(Reading Gratitude Journal #1) A Sorceress Comes to Call
by T. Kingfisher
This year my goal is to read only books that have been personally recommended to me, and to keep a record of why I’m grateful for these books (if you’re interested in more about the “why” for this, read here).
My first official read of the year was A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, back in January. The book follows Cordelia and Hester: one a young woman under the magical thumb of her evil sorceress mother, the other an aging spinster whose settled existence gets upended when the titular sorceress comes to call.
Here are some of the reasons that I’m grateful for A Sorceress Comes to Call…
It’s a recommendation from one of my personal bookish hype women
When Kayla told me I should read T. Kingfisher’s books, she said, “You have a similar writing style. Straightforward. Witty. Exceptional prose without being overly ornate. Top tier storytelling.”
Obviously that is way too generous when describing me, but she wasn’t wrong about T. Kingfisher. So I swallowed my fear of feeling inadequate by comparison and bought A Sorceress Comes to Call from Bookish Atlanta on New Year’s Eve.
I feel more in-the-know with BookTok
T. Kingfisher is a recurring name when authors talk about fantasy books with standalone novels & older protagonists. Awesome. I want more of that too.
But sometimes I have to scroll right past bookish content on social media. It triggers a desperate feeling that I’ll never be well-read or hip to the latest authors.
Having now read Sorceress, I see why the author is a favorite!
An older protagonist with a romantic story line
Hester, the older narrator, spends most of the book longing, suppressing her desires, and feeling like she’s not enough. What fun when her sense of adventure & confidence burst through to her romantic life!
For those of you measuring spice levels, the romance in Sorceress is pretty mild…sort of like the gentle steam rising off a tea cup.
A horse that’s to die for
Falada, you beast. Loved all the twists and turns in that story line. Not saying any more because #spoilers.
Settings that are cool, but secondary
In my books I feel this compulsion to have a lot of different settings. If there’s not a lot of variety, will it be compelling enough? Sorceress has us visiting 3 houses and various rooms and buildings around them…but the settings all felt quite secondary. The variety and the intrigue was all coming from the characters.
Jane Austen vibes
There are plots and subplots of marriages and match-making. There is sparkling dialogue that says more than it’s really saying. There is embroidery. There are parlors.
A magic system that’s fuzzy yet well-formed
Cordelia’s mother keeps her in the dark about the “how” of her magic, and the characters find very little in their research on the matter. But even though there are no rock solid rules of this magic, it’s consistent. And the payoff is quite satisfying.
The thesis that evil does evil regardless of the means
At one point the characters muse that magic is just one form that evil can take: the villain would probably scheme and do harm by whatever means possible. She just happens to have magic.
That really struck me, and I think the reason is that fantasy can seem sort of silly and inconsequential. But it’s not.
A satisfying standalone novel!
So happy & grateful for the rare find of a standalone fantasy novel in a sea of series! I’d love to read more T. Kingfisher, but I’m relieved to not be beholden to thousands and thousands of pages of story. Phew!
