I am obsessed with this book. As usual with my T. Kingfisher reviews, I give the disclaimer that she’d one of my favourite authors and I have so much fun that I end up much less ‘objective’ about my craft technique than I am with most other writers. All that to say that I binged it in too days and definitely stayed up too late reading it and UGH IT WAS SO GOOD. I really loved how it dealt with Cordelia’s abusive mother and how she gradually realises that how she’s treated isn’t okay, eventually building up the courage to ask for help. Despite the dark subject matter, there is humour and a cast of lovable characters to lighten the tone. I think it’s one of my favourites from this author.

Wow wow wow. Now, this is my first book by this author, but I have just spotted that I do have a book by her on my “want to read” list! I am definitely going to be picking that one up soon. I loved this so so much.

I was drawn in from the very start, I loved all of the characters- except the bad ones obviously- but they were wickedly bad and I loved that about them.

The story had me on edge a lot and by the end I was really quite stressed but in a great way! I devoured it and I’ll pick up more by this author.

My thanks to Netgalley and Titan Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

3,5 stars

With a title of A Sorceress Comes to Call my expectations were heightened when it comes to the magical bits of this story. Kingfisher can be a bit of a hit or miss for me. I think this one ended up a bit in the middle.

Cordela lives with her mother and her horse. She rarely gets to see anyone else outside of church. Sometimes her mother controls her body so that Cordelia behaves as is expected of her. It makes Cordelia live in constant fear. When her mothers benefactor turns away from her, it is time to leave the small town. Her mother sets her sights on an unwed squre to bedazzle with Cordelia in tow. But she didn't calculate the square's sister into her plans.

I think what I appreciated about this book was the dual perspective. We get the perspective from Cordelia so we know what her mother is really like. Seeing Cordelia slowly getting more confident in standing up to her mother was great to see. On the other end we have Hester. Hester is already well into her fifties and physically not doing too great. But don't count her out on anything. She schemes and can make some barbed jabs for sure. She sees through things. Their growing relationship was also great to see.

The plot was mostly well done but it moved slow. I have to be honest and say that I got bored in places. It was especially drawn out in the second half of the book where they are figuring out about the magic and trying to learn about it in books. Like of course you can feel the woman is wrong, have a sixth sense, but you can't believe the woman is a sorceress? Please. Nor did I understand the need to engage Cordelia to Hester's friend. Hester's other friend used it to a great opportunity but that wasn't the initial idea behind it. Just what the idea behind it was, wasn't all that clear.

This is classed as a horror. But except for the very end it was not very horror to me. I didn't find it overly creepy or scary. I don't know what that says about me.

Overall I tought it was a good read but not a memorable one.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is a loose retelling of the Goose Girl tale, one of my childhood favourites. Having loved everything I have read by this author I was excited to see their take on the story and it certainly did not disappoint.
Cordelia is a young girl living with her domineering and often cruel mother, Evangeline, a woman who uses her powers as a sorceress to ensure Obedience , and that capital O is very intentional. Her only moments of joy are when she is on the back of Falada, their horse, galloping free. Falada is her only friend and confidante. When her mother's plans go awry they are forced to flee in the middle of the night and her mother quickly hatches a plan to snare the Squire of a nearby estate into marriage. Unfortunately for Cordelia's mother, the Squire's wise sister Hester is determined to thwart her efforts though she does not realise the scale of the challenge and the true danger that she is up against. It is only as Cordelia grows to love and trust her that she reveals Evangeline's dark secret to Hester so that they can work together to save not just the Squire but also Cordelia.
This was a really well crafted tale of magic , from the horrifying opening line to the immensely satisfying conclusion. There were enough familiar beats that linked back to the original Goose Girl story but also surprises along the way that I did not see coming which kept the story feeling fresh. The characters were wonderful., Evangeline is the villain that everyone loves to hate without much in the way of redeeming features. Cordelia I enjoyed because of her growth over the course of the book, seeing her coming out of her shell and flourishing when given love and encouragement was just beautiful. That encouragement came from my favourite character, Hester, the squire's sister, an older woman who is smart, strong and occasionally a little too hard on her self. In fact there are a group of "older" characters in this book who really added so much humour and depth to the story. There are some moments where the story veers into horror territory, which I think fits perfectly with the origin of fairy tales as warnings, it never goes too far, just enough to give a little chill on the back of your neck.
Another wonderful book from one of my favourite authors.

