While the story takes plenty of detours on its way to the epic climax, it never feels like a waste of time. A delightful solitary story (as far as I’m aware this is not sprawling into a series or shared universe) about a kind princess in an unkind world.

I absolutely loved Kingfisher's style of writing—she is so hilarious, and her characters are truly lovely and loveable. The Twisted Ones is a weird, shimmering story told with sharpness and grace - somehow both wild fairy tale and quiet, personal horror in equal measure. marra adjusts to the simplicity of a novice's life, and when her sister finally becomes pregnant five years later, she attends the christening of kania's daughter, where she meets vorling for the first time and begins to suspect he was responsible for damia's untimely death, and fears that kania is also in danger, until/unless/after she produces a son.Knowing she has no ability to accomplish anything alone, Marra finds a local witch who can talk to the dead. The witch gives her three impossible tasks and when she comes back after finishing two, the witch is stunned having believed the simple girl would fail and go home.

Kingfisher, I think, and so far, I don't think I've given a single book of hers anything less than four stars. once in a blue moon i will pick up a novel and, from the first sentence on the first page, feel it in my bones that i'm in for a good ride.But, as is the way in stories of princes and the impossible, these tasks are only the beginning of Marra’s strange and enchanting journey to save her sister and topple a throne. She questions and then eventually challenges the inevitability of men, especially when it comes to a sense of entitlement to women’s bodies. I really wanted it to lean into more of the horror elements (which I know this author can do) and not try to shoehorn a romance into a story about DV and agency.

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra - the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter - has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. It fit alongside another long bone—not from the same animal, but close enough—and she bound them together and fit them into the framework she was creating. Kingfisher explores the concept of utilitarianism; Marra's mother knows that Kania is being abused, but chooses to place the safety of her whole kingdom over that of her daughter.Once we start meeting each supporting character, the book becomes almost a road trip comedy, where a gaggle of sort-of friends get to know each other along the way.

In the beginning, Marra isn't compelling, and the story starts in a way that makes you think it's going to be Horror, and ultimately isn't, which is going to be either a pro or a contra depending on whether you like Horror or not.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.