Review: The Raven and the Reindeer, by T. Kingfisher

 

When Gerta’s friend Kay is stolen away by the mysterious Snow Queen, it’s up to Gerta to find him. Her journey will take her through a dangerous land of snow and witchcraft, accompanied only by a bandit and a talking raven. Can she win her friend’s release, or will following her heart take her to unexpected places?

What a lovely way to begin the new year! T. Kingfisher's The Raven and the Reindeer is a perfect retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s "Snow Queen", drawing on the original but giving it its own spin, adding more depth and grounding it more to reality while also enriching the supernatural aspects of the fairy tale. At a little more than 200 pages, it's a delightful novella that ends with the timeless simplicity of fairy tales, giving the reader just enough information to glimpse the happily ever after.

The book truly shines in the worldbuilding: there are talking animals - each species with such distinctive voices - and stunning bits of sacrificial magic, and two long passages about the deep connections of roots and plants and their dark, hungry power; but, also, their gentleness. Gerta moves about with her big heart and her simple kindness, gathering allies all the while and almost losing herself in the reindeer skin. There's a brutality in some scenes, eerie and necessary; in the butchering, in the knife freeing her every night.

Her relationship with Janna, a nameless servant in the original, develops organically enough. There's perhaps a touch of discomfort in the beginning, when Gerta is held captive, but the author is quick to move on and show the differences with Gerta's hopeless infuatation of Kai. Like in the original, Kai doesn't have a heart and treats her abysmally, but here it's not anyone's fault but his own; he's just a standoffish, cruel kid, more interested in his puzzles. Janna is a well-rounded character, not perfect but certainly kinder, with a dark past of her own that gives her depth.

The Raven and the Reindeer is a great retelling of a cult classic, better than the original.

✨ 3.5 stars