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kermittuesday's review
I just didn’t really like it. Too gritty for me. When the dad got burned alive that was pretty much the end for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
astrangewind's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Spinning Silver must be savored. It cannot be read in one sitting, as much as I would have liked to; some moments are so intense, so raw, that I had to set the book down to digest.
The characters come alive on the page: Miryem, the moneylender who pays her debts; Wanda, the strong helper who devotes herself to those she loves; Irina, the practical-minded leader who would do anything for her people. Even the more minor characters who we see a lot of later- mainly Stepon and Magreta - are so rich and diverse that I can't help but love them. The villains, too - the Staryk king and even Mirnatius are likable by the end. Each character is a victim of their circumstances and choices, and they evolve throughout the book in fascinating and sometimes unexpected ways, and I found myself genuinely rooting for them as though they were real. And they could be real.
Naomi Novik is a master of tone. Despite the number of characters who have first-person POV chapters, it is never unclear whose perspective it is. It's clever and subtle in an area where many authors falter. The writing itself, even, is the perfect level of descriptive; the world came alive around me.
The story of the fae and the moneylender lends itself well to problems of deals made, and fulfilling those deals in lateral ways, which I very much enjoy. I've heard from others (and I agree with it) that Spinning Silver has excellent reread value for this reason.
Naomi Novik's romance was a pleasure to read. It isn't overtly sexual, or even overtly romantic; the romance is a function of the characters and their problems, not the other way around. It's far more natural than something like Twilight, for example .
The plot evolves, twisting and turning throughout the book, ageing and maturing. It's never too much, never any surprise plot twists, but the payoff of things set up on every page.
I don't know what else to say about this book. It's absolutely phenomenal. A true joy to read.
The characters come alive on the page: Miryem, the moneylender who pays her debts; Wanda, the strong helper who devotes herself to those she loves; Irina, the practical-minded leader who would do anything for her people. Even the more minor characters who we see a lot of later
Naomi Novik is a master of tone. Despite the number of characters who have first-person POV chapters, it is never unclear whose perspective it is. It's clever and subtle in an area where many authors falter. The writing itself, even, is the perfect level of descriptive; the world came alive around me.
The story of the fae and the moneylender lends itself well to problems of deals made, and fulfilling those deals in lateral ways, which I very much enjoy. I've heard from others (and I agree with it) that Spinning Silver has excellent reread value for this reason.
Naomi Novik's romance was a pleasure to read. It isn't overtly sexual, or even overtly romantic
The plot evolves, twisting and turning throughout the book, ageing and maturing. It's never too much, never any surprise plot twists, but the payoff of things set up on every page.
I don't know what else to say about this book. It's absolutely phenomenal. A true joy to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Miscarriage, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder
irinalast's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
An interesting and complicated world is created through several perspectives; setting is established through ‘show don’t tell.’ Great writing that establishes realistic character feelings and dialogue.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
ru_bunny's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
elzibub's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Violence
readwithde's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism
Minor: Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting
maeverose's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
TL;DR: I’m sad because I really liked some aspects of this and it had the potential to be a favorite, but it needed to be shorter, have less povs, and have the romance not be toxic, and then make it a little more of a focus. I also don’t care for the gratuitous violence…
The toxic romances. First I should say that this isn’t a romance book. I went into this with the expectations of it being a fantasy romance and it’s definitely not. That’s my bad, I thought I’d heard people talk about it as if it was. There’s only a tiny tiny bit of romance at the very end, but the way the two male love interests treat their eventual partners is incredibly toxic. I made some lists to illustrate the point (spoilers, obviously & tw for rape and sa):
The Staryk king threatened to kill Miryem if she didn’t complete his tasks, threatened to kill her family, forced her to marry him, was physically aggressive with her, nearly raped her, trapped her in her room with no food or water for a day, used her to lengthen winter in turn harming people from her world, generally treated her like shit, it’s also made clear that his people killed and raped innocent people in the sunlit world for centuries, and he had no problem with it. Mirnatius scared Irina as a child by leaving her dead squirrels, clearly had no issues with the demon trying to kill her, touched her sexually without her consent and might’ve raped her if she hadn’t stopped him, generally treated her like shit
And it’s so sad because both of those relationships could have been really fun if they hadn’t been horrible to each other. I love a good enemies to lovers but this is not how you do it.
Gratuitous violence. Mostly from Wendy and Stepon’s povs, where they had to bring up at every opportunity that their father abused them. It felt like the author was just throwing it in there to keep the book feeling dark and gritty but there was no real purpose to it. We already know from the first few chapters that their father is a despicable human being, it didn’t need to be mentioned repeatedly every single time it switched to one of their povs.
The multiple povs. I only cared about Miryem’s and Irina’s a little bit towards the second half of the book. However I wouldn’t say the others were unnecessary (well, Magreta’s maybe) or couldn’t be interesting to other readers. I felt that it was usually pretty clear who’s pov it was right away, but the book does switch povs multiple times in every chapter, so it could get annoying.
