Title:

A Sorceress Comes to Call

Author:

T. Kingfisher

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

January 4, 2025

Sorceress Comes to Call is another excellent novel by the amazingly prolific Kingfisher. It made NPR's list of best SF & Fantasy books of 2024, as well as the Goodreads best Fantasy of 2024 list. The description calls it a "retelling of Grimm's Goose Girl tale", but since I am unfamiliar with that tale, it is unclear to me how much inspiration Kingfisher actually took from the original Grimm fairy tale. Kingfisher's The Seventh Bride was supposed to be a rewrite of the story of Bluebeard, but it seemed completely original to me. There are geese in A Sorceress Comes to Call that seem to be a bit more than ordinary birds, but they don't seem essential to the plot.

The protagonist of this story is young Cordelia, a 14 year old girl who has a terrifying and ruthless mother, Evangeline. Evangeline is a powerful sorceress. She has the power to make another person "be obedient" - she can control their movement and their speech. Cordelia multiple times has been taken over by her mother and made to act in ways that she does not want. Cordelia is terrified of her mother, and does what ever she can to keep her mother calm and thinking about anything other than Cordelia! This meekness makes Cordelia an unlikely heroine, but naturally some things change over the course of the novel.

Hester is the spinster sister of the Squire. Hester is in her 50's now, and never married, though she deeply loves another aristocrat named Richard. Hester never married him because she felt Richard deserved a far better wife than herself. But the aging Richard never married another. Hester lives with her brother, the Squire Samuel, in the big manor house on his estate. A "chance" meeting between the Squire and Evangeline has led to an invitation to have Evangeline and Cordelia visit "for a few days". Cordelia is frightened to meet actual gentry, since she and her mother are poor. But Evangeline has her schemes - she aspires to a position of wealth and status, and she assures Cordelia that she too will be married off to man of high status (not that Cordelia wants anything of the sort). Evangeline tells everyone that Cordelia is seventeen and eligible for a husband.

Cordelia has lived a lonely life of isolation and friendlessness, in constant fear of her mother. Her only trusted companion is Falada, the white horse that Evangeline sometimes lets Cordelia ride. Falada seems to be more than an ordinary horse. When Cordelia talks to Falada, it almost seems as if the horse can understand her. But now they must pack their meager possessions for their "temporary" stay at the Squire's estate. Although she is supposed to be a well bred young woman, Cordelia actually has no idea how to handle servants that are there to address her every need. Help her bathe? Dress? Do her hair? How strange.

When Hester meets Evangeline, she immediately senses her wickedness. To herself, she refers to Evangeline as Doom. At first, no one has any idea that Evangeline is a sorceress - powerful magic users aren't believed to exist any more, the most magic that anyone can do is a few simple illusions or temporary spells. But Cordelia knows the truth. She and Hester form a fragile friendship, even as Hester watches in alarm as Evangeline sinks her hooks in to her brother.

Kingfisher does a masterful job of depicting the evil Evangeline. She is utterly ruthless and cunning. When Hester realizes the peril that everyone is in, she frantically tries to figure out a way to stop the sorceress. It makes for entertaining reading as the wicked plot unfolds. This was another excellent book from Kingfisher. I just wish she wouldn't write them so fast that I might have time to read some of her previously published novels!