I absolutely loved this, yet again this author has taken a classic fairytale and made it even more wonderful.
Everything about this made me happy, the characters, the descriptions, the macabre twists and the wonderful storytelling. It’s magical, it’s terrifying at times, it’s full of dark humour and it was such compelling reading.
Paranormal fantasy that teeters on the edge of horror, let your imagination loose and relish every page.

Absolutely stunningly brilliant. I could not put this book down once started. I found myself utterly transported, and I'll be thinking about this one for ages to come.

Where do I even begin? T. Kingfisher could write a grocery list and I'd probably still enjoy it. This is maybe my favorite in the series of fairy tale retellings she's done so far. Even though it's technically a horror (with an evil sorceress mother) it wasn't exactly scary though it had its tense moments. The main cast of characters were impossible to dislike. Hester was like the sweet aunt that was always looking out for you but also for some reason had a hobby/business of goose breeding. Cordelia had one of my favorite character development tropes. Mrs. Green was the outgoing middle-age woman that was too charming to ever dislike (unless you're an evil, jealous sorceress). What else can I say without spoiling it? It was a great story with some great characters that I wish I could be friends with (Hester, if you're out there, let's hang out, ok?)

T. Kingfisher crafts a well-paced and gripping narrative, introducing us to a rich cast of characters whose diverse ages and backgrounds add depth and intrigue to the tale. The magic structure within the story is coherent and seamlessly woven into the plot, enhancing the sense of wonder and danger. Cordelia's development throughout the novel is both satisfying and inspiring, as she evolves from a fearful girl into someone strong and resilient. I was impressed how although she experienced character development, she still seemed like herself.

I loved the platonic love and respect many of the characters displayed. Hester and her friends are wonderful role models and guardians for Cordelia.

A quick yet deeply satisfying read, A Sorceress Comes to Call is a must-read for fans of magical realism and compelling character-driven stories. T. Kingfisher has delivered a beautifully crafted novel that will leave readers eagerly anticipating her next work.

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review!

I would like to preface this review by saying 1) I think I'm in a reading slump and 2) I am a goose girl girlie for life xoxo

I liked how Kingfisher kept this story about Cordelia and her mother, and didn't make it into this world-ending epic. I think it worked really well for the story, but I also think it was just really nice to have a story that was more focused on someone with 'smaller' dreams of just being loved and safe. I liked all the little ways the characters looked out for her and her little moments of joy in a pretty horrible situation.

I was really enjoying it at the beginning, but as the story went on I just didn't feel super connected to it and don't think it is particularly memorable. It's one of those books I feel could easily be like a comfort read (despite some darker content relating to abuse, coercion and violence) and doesn't necessarily need to be more than that? Definitely a unique take on the goose girl story too which I appreciate.

I would like to reread one day when I'm not slumpy to see if I enjoy it more second time around, and I would definitely still recommend it, but just didn't quite fall in love with it as much as I was hoping to.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

By reimagining the 'Goose Girl', T.Kingfisher once again created a entraping book. While some elements of the original story remain, we get a brand new, Regency inspired world. I can't even decide what I liked the most about the story: found family, magic, manipulations or entertaining characters, but I devoured this book! A definite recommendation!!

