Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

23 reviews

carlithian's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and War

petra_eller's review against another edition

dark sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War

sydapel's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Compared to how much I loved Uprooted, this was a bit of a let down for me personally. I enjoyed how it was an exploration of the darker twisted side of fairytales, especially through a female led perspective. However, the pacing of this felt glacially slow and some of the 'favor' spells of the fae creatures were so lost on me that I barely followed parts of the plot. I did like all the main characters in the story and how they exerted their power in very different ways, but it felt like Novik was trying to fit in too much into this story that the character work got buried. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Child abuse

Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

dcdc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Grief

Minor: Sexual violence

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

From the very first pages I felt like I was in a dream with the way this book is written, I really like how this author was describing the setting and presenting the characters, besides the narrator has such a nice voice and it changed it for each POV… it was a full experience and from the beginning this was a 4 ⭐ for me!

This is a young adult book with fantasy elements and magic! Which is perfect for me, but if you’re looking for romance this isn’t it (like AT ALL, and I’m okay with that but I know it’s a deal breaker for some people), also, the fantasy is very low in the beginning but after a few chapters is there.

I liked Miryem from the second we met her, I don’t care if she’s “cold” or “ambitious” for others, to me she was caring for her family, doing the job, she was organized, really wise, not afraid of anything and always with a plan, proud of her religion and loyal to the people she loves until the very end. I just love her.

I was rooting for Wanda all the time, I just wanted her to be okay in the end, be free from her father, find her way and have a good and happy life. She’s such a hardworking girl, smart and quick learner, but overall she has a lot of courage and is ready to protect her family from anyone (even if it’s a demon or a scary King!)

Then we have Irina who I also came to love by the end. She looked weak in the beginning but she quickly adapted to her new reality, she was protective of her people and so brave. I just love women plotting, taking action, involved in politics, always with a plan and one step ahead!

I loved these girls so much! I’m tired of reading about girls who just go and do whatever without thinking, no plans, making things worse and not caring about the others. But Miryem, Wanda and Irina? They have such different backgrounds and yet their main qualities were being hardworking, really smart, brave and protective over their love ones. Honestly? I feel like that’s just me, in each girl I saw myself reflected and maybe that’s part of why I loved them.

When you are reading this book, I understand why some people might find it boring, but to me it was as if I was enchanted by it, so focus on the story and the characters with this beautiful writing. Besides the audiobook helped and I knew when the POV changed from one girl to another (or sometimes another character), it was so addictive and interesting.

So yeah, I don’t think this book is for everyone but I still recommend you give it a try if the premise sounds interesting to you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content

Here is a list of the content warnings and how is it that they’re present in the book, if you don’t want spoilers just skip this part:

Death of parent / Grief: Wanda lost her mother when she was eleven years old.

Child death: Wanda’s mother had a lot of babies but I think they died soon after being born or were stillborn.

Domestic abuse / Child abuse / Alcoholism / Violence: Wanda’s father was a really bad man, beating his three children for years and spending most of his money on alcohol.

Sexual content: There is just talk around the topic or slight mention of it, not explicit at all.

Misogyny / Sexism: Because Wanda’s father would just give her in exchange for a pig or alcohol. And there’s some other instances.

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Blood, and Classism

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, and Violence

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. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Violence

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 :\

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Misogyny