Bad autism rep? I wanted to talk about one of the perspectives in particular: Wanda’s younger brother Stepon. His narrative voice is especially different from the others and I can’t tell if it’s just supposed to be that he’s young, abused and had a very isolated upbringing, or if he’s autistic coded. He has sensory issues with noise too, which could be a trauma response from his abuse, I’m not sure, but it felt like an attempt at a very stereotypical representation of autism, and if it was I don’t like that. It’s a very narrow minded interpretation of autism, not to mention it was just so tedious to read.
It’s overwritten. It definitely could’ve (should’ve, imo) been at least 100 pages shorter. Maybe its just because I wasn’t enjoying it that much but it felt like a drag to get through. I was bored for a lot of it.
The writing. Her style just doesn’t work for me. I liked the winter descriptions, and the folktale style of it, but I found certain sentences to be worded awkwardly to where I’d have to read them multiple times to get what she meant. It was the same with Uprooted for me. Like she’s trying to make it sound pretty but it’s just awkward to read. Could just be me. I did find some sentences that were actually grammatically incorrect though…
Homophobic?? This one was easy to miss, but the only - very minor side character - that’s gay has a crush on his own cousin. I feel like I don’t need to explain how that’s problematic.
Gratuitous violence. Mostly from Wendy and Stepon’s povs, where they had to bring up at every opportunity that their father abused them. It felt like the author was just throwing it in there to keep the book feeling dark and gritty but there was no real purpose to it. We already know from the first few chapters that their father is a despicable human being, it didn’t need to be mentioned repeatedly every single time it switched to one of their povs.
The multiple povs. I only cared about Miryem’s and Irina’s a little bit towards the second half of the book. However I wouldn’t say the others were unnecessary (well, Magreta’s maybe) or couldn’t be interesting to other readers. I felt that it was usually pretty clear who’s pov it was right away, but the book does switch povs multiple times in every chapter, so it could get annoying.
Bad autism rep? I wanted to talk about one of the perspectives in particular: Wanda’s younger brother Stepon. His narrative voice is especially different from the others and I can’t tell if it’s just supposed to be that he’s young, abused and had a very isolated upbringing, or if he’s autistic coded. He has sensory issues with noise too, which could be a trauma response from his abuse, I’m not sure, but it felt like an attempt at a very stereotypical representation of autism, and if it was I don’t like that. It’s a very narrow minded interpretation of autism, not to mention it was just so tedious to read.
It’s overwritten. It definitely could’ve (should’ve, imo) been at least 100 pages shorter. Maybe its just because I wasn’t enjoying it that much but it felt like a drag to get through. I was bored for a lot of it.
The writing. Her style just doesn’t work for me. I liked the winter descriptions, and the folktale style of it, but I found certain sentences to be worded awkwardly to where I’d have to read them multiple times to get what she meant. It was the same with Uprooted for me. Like she’s trying to make it sound pretty but it’s just awkward to read. Could just be me. I did find some sentences that were actually grammatically incorrect though…
Homophobic?? This one was easy to miss, but the only - very minor side character - that’s gay has a crush on his own cousin. I feel like I don’t need to explain how that’s problematic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, and Classism
Graphic: Eye trauma Moderate: mentioned child rapenaomi_k's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Classism
kaziaroo's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I’ll begin by admitting I was disappointed in this book because I was hoping it would be like Uprooted (by the same author), which I enjoyed a few years ago, and given the rave reviews I was sure I’d enjoy it even though the blurb didn’t sound very interesting to me. And in the first half, I was optimistic; it was nothing like Uprooted, but I still held out hope that I could enjoy it because it was well written if a bit slow. My attention was wandering, but I was sure that as the plot progressed and I got more into it I’d be more interested.
Unfortunately, the second half was only worse. By the time I was two thirds of the way through, I was thoroughly bored and couldn’t wait for it to end. I didn’t warm (pardon the pun) to any of the characters, and by the end I was sick of them. Unlike most reviewers, I enjoyed the unlabelled point of view (POV) transitions – that is, until the number of POVs kept increasing and I was dragged back to the perspective of side characters who had no reason to have so much time in the spotlight. None of the character relationships were convincing or fleshed out enough to be interesting, and the characters themselves were unlikeable. It seemed like no matter whose perspective was next, I was still disappointed.
I also want to mention some more serious flaws in this book (avoiding spoilers as much as I can). This book tries very hard to make certain characters forgivable, even for horrible sins, making their sins not only forgiven but also forgotten as if they never did anything wrong. This makes the ending very uncomfortable as the author clearly wants you to believe that the characters will live happily ever after, but there’s just no precedent for this. Characters who hated each other (for good reason) throughout the book suddenly love each other with no build-up, further shattering any remaining suspension of disbelief. Everything is tidied up into a neat happy ending with no negative consequences, even when they are justly deserved. This left me feeling sour and unsatisfied.
Despite this, I gave Spinning Silver three stars because it was still well written on a sentence level and the characters had distinctive voices (although I did forget who was talking halfway through a chapter once or twice, so maybe not always!), and the first half was decent. There were some nice domestic scenes which, while they slowed the book down, I found enjoyable to sink into. I’m now teetering between 2 and 3 stars, so who knows, maybe I’ll go back and edit this later after thinking further. On the other hand, I feel like I've spent more than enough time with this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Sexism, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment