Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

19 reviews

mgondwe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Infertility, Grief, and Pregnancy

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-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? No

4.75

I very much enjoyed the writing of this book, how it was so creative on both a macro and a micro scale. I always wanted to pick it up again. My only nitpicks were the constant switching of POVs, and how horrible most of the men were.  But there was a lot more to those characters that you see by the end, so that ended up being better than I initially expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, and War

Minor: Sexual content and Violence

erikagibson126's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

lira_the_recluse's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

An expanded fairy tale. It was a treat to see the Slavic folktale inspiration. All the characters had believable and complex motivations. 

A couple minor things. I wish there were fewer point of view characters, but I don't mind that as much as th second point. I wished there was an audio marker or something to let you know when a POV switch happens mid chapter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jalexpulliamkepler's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

Loved the themes, the characters, and the story. A perfect winter read!

CW: mentions of SA, sexism, anti-semitism, violence, alcohol abuse, child abuse, death of parent, death of child, mentions of infidelity, hunger, poverty, animal cruelty, horse death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Sexism, Violence, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Sexual assault

sinceraly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ideally, I'll write a longer, more well thought out review at some point, but for now:

Spinning Silver is an excellent adaption/retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that does a great job of setting itself apart from the original. The book is excellently written with some of the best prose I've read all year, and Novik is so incredibly skilled at describing things so well you really can picture them all in your head.

The only thing stopping me from rating the book 5 stars is the amount of perspectives the book gets written through, and the nonsense order of how they happen. At first it's as simple as Miryem/Wanda/Irina, but then you toss in perspectives from the tsar, from Irina's handmaiden, from Wanda's brother, and they all happen randomly, it feels like. Though I loved the switch in perspectives at first, eventually it led to the middle section of the book feeling disjointed and not as cohesive as it could have been. Maybe on a second read, I'd feel like it's worth it, but it was a big enough negative for me to keep the book from 5 stars.

Also wish the book would have given me an epilogue if only because I wanted to see more of the Staryk king post "you fight good" moment. I'm a sucker for proud bitches and a redemption arc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I had a hard time with the first half of the book. It reads very much like a fairy tale, and I found it hard to connect with the characters despite the multiple points of view, because it felt like there was more focus on plot than character. Towards the end though, it became a lot more compelling and I really enjoyed watching all the plot threads weave together into the ending. It's a very a well crafted story, I just wish I could have felt more connection with the characters sooner. While the story is dark, it never crossed the line for me to where I'd be too uncomfortable, but please check the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Antisemitism, and War

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, and Alcohol

raquelrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Rape, and Sexism

andromeda_1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Alcohol