Hemlock & Silver
#3854.01 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2025 Reading commitment Low T. Kingfisher Last reviewed 2026-08-15
Overview
Hemlock & Silver is a 2025 standalone dark reimagining of Snow White by T. Kingfisher, the pen name under which author Ursula Vernon writes fiction for adult readers: Anja, a poison-specialist healer, is summoned by the king to investigate his daughter Snow's mysterious illness, and finds a mirror world on the other side of Snow's own reflection, whose queen wants to become real by consuming Snow's heart. A slow-burn romance with a palace guard, a sarcastic talking cat, and Kingfisher's usual blend of dry humor and genuine dread run alongside the investigation, as Anja works through the medical and magical causes of Snow's illness rather than simply accepting the fairy-tale explanation at face value. The novel continues Kingfisher's run of fairy-tale-adjacent horror-fantasy retellings, following earlier books such as Nettle & Bone and The Hollow Places, and was received as a further example of her distinctive mix of cozy, humorous prose and creeping dread.
Fairy-tale retelling, Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Hemlock & Silver T. Kingfisher
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Hemlock & Silver | 2025 | core | 4.01 (43,372 ratings) |
One continuous standalone novel; no internal volume structure.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Hemlock & Silver? Hemlock & Silver's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Hemlock & Silver finished? Complete (2025).
- How much reading does Hemlock & Silver take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~368 pages).
- How is Hemlock & Silver ranked? #385 in this site's official ranking, based on 43,372 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #385?
Ranked #385 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.01 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (43,372 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #384, The Power of Five (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 · 43k ratings · Ranks #385 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), 2026: finalist: Hemlock & Silver; 3rd place (tie) in the 2026 Locus reader poll, per the no-cutoff Locus-poll convention. The award body's own full ballot page could not be reached directly; registered on two independent cross-checks (sfadb's per-author record and Wikipedia's own dedicated article) that agree on a finalist placement, plus direct confirmation the actual winner was a different book (Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting), ruling out a false 'won' claim.
Related 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 Thornhedge: Both by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), confirmed separate continuities -- no shared characters, setting, or continuity across her admitted standalone/series universes.
- Same author A Sorceress Comes to Call: 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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Suggestions computed from what Hemlock & Silver and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- Weaveworld Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.13
- Stardust Fairy-tale retelling / Portal fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.09
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.01 across 43,372 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: Hemlock & Silver admitted; single-work Core Canon accepted 2026-08-15
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Hemlock & Silver Tier 2
- Rating-platform listing: Hemlock & Silver Tier 1
- sfadb: T. Kingfisher Awards Tier 1
- SFFWorld: 2026 Locus Awards Winners Announced Tier 3
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-15
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; no shared characters or setting.