A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher is a perfect example of why I love T. Kingfisher’s books so much. I absolutely loved everything! The first chapter is soooo creepy, and with an epic first line “There was a fly walking on Cordelia’s hand, and she was not allowed to flick it away.” you are sucked right into the story. Yet the humor makes it a more easy read, I chuckled out loud several times and that doesn’t happen often to me. I absolutely loved the setting, it seems some sort of regency world with a little bit of magic, and Cordelia’s mother is after security and power and tries to ensnare a rich man. The rich man in question is oblivious to it all, but his sister is epic and I LOVED we had an older heroine (alongside Cordelia) who has knee problems. I loved every character, from Hesters friends to the servants who know vaguely something’s up. The pacing is fast and there is never a dull moment, not even when they have a researching montage (like reading allll the books).

The villain is truly creepy and becomes more terrifying as the story progresses, as you discover more and more. Cordelia is such a lovely person, severely traumatized by her mom yet resilient and you can’t help but love her and want to give her a big hug. She has a lot of character growth, which is lovely to see. Also yay for embroidery besides feminism, for once this is a story where embroidery isn’t scorned by the strong independent woman.

The level of creepiness I could just handle because of all the humor that is thrown in, so it’s not as much horror as What Moves The Dead by the same author but slightly more thriller like than Nettle and Bone. For me, this one moves straight into my favorites, and I’ll definitely be buying my own copy to reread this story many times.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Titan Books for giving me an e-arc of this book, this has not influenced my opinion.

I have become a huge fan of T. Kingfisher over the last few years, so I was super excited to read this book. The premise grabbed my attention, and it didn’t disappoint.

I found Cordelia a little annoying at the beginning, but she quickly grew on me. Her character arc progression was so good that it was hard not to like her. I also enjoyed the relationship between Cordelia and Hester. Evangeline was a brilliant villain. Utterly evil, but you can’t help wanting to sympathise with her too.

The writing was impeccable, as is usual with the author. They have such a unique way of describing what is happening that pulls you in and immerses you in the story. The pacing was quick, too. I was thrown right into the story, and it kept me turning the pages long into the night.

I read this book in one sitting.

I feel like I should say more than that, but I want to at least start with that.

The pacing for this book was fast and tense. It's a pacing that I associate with classic Kingfisher. It's a pacing that, written by anyone else, would make me feel emotionally detached from the characters, and yet that's just not the case with Kingfisher's stories. I remain as connected to the characters as ever. Kingfisher has a way of drawing up a full portrait of a character simply by giving you the outline of it; all too soon, you'll find that you've filled the outline with all the color in the world, without ever doing so by choice or force. The character work is so subtle, yet so in your face, and I'll forever come back for more of that paradox.

For me, the overarching theme for this book is autonomy. Autonomy from (an abusive) parent. Autonomy from society. Autonomy from marrying. Autonomy from expectations.

Lastly, it's not a book that's heavy on descriptions, but it still maintains a solid atmosphere and setting (again, classic Kingfisher).

Oof, that's a tough review to write. First of all, trigger warning for mental health problems, both in the book and the review. It will get pretty heavy and personal.

I've always felt like Kingfisher's books have characters that are very relatable to me. They often have traumas and aren't behaving in ways that society expects them to. And that's again present in A Sorceress Comes to Call.

In the story we follow Cordelia, who's a 14-year old girl, but there are also 50-ish year old characters so if you don't like books following young characters, you can still give it a try. Cordelia's mother is very controlling, in this case literally, as she's a powerful sorceress that can 'possess' her daughter and steer her actions. When a rich, single man is spotted by Evangeline (the mother), she creates a plot to marry him.

The representation in this book is great. We have a young person with a traumatic life experiences, an older character with chronic pain that can't really accept growing old, as well as many other mental health topics.

And here comes a personal part. I've always felt aside from society, the social interactions have been anxiety inducing and my parents, trying to help but not having resources in terms of mental health awareness, pushed me towards social events and 'behaving normally'. Way later in life I've discovered I'm very possibly neurodivergent and in my case it's really crippling in a lot of situations, and trying to mask and fight it caused a lot of harm and cPTSD.

I've warned you it's gonna be deep!

