A review by bluejayreads
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark emotional
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I did not have very high hopes for this book. I picked it up because I like fairy tale-inspired fantasy and this looked like an interesting mash-up between the Snow Queen and Rumpelstiltskin. But it also is an 18-hour audiobook and I have a fairly short attention span, so a book has to be really good to make me willing to spend 18 hours with it. 

Spinning Silver absolutely delivered. I loved this story. 

To start with, the back cover makes it sound like Miryem is the only main character and her two "unlikely allies" are supporting characters in her story. That is incorrect. Miryem has her own story, true, but Wanda and Irina (the lord's daughter) have their own stories too, intertwined but completely distinct. (I think Irina and Miryem meet once, maybe twice, and I don't recall Irina and Wanda ever meeting.) Not only did Naomi Novik give me a fantastic fairy tale, she gave me three fantastic fairy tales spun together in one book. 

Each of the three heroines are their own distinct person to root for. Miryem is the granddaughter of a very successful moneylender and the daughter of a very unsuccessful one - her father is a wonderfully kind and compassionate man, but he's too kind to collect from the people who owe him so his family lives in poverty and disgrace. Miryem stomps down her compassion to collect the debts, and becomes so good at moneylending that she brags she can "turn silver into gold" and attracts the attention of the Staryk king. And not only is she Jewish, her being Jewish is what saves the day towards the end. 

Irina is a lord's daughter, but she is too plain to be married off to anyone of consequence - until her father develops a plan to use Staryk magic to marry her to the tsar. The tsar is not what he seems and brings another dangerous player into the story. Irina is up to the task of surviving this new threat, though, and is not only strong and brave but also concerned for the safety and interests of her people. All of the characters are compelling in their own right, but Irina is by far the most kind-hearted. 

Wanda is a peasant farmer's daughter who ends up working for Miryem's family to pay off her father's debt. Her mother is dead and her father is drunk and severely abusive, and all she wants is to have enough money to get away from him. Her story is less about magic and fae than the other two protagonists' and much more human, but just as compelling - and in some ways more relatable, because fae kings and eternal winter aren't a common situation but abusive families sure are. 

The setting and the plot are so intertwined that you can't really talk about one without the other. It has a clear Eastern European feel (Naomi says on her website that the book is based on Polish folklore) and a definite 17th-century-peasant-village vibe without romantacizing the harshness of that life. Miryem and Irina are, through their own separate circumstances and methods, working to prevent the Staryk from creating perpetual winter. Wanda is assisting where she can, quiet but strong and brave. (This description makes her sound less interesting than the other two but I promise she is not.) And above all, all three women are just trying to survive. 

There is so much more in this book than what I can put into a review (again, 18-hour audiobook, nearly 500 pages in print). But it's all so worth it. I recall at least two times I thought the plot must be wrapping up soon and then got hit with another new twist, new bit of information, new change in the dynamic that made the magic continue. I can't even mention why the tsar is not what he seems without giving away a major spoiler. This book is dense and lyrical, fantastic and relatable, a story of supernatural forces considering humans beneath their notice and humans standing up and taking back their power. The folktale roots come through clearly, and it has a very strong folktale/fairy tale feel even in the writing style. I thoroughly, unreservedly ignored it.  
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