A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is a loose retelling of Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm. The original story Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm is 5 pages long and involves a princess, a little sorcery, and a horse named Falada who talks. T. Kingfisher has told an original story borrowing Falada the horse that talks, cutting all the princess stuff, and adding a lot more sorcery. The Brothers Grimm story was not that good and had not heard of it before this book. T. Kingfisher has added so much to the story making it scary, compassionate, and adding a lot of heart. The story is pretty simple a mother raising a daughter by herself is tired of being poor and wants to marry into a better class. She finds an older man to do just that. The sister can see that the mother isn’t marrying her brother for love, and tries to stop it. What makes the story interesting is the mother is a murderous sorceress who will stop at nothing to move to a higher class of society. The story is well-paced and very focused. The length of the novel was perfect. The were lots of surprises within the story and there was a “holy shit” moment that was so intense and went the opposite of where I thought a scene was going that was so exciting and scary. The climax could have been a little better but it was followed by such a shocking scene that it could not be topped. The novel is full of such wonderful characters that are very memorable and very unique. This book surprised me in a good way and is in my top five novels published this year so far. This is the second T. Kingfisher novel I liked The Twisted Ones but prefer A Sorceress Comes to Call. I read A Sorceress Comes to Call thanks to Netgalley and Tor Books for giving me a free copy. A Sorceress Comes to Call was published on August 6, 2024.

Plot Summary: Cordelia is a shy sheltered kid who lets her mother, Evangeline, push her around and occasionally embody her like a puppet. Evangeline is a sorceress at a time when sorceress’s lives are more a rumor than true and can only do paltry tricks like making a face look like it has no blemishes and enchanting animals to look prettier, no one is prepared for the dark magic that Evangeline can do. Cordelia wants to run away and tries with her horse Falada, but soon finds out her mother controls him and he can talk and tell everything she says about her mother. Evangeline leaves for days and comes back telling her daughter to go with her and that she is staying with an older man she intends to marry for money that Cordelia will play the good little daughter or her mother will make her. When they get to the house they meet Samuel the head of the household and Hester his sister who sees through Evangeline’s plan to marry her brother for money, not love. Hester is a little sympathetic to Cordelia but notices that she is sometimes like someone else entirely. Hester doesn’t know she’s dealing with a sorceress and invites an old flame of her brother’s to stay at the house. Things don’t go the way Hester plans as murder, beheading, and possession enter their home when a sorceress comes to call.

What I Liked: The characters make a great ensemble. When Cordelia and Evangeline get to the house every character that we meet gets a little moment. I like that we see how the gossip spreads through the house from the maids and butlers to the lords of the manor. There’s a scene that I don’t want to spoil for anyone that involves Falada, the horse, that is so shocking, scary, and just crazy. The scene kind of steals the novel because when the climax comes there is no way the scene could get topped. I loved the friendships and how people worked together for a common enemy. I liked how the novel doesn’t go into cliches with Cordelia learning sorcery and in a short time can beat her mother who’s been practicing it for 30 years. I was happy not to see the novel go in this direction. I loved all the card-playing scenes they were funny and a great way to provide exposition. I liked the balance of horror, fantasy, and heart that the novel had. Hester was my favorite character and I love her character arc. I liked the way the sorcery was used.

What I Disliked: I wanted the scene of Evangeline and Samuel meeting for the first time, we see so little of Evangeline’s charm I wanted to see it in action. The climax was a little bit of a letdown because of the “holy shit” scene that steals the novel. I was thinking how is T. Kingfisher going to top that and she did not. The climax was just okay, but I wanted better.

Recommendation: A Sorceress Comes to Call blew me away with how good the story was. The pace was great throughout, the novel had some shocking moments, it had scary moments, and the novel had so much heart. I fully recommend you check out this great story. I liked A Sorceress Comes to Call a lot more than The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher but it was a book that was very atmospheric and great with scary imagery.

Rating: I rated A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher 4.7 out of 5 stars.