So I know it probably wasn't the author's intention, but quotes like: ✨ 'Thank you for talking to me and pretending I wasn’t strange.' and ✨ 'She was exhausted. Being obedient left her feeling wrung out, muscles aching from stretching just the wrong way and holding positions just a moment too long.' are a quintessence of growing up in a controlling environment, masking and trying to be somebody you simply cannot be.

The usual Kingfisher's sense of humor was present and I feel like this book can be a fun, quirky, light read. It just resonated with me in a very deep way so it's unquestionably a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 book I'll remember for a long time.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for granting me access to an e arc.

T. Kingfisher is an amazingly talented storyteller and this is another wonderfully weird addition to her repertoire. A Sorceress Comes to Call is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, however I'm completely unfamiliar with this tale. Nevertheless, I couldn't stop reading this dark, gothic and disturbing fairytale.

Downtrodden, abused and trapped in a perpetual state of fear, Cordelia is such a hopeless character that you can't help but become fiercely protective of. I adored the bond between her and Hester as well as the small circle of found family that began to slowly take her under their wing - Alice was an absolute gem!

I had no idea how the story was going to unravel. It was incredibly bleak and I couldn't see how they could possibly thwart the sorceress' cunning plan, but the ending was satisfyingly gory and perfectly executed. Another atmospheric, bloody and strange read from T. kingfisher that I absolutely adored.

Cordelia lives with her mother, Evangelina (a sorceress), who treats Cordelia as merely something to be made use of. She can make her Obedient - taking control of her body and what she says.

When her mother loses the interest of her benefactor, she sets her sights on a new victim, a squire who will be easily snared and provide the respectability needed to get Cordelia married off to someone even richer. Standing in her way is the squire's sister, Hester, a brilliant, caring and no nonsense middle-aged woman with a dodgy knee and a fondness for geese.

This reminds of me of something Diana Wynne Jones would write, and is very much my kind of story. A fairytale-ish story with a slightly dark twist (I don't believe this is horror- apart from the bit the headless horse) with a haphazardly arranged group coming together to try to defeat the villain.

A highly enjoyable, slightly creepy, regency-style fantasy with bonus goose content. Honk Honk

I'm starting to believe that Kingfisher herself is a Sorceress, because I have yet to read a book of her's that I haven't loved with my whole heart. A Sorceress comes to call blends all the best of Kingfishers talent, her witty and light-hearted writing style, characters that will have you head over heels in love with them & magic. It's the perfect merge of fantasy and horror and once I picked it up, I found it nearly impossible to put down.

It's been a while since I've read something this chunky from Kingfisher, my previous reads of hers being mainly novellas, and I guess I forgot what I was missing. The fun she has with the characters and story when there are a few more pages to play with. Her books have always been compulsively readable to me, her wit and charm bleeding through to her writing style, world and the character that inhabit it, and while I do love her novella's, there was something special about being able to spend this much time with her characters, we get so much more depth to them and the world (not that she usually skimps at all) it just... it's like going from a mini-series to a full 22 episode saga... we get more of the silly stuff, more scenes that maybe aren't inherently important to the story but are just there to add a bit of fun, a bit of tension, of drama. It allowed her to expand on everything, and I had an absolute blast reading it.

For me, characters have always been Kingfishers strong point (not that she has any weaknesses in my eyes.) She just has this ability to write these quirky, damaged, loyal to a fault characters that never fail to make me fall a little in love with them, and in A Sorceress Comes to Call she gives us a boat load. Cordelia, a girl who has never really known love, has been betrayed more times than she can count, someone who longs for normal, for a place she can simply be without fearing the wrath of her mother. Hester, a woman past her prime who knows a scheming plan when she sees one. Someone so in love with a man, she fears imposing herself and her aging body on him for fear of his regret. These two are our MC's, the characters we get POV chapters from, but that's not where it stops. Kingfisher treats us to a cast of side characters so incredibly well developed and enjoyable. Richard; the love of Hester's life, Penelope; a spanner in Cordelia's mothers plans, Imogene, a scheming and slightly dangerous woman in her own right.

