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tamara_joy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Genocide
Moderate: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood, Classism, Alcoholism, Child death, Animal death, and Confinement
madmadmaddymad's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-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
5.0
It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I was reading a Rumplestiltskin retelling. I was all the way at the wedding of Miryem’s cousin, and watching the fight between the demon and the Staryk before “Tell me your name!” “Never!” Felt like anything other than a quirk of their fantasy race. That being said, I loved the way all the pieces of this story unfolded and came together.
Wanda’s story moved me to tears at several points. I loved when she first learned from Miryem how to do the debt collecting, and she called adding numbers together “magic.” For Wanda, anything sufficiently remarkable is magic, and Miryem, even in the mortal world, was a sufficiently remarkable woman. The book had a really good juxtaposition of the ordinary with the fantastic, and Wanda, watching it all come to pass really made me feel like lots of things can be magic… I was crying during the entire last chapter, when Miryem called her “sister” and Sergey and Stepon “brothers”
Oh, and I LOVED the love story and how it genuinely snuck up on me. I am a simp for fae and monsters, and even though I got to the wedding and the three storerooms of silver-to-gold, the fight between the two evil husbands, and watching the demon carry the Staryk away, I thought, “Oh. Bummer.” Because I was a little bit rooting for them to fall in love.
AND THEN. Like I was having a dream…!
Miryem returns to free the Staryk!
And he *asks* to court her in the mortal way!
Oh! And Irina and Mirnatious! The way she saved him with the silver ring was so satisfying!!!!!!!! AND HE THOUGHT SHE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!
Just such a wonderful, wonderful read. Definitely a top 10 of all time for me. 5 stars, and it deserves more, to be honest.
Wanda’s story moved me to tears at several points. I loved when she first learned from Miryem how to do the debt collecting, and she called adding numbers together “magic.” For Wanda, anything sufficiently remarkable is magic, and Miryem, even in the mortal world, was a sufficiently remarkable woman. The book had a really good juxtaposition of the ordinary with the fantastic, and Wanda, watching it all come to pass really made me feel like lots of things can be magic… I was crying during the entire last chapter, when Miryem called her “sister” and Sergey and Stepon “brothers”
Oh, and I LOVED the love story and how it genuinely snuck up on me. I am a simp for fae and monsters, and even though I got to the wedding and the three storerooms of silver-to-gold, the fight between the two evil husbands, and watching the demon carry the Staryk away, I thought, “Oh. Bummer.” Because I was a little bit rooting for them to fall in love.
AND THEN. Like I was having a dream…!
Miryem returns to free the Staryk!
And he *asks* to court her in the mortal way!
Oh! And Irina and Mirnatious! The way she saved him with the silver ring was so satisfying!!!!!!!! AND HE THOUGHT SHE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!
Just such a wonderful, wonderful read. Definitely a top 10 of all time for me. 5 stars, and it deserves more, to be honest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child abuse
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Misogyny, and Death
chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The plot, atmosphere and retelling of the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin was really well crafted. All the different parts of the story pulled together for the final.
I enjoyed how it drew from Mythology as well as different aspects of the fairy tale and the use of thrice repeated. The Winter atmosphere of both the mortal and Stark Kingdoms along with the harsh world's of both created a fantastic winter setting.
Themes of a pragmatic business sense and greed were mixed with compassion and weakness along with women at the bottom of life's ladder finding inner strength to take their place in the harsh unrelenting world.
It was nice to see Jewish representation with a fantasy and the family values were the spot of warmth that was well needed.
Despite this, I did not warm to the characters and I can’t pinpoint why. I liked them and followed their adventures, but i did not make friends with them and grow attached like I usually do with at least one characte. I'm not sure if this was a narrative voice choice where secondary characters gave first person perspective and I would have preferred 3rd person? That could be a factor. I am glad I read this, but it's not going to be a favourite re-read, which I think is down to my personal preference.
I enjoyed how it drew from Mythology as well as different aspects of the fairy tale and the use of thrice repeated. The Winter atmosphere of both the mortal and Stark Kingdoms along with the harsh world's of both created a fantastic winter setting.
Themes of a pragmatic business sense and greed were mixed with compassion and weakness along with women at the bottom of life's ladder finding inner strength to take their place in the harsh unrelenting world.
It was nice to see Jewish representation with a fantasy and the family values were the spot of warmth that was well needed.
Despite this, I did not warm to the characters and I can’t pinpoint why. I liked them and followed their adventures, but i did not make friends with them and grow attached like I usually do with at least one characte. I'm not sure if this was a narrative voice choice where secondary characters gave first person perspective and I would have preferred 3rd person? That could be a factor. I am glad I read this, but it's not going to be a favourite re-read, which I think is down to my personal preference.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Child abuse
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: Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Violence, and Homophobia
bammys's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
too many POV's to follow and a few of them unnecessary, lots of triggering content that simply did not add to the plot, and the storyline and events felt not fully developed :\
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Misogyny and Domestic abuse
bettysbookishworld'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcoholism
Minor: Miscarriage and Grief
readwithde's review against another edition
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: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Misogyny
Moderate: Miscarriage, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Blood, Classism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Alcoholism, and War
Minor: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Gore, and Confinement
vonny3492's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
This books was so wonderfully written. It's been awhile since I read a YA Fantasy novel that is written with a folklore style and doesn't feel like a script for a movie. Such a wonderful read at the beginning of winter and loved all the hints to polish and Jewish folklore and culture!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism
Moderate: War, Religious bigotry, Violence, Sexual content, Sexism, and Misogyny
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 death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Vomit, Child abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Blood, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Classism, Incest, and Miscarriage
Graphic: Eye trauma Moderate: mentioned child rapegoizi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and War
Minor: Death of parent