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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.
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
tak_everlasting's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
5.0
I'd read a whole book of just Irina and Melirnous, but unfortunately Novik didn't feel the same way about writing them, and robbed us by having their final scene be from the prespective of Margreta. No. I wanted either a Irina or Melirnous ending, not the side character. Yes, Margreta and Stefan are important perspectives, but the scenes from them could easily been reduced by 50% and given to characters with a more active role.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
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
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
chris_reads'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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Violence, and Antisemitism
Minor: Animal death and Blood
beewitchtt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
A robber who steals a knife and cuts himself cannot cry out against the woman who kept it sharp.
Spinning Silver, I think, has become my favorite book I have ever read. I originally picked this book up for the promise of a Rumpelstiltskin retelling and a romance- but instead I got a poignant story of three women saving the world despite their unsavory situations. It's a book about agency, about over-coming fear, and about finding the spaces that make you feel safe and holding them tightly.
Not to say this book does not have romance, but it is extremely slow-burn, and keeps you on your toes. It will dangle these relationships in front of you, and you the reader, who is so used to unearned love and yearning will ask for it to just happen already. But Naomi Novik has complete control of this story the entire way through and does what's best for the story. It is beautifully written, and has captured me for days.
I do not think that this book is for everyone, but I recommend everyone give it a try. If you give it a chance to enchant you- you will have no regrets.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Body horror and Gore
Minor: Animal death and Rape
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: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Miscarriage and Grief
jbair10's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.5
Mysterious creatures, enchanted forests, deal-making, unlikely partnerships, daring decisions, and relatable characters - this story has it all! A wonderful winter fairytale which will keep your attention to the end. The story has various elements of the classic “Rumpelstiltskin” tale, although it’s still very much a story of its own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism
Minor: Animal death and Domestic abuse
haley49's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was such an intricate and beautiful fantasy. All the povs fit together so well and told a story that was masterfully done. There were some skimmable parts, too many povs, some pacing issues, and a need (in my opinion) for more side character character depth. However, in the end the world building and continuous story was so well done I couldn’t help but enjoy it. I liked how the MC was Jewish as I hadn’t seen that in fantasy and you can really see how it effects her life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Dementia, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
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 rapebrie333's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have a ton of thoughts so just rapid fire bullet-points:
- the book was a bit too long, but somehow the ending was too short. I wish we could’ve gotten a more fleshed out ending. I came to love these characters and it was hard walking away when they were so unsettled. I also feel like some of the lore or the whys behind actions was not discussed enough, but we have whole flashbacks or memories on the clothing everyone wore. Sometimes it felt like the author focused undue attention on building the setting/visuals.
- that being said I loved the set up to the overall story, the world building, and Miryems storyline in particular. Novik is brilliant at details and really bring everything to life for you. Her descriptions felt familiar and well explored. I just wish this wasn’t always at the expense of explanations of how things came to be.
- I purposely picked this book because it was a standalone but I’m now wishing for a sequel to flesh out the ending and explain some of the castoff plot lines.
- I can handle multi-povs but with nothing more than a page break, sometimes I would be deep in a paragraph before getting clarity on who was speaking. I think maybe the intention was to keep time moving and explain everything while keeping the reader a little on the outside of the story. But for me, it was a little dizzying. I understand that there was language choices and symbols that differentiated the povs but while each person had a distinct voice I will admit to being a little lost at some points of the story.
- Overall, a great story, one of the best I’ve read this year. Well crafted and complex. One I would read again but the pacing and abrupt ending to all but one plotlline took away a star. I don’t want to leave the impression that this is not a book to pickup. It absolutely is and I highly recommend it. Novik can write and write well. I just found myself wanting to walk in her cold winter woods a little longer and with a little more knowledge of how we got there.
- this has nothing to do with the author but I was told this was a fantasy with romance and I completely disagree. It’s a fantasy retelling that speaks on love, found family, and how far someone/anyone is willing to go when more is demanded of you. From any side. What little romance there is, and I do mean little, it’s serviceable to the story but not important enough to merit a claim
- the book was a bit too long, but somehow the ending was too short. I wish we could’ve gotten a more fleshed out ending. I came to love these characters and it was hard walking away when they were so unsettled. I also feel like some of the lore or the whys behind actions was not discussed enough, but we have whole flashbacks or memories on the clothing everyone wore. Sometimes it felt like the author focused undue attention on building the setting/visuals.
- that being said I loved the set up to the overall story, the world building, and Miryems storyline in particular. Novik is brilliant at details and really bring everything to life for you. Her descriptions felt familiar and well explored. I just wish this wasn’t always at the expense of explanations of how things came to be.
- I purposely picked this book because it was a standalone but I’m now wishing for a sequel to flesh out the ending and explain some of the castoff plot lines.
- I can handle multi-povs but with nothing more than a page break, sometimes I would be deep in a paragraph before getting clarity on who was speaking. I think maybe the intention was to keep time moving and explain everything while keeping the reader a little on the outside of the story. But for me, it was a little dizzying. I understand that there was language choices and symbols that differentiated the povs but while each person had a distinct voice I will admit to being a little lost at some points of the story.
- Overall, a great story, one of the best I’ve read this year. Well crafted and complex. One I would read again but the pacing and abrupt ending to all but one plotlline took away a star. I don’t want to leave the impression that this is not a book to pickup. It absolutely is and I highly recommend it. Novik can write and write well. I just found myself wanting to walk in her cold winter woods a little longer and with a little more knowledge of how we got there.
- this has nothing to do with the author but I was told this was a fantasy with romance and I completely disagree. It’s a fantasy retelling that speaks on love, found family, and how far someone/anyone is willing to go when more is demanded of you. From any side. What little romance there is, and I do mean little, it’s serviceable to the story but not important enough to merit a claim
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and War