A Sorceress Comes to Call
#3424.03 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2024 Reading commitment Low T. Kingfisher Last reviewed 2026-08-14
Overview
A 2024 standalone retelling of the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," with a Regency-adjacent, Gothic-horror edge. Fourteen-year-old Cordelia has spent her life under her sorceress mother Evangeline's magical control; when Evangeline sets her sights on marrying a wealthy squire, Samuel Chatham, his sister Hester starts to see through the charm and pulls together an unlikely group willing to confront a woman who can bend other people's bodies to her will, building toward a climactic ritual meant to strip Evangeline of her power. T. Kingfisher blends Gothic horror and a fantasy-of-manners sensibility with dark humor, treating the story's underlying theme of childhood abuse with real gravity beneath its fairy-tale trappings. The novel won the 2025 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, was a finalist for the 2024 Nebula and 2025 Hugo Awards for Best Novel, and drew starred reviews across several major trade and genre outlets.
Fairy-tale retelling, Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
A Sorceress Comes to Call T. Kingfisher
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | A Sorceress Comes to Call | 2024 | core | 4.03 (66,131 ratings) |
Standalone; a Brothers Grimm 'The Goose Girl' retelling with Regency/Gothic elements, unrelated to T. Kingfisher's other admitted universes (The Saint of Steel, Nettle & Bone, Thornhedge). Registered per this canon's single-work/LOTR-analogy convention.
Quick answers
- How many books are in A Sorceress Comes to Call? A Sorceress Comes to Call's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is A Sorceress Comes to Call finished? Complete (2024).
- How much reading does A Sorceress Comes to Call take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~321 pages).
- How is A Sorceress Comes to Call ranked? #342 in this site's official ranking, based on 66,131 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #342?
Ranked #342 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.03 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (66,131 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #341, Magisterium (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 1 book · Complete · 66k ratings · Ranks #342 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2025: won: A Sorceress Comes to Call; Confirmed via sfadb (the Locus Index to SF Awards' official successor) and independently cross-checked via Wikipedia's own dedicated Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel article, both agreeing on the win.
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2024: nominated: A Sorceress Comes to Call; Confirmed directly via nebulas.sfwa.org's own nominee page; did not win.
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 2025: finalist: A Sorceress Comes to Call; Confirmed directly via thehugoawards.org's own 2025 Hugo Awards finalist page; did not win (The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley won; out of scope for this admission).
Related universes
- Same author Thornhedge: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
- Same author The Saint of Steel: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
- Same author Nettle & Bone: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
- Same author Hemlock & Silver: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
- Same author A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
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- Spinning Silver Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 4.17
- A Night in the Lonesome October Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.13
- Babel, or the Necessity of Violence Historical fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.13
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.03 across 66,131 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: A Sorceress Comes to Call admitted as a single-work universe accepted 2026-08-14
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- T. Kingfisher official site Tier 1
- Wikipedia: A Sorceress Comes to Call Tier 2
- sfadb: T. Kingfisher Awards Tier 1
- Nebula Awards: T. Kingfisher nominee page Tier 1
- The Hugo Awards: 2025 Hugo Awards Tier 1
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
Rule: Rule: single-work: a genuinely one-off novel, registered per this canon's Once and Future King/LOTR-analogy precedent. Confirmed separate continuity from T. Kingfisher's other admitted universes (The Saint of Steel, Nettle & Bone, Thornhedge); no shared characters or setting.