I did expect this to be a little darker than it was, a little more on the horror side, but in true Kingfisher fashion even the horrific scenes, and there are plenty, are told with this dark and witty humour she is known and loved for. The villainess herself was wondrously dark and haunting. Despite this not being a horror, Kingfisher still manages to make her as scary as the villains in her actual horror novels, more so in some cases. The casual ease with which she makes her plans, kills those in her way. How she treats Cordelia and uses her magic on her. Some of the scenes were certainly horrific, especially those involving Falada (Horse lovers beware, Kingfisher clearly has an axe to grind, and she does not hold back.) But despite all the darkness and horror, it's quite a heart-warming story. Filled with bravery, even in the direst of circumstances, with a found family I absolutely adore & characters that are as sarcastic as I am.

Now for the romance, something I wasn't really expecting but surprisingly loved. Hester and Richard are two absolute idiots in love, and I so desperately wanted them to get their happy ending. Allowing us to get POV chapters from Hester meant that we get an insight into their past, the reasons she turned down his proposal, and this was all heart-breaking. But when the eventual bang happens, pun fully intended, I cackled out loud because the tension from these two, the longing glances and touches, the willingness to risk themselves for each other was getting to be too much. It sounds a bit lovey dovey, but it's not, remember who is writing this book. Yes, there's longing, but there's also plenty of humour and hijinks that made it an enjoyable add into to the overall story.

It's a story that had me on the edge of my seat, desperately hoping that Cordelia and co could get their happy endings, but in true Kingfisher style she makes them work for it. Her writing style propels the story along and I really struggled to put it down, reading in every free moment I could get. If you've loved Kingfishers previous book's but just wanted a little more, this, this right here is the book for you. It's got her trademark horror scenes, but nothing that's too scary, and is filled with wit, snark and manners that are as sharp as a knife. Seriously though, if you love a good fantasy that has found family vibes, a lot of mature characters that you will fall head over heels for, you need to get this on your TBR.

Eerie, grim, and everything I want from a T. Kingfisher book!

A Sorceress Comes to Call follows Cordelia, a fourteen year old girl who lives in fear of her turbulent mother. She's isolated, made to keep house, and forced to obey by magic - and things are only about to get worse...

I was absorbed immediately by the unsettling atmosphere which was made even more disquieting by the innocent point of view of Cordelia. She has no clue what is going on, and just wants to protect herself and those around her. It's heartbreaking really, and makes you feel constantly on the edge of your seat, especially once she becomes close to Hester and her house guests. You can't help but root for the unlikely companions, and when bad things happen you are left reeling for a moment.

There is a significant amount of violence and brutality in this story, but it doesn't cross the boundary into full on horror - it is a dark fantasy full of sorcery, potential demons, and ancient alchemical secrets. No one quite knows how anything works (other than Evangeline), but that really suits the story and puts you on equal footing with the scared and baffled household.

T. Kingfisher creates such imaginative and rich worlds, and this is no exception. I was mesmerized by the book, and I would love if this was expanded upon further in future.

For me Kingfisher is a guarantee especially when he writes dark fairy tales!

The characters are incredible, I loved Cordelia and her personal growth but also the secondary characters are complex, multifaceted and really well characterized and managed!

Dark, beautifully written, for me is another Kingfisher book not to be missed!

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the e-ARC!

Only T Kingfisher can write horror like this. The characters, the humour, the relationships, the creepiness. So good.

Cordelia's mother is a sorcerer. And not a kind one. Hesters brother is a squire and he's met a new woman. In this book we get Cordelia's and Hesters POV's which worked so well and kept me engaged in the story from both perspectives. This has T Kingfisher's characteristic wit and social commentary but also manages to creep you out!

<spoiler>I've never felt so scared of a 'horse'</spoiler>

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book