight in a jar

But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.

Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.

2.5 stars

Wow, I really don’t understand the hype around this book. It was extremely boring for a fantasy story. I had a hard time sticking with it. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a great job, but I increased the speed to just get through it faster. 

In October, I tried to read T. Kingfisher’s new book, A House with Good Bones, and DNF’d it at 40% because I wasn’t liking it at all. But I’ve heard many good things about this author, so I wanted to give her another chance, so I read her most popular book. It’s not looking good for her. She just may not be the author for me. 

I feel like there was so much potential for this story, but it came up short for me. It was pretty boring for the majority of it. There needed to be a lot more action sequences. There were very interesting concepts and characters, but nothing was really done with any of it. It felt like a lot was left on the “drawing board.” I was missing more exposition and character development. The romance felt incredibly forced. Ultimately, I just didn’t care about any of the characters. 

However, it did feel like a classic, dark (almost gothic) fairytale. It was very atmospheric, creepy, and unsettling at times. The writing was descriptive and immersive, but it felt like a bunch of lush fluff without much substance. It was really underdeveloped and lacked any depth for me. 

I would not recommend this book and advise anyone to skip it.