Fitcher’s Bird by A. G. Slatter

Y’know, despite my lifelong love of fairy tales, I don’t recall ever reading the original story this novella is based on. Having taken a look at the classic upon finishing this book, however, I can certainly agree that it lends itself satisfyingly to this modern-day reinterpretation that leans hard in to the more horrific elements of its source material.

Dido, Zoe and Chloe are adult sisters who have grown apart. Dido is an anatomist, and is as clinical with her sexual relationships as she is with her work. Zoe is a recovering addict who has gone a long way towards getting clean and maintaining a normal life, one in which she rarely talks with the older sister she bears an almost unreasonable rage towards. Youngest sister Chloe is the peacemaker, a school librarian who likes the softer, sweeter things in life.

When Chloe goes missing one day and Zoe disappears soon after, Dido will have to figure out who took them and how to get them back. The answers, she believes, lie in the past that the sisters have tried so hard to outrun. After their father died when they were very little, their mother gave them up to a family that could actually take care of them. Things went wrong. Eventually, there was a fire. The girls managed to escape but the past casts a long shadow, as Dido will soon discover in her desperate quest to find and save her little sisters.

The biggest departure in this novella from the original is, ofc, the fact that our heroine is the eldest sister and not the youngest, a change that this eldest sister appreciates (tho pour one out for the perpetually slighted middle child.) The ending is also left deliberately weird, instead of the outright happily ever after of the fairy tale. I did very much enjoy the melding of the fantasy elements with the extremely competent thriller writing on display here: as someone whose day job it is to critique mystery and crime novels, I applaud the show of craft. I’m a big fan of AG Slatter’s, and it’s always nice to discover that one of my favorite authors is an even better writer than I already had her down as.

This was a terrific read in the lead-up to Halloween, especially if you like your fairy tales dark, and with a modern twist, and with a big, fierce splash of feminism. I’m both excited and chagrined to still have two of Ms Slatter’s recent books to dive into but she’s not the only person “with a TBR pile that will likely be the death of her”, lolsob. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to them sooner than later.

Fitcher’s Bird by A. G. Slatter was published October 6 2026 by Titan Books and is available from all good booksellers, including