A Sorceress Comes to Call

3.4 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

No one noticed that Cordelia moved in unison with her mother. No one ever did.

When a Sorceress Comes to Call was a historical magical realism story about a coming of age girl gaining the strength to fight back against her mother. Cordelia is fourteen years old and having stopped attending school years ago, only gains a sense of normalcy when a local girl Ellen can randomly meet up with her on one of her rides. Cordelia begins to realize that having a mother that is so controlling, not only of her thoughts but through what Cordelia calls “obedience”, where her mother actually controls her body, is not normal. It's when Cordelia gets a painful realization of betrayal that the only other friend she thought she had, her mother's horse Falada, tells her mother everything as her familiar and her mother does something that shines the light on what a true monster she is, that Cordelia begins to fight back, with some help.

Fear took her suddenly by the throat, a formless dread with no name, no shape, only a sense that something was wrong, something terrible was coming this way.

I thought this was a little less eerie than What Moves the Dead but you'll still find gruesome animal body horror, magic, supernatural elements, and thriller aspects. This was mainly told through Cordelia's eyes and the creepy tension and fear she feels from her mother was woven in strongly throughout the book. Once of the most powerful scenes for me was when Cordelia learned of Falada's betrayal. At this point, he's been her rock and the only one that seems to give Cordelia strength and when she lost that I hurt so bad for her and felt the numbness this gave her. (I must have some residual horse girl leftover from childhood because I refused to stop thinking that Falada wasn't on the side I wanted them to be for an embarrassing long time) We get a different pov when Cordelia's mom decides it's time to get a new benefactor, after she deals with her old one in a gruesome manner, and sets her sights on a squire a few towns over to marry. The squire's spinster sister Hester comes into the picture and with a little bit of magic herself, she senses right away that this new woman is “Doom”.

My mother is a sorcerer.

Around the midway point, Cordelia confides into Hester her fears of what her mother is and that she needs to be stopped; after what Hester has felt and seen, she doesn't need much convincing. The second half brings in more characters with friends of Hester that she writes to, under the guise of a house party, but really she's calling for reinforcements. Along with friends, she invites Richard, her old lover and the man that once asked her to marry him. Through them we get a little tiny romance thread that I enjoyed with their second chance romance and Hester finally mature enough to decide love is more important than letting the glare of societal expectations rule the day. Hester's more mature pov paired with Cordelia's youth, delivered a well rounded hitting all those emotions story.

And part of her— a tiny part that she had never quite lost— wanted to be there and wanted it all to be true so that her mother would love her and maybe things would change.

The ending delivered a, kind of quick, magical explanation (hitting the right “notes”??), along with the story's continued message of “water, wine, salt, and holy ground” dramatic end. There were winners, losers, and probably a lifetime of trauma from what was witnessed. The story was an enjoyable ride with it's really likable characters, a great seasonal read to pick up.

This T. Kingfisher book is a regency-esque novel about an abusive sorceress trying to magically worm her way into a marriage for money with her terrified daughter in tow.

The setting feels like regency mixed with fantasy, but also where all the identifying details of either genre have been blurred out. There's sorcery, social classes, and concerns about money and inheritance. However, there's no specific sense of place here in either a regency or fantasy genre here, and instead the novel comes off as a character-focused comedy of manners and dark fantasy/horror mashup.

As with most T. Kingfisher books, I adored the characters and the character dynamics and that carried a lot of story for me. Maybe this is too personal, but some of the abusive dynamics hit a little too close to home for me (especially the bits around doors and privacy), but it made Cordelia finding safety and trust again all the stronger.