A review by vigil
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

hmmm. okay. so, subjectively i enjoyed this book, but i love fairytale-esque novels and inhuman boyfriends so in some ways i was very easy to please. objectively, i have several issues.

this book is the definition of "well done, but didn't need to be done at all" let's start with irina
her plotline felt like an entirely different book that was weaved into the base story of miryem's plotline for padding, and while i didn't dislike it, not do i think it was poorly done, it felt highly unneeded. she mostly seemed to exist to introduce the antagonist of the novel chernobog, i don't think that was the required way, nor the best way to introduce him. he felt do distanced from miryem, and her storyline, that when they intersected, i couldn't invest in it too much beacause i felt very little personal stakes on her behalf. it should have been miryem encountering and dealing with chernobog primarily. not to mention i felt like irina's prescence sent the plot of the rails, she's clearly only there for the sake of introducing the villian, who also didn't really need to be here in my opinion. the staryk king was a good enough antagonist. but if we must go with chernobog i would've preferred a different implementation. something more grounded in the already established plot with miryem and wanda (who should have gotten the plot importance that irina had) or in all honesty, introduce the witch character that was spoken of and whose house the characters occupied. that was a massively missed opportunity in my opinion.


and the sheer amount of unneeded povs.
i've already discussed irina, but did we need her husband, nanny, and stepon's povs??? no, we did not. again, not poorly done, naomi novik's pen game will not be denied here, but we simply didn't need to do it. also, the middle dragged quite a bit. i feel like cutting some pov's and centering miryem and wanda's stories would've assisted that.
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