Spinning Silver

This one starts slow but I finally got into the story about half way through. I was hoping for another like Uprooted which I loved, but still an interesting mix of fairy tales.

Good if you don't mind a ton of internal exposition

I loved Uprooted; by comparison, this book took too long to really get started and had WAY too many narrators. I honestly got a little angry when two more narrators were introduced halfway through the book. This might have been better as third omniscient.

It was pretty painful to read this as an ebook because I didn't realize how long it would be to get to the actual plot. I kept going because the reviews are so split down the middle and I was curious where I'd fall. I wish the first half had gone much faster, and I wish we didn't have to live in everyone's head, context switching every scene. At the end of the day, this was a pretty ambitious work, referencing tales like Rumplestiltskin, Persephone and Hades, Beauty and the Beast, and even Snow vs Summer. It's almost too much. But if you have time to savor your books, I can see how this would be an enjoyable read. Since I was reading this between non-leisure stuff, it was pretty stressful.

I think Novik should stick to either one or two point of views. Most of this book was a wild ride, and not in a good way. Toward the end I skipped all of Stepon's, whoever Irina's nurse lady is, and Wanda's point of view. I maybe gave half of a thought for Irina's POV. I liked Miryem and the Staryk Lord's story the most — definitely should've just been those two.

Spinning Silver weaves a tale of magic, resilience, love, leadership, and family through the eyes of myriad interconnected people struggling to survive a harsh winter made worse by the Staryk, a people made of ice and snow. Among them are Miryem, a young Jewish woman rescuing her father's moneylending business from ruin; Irina, a duke's daughter thrust into the spotlight as a result of her Staryk ancestry; and Wanda, hardworking daughter of an abusive father fighting to protect herself and her brothers. Naomi Novik does an amazing job of bringing these characters and their feelings to life in a story inspired by Rumpelstiltskin and other Polish folk tales. Spinning Silver grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go!

I'm not a fan of retellings of fairy tales. I do believe that there are some good examples (for instance,[b: The Bear and the Nightingale 25489134 The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) Katherine Arden https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470731420s/25489134.jpg 45268929])? but mostly I don't enjoy reading the same story over and over again. I'm excited to tell you, that that was not the case with [b: Spinning Silver 36896898 Spinning Silver Naomi Novik https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1513872748s/36896898.jpg 58657620]. To be honest, I haven't even thought, that it is actually a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. This book is so much more complex than just a story about guessing the name. The novel definitely has a general fairytalish atmosphere (even if it is more of a grim kind), but it's here nonetheless. Somehow I'm not in a mood to write an extensive review, so I would like to be short. Is this book worth the time, that I've spent reading it? Definitely! However, I still like [b: Uprooted 22544764 Uprooted Naomi Novik https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480121122s/22544764.jpg 41876730] more because of humour.

I was extremely excited to grab an ARC of this at Denver Comic Con. Uprooted is one of the best modern fairy tales I have ever read, and while Spinning Silver is a completely different setting and set of characters, it upholds the fantastical tone and complexity of cast that have become Novik's hallmark.

The multiple POV's must have made this challenging, but each perspective gives us valuable insight into both the person and the time period. I want to slap period authors who don't write women with any agency because “that's just how it was.” The women in this book understand the limits society puts on them, and they work within or around those limits to make choices-Especially Miryem, who has to fight against people's attitudes towards women and Jews. Also, a European fantasy book that recognizes Jewish people and anti-Semitism openly? It's just great.

Like Uprooted, many of the male characters seek to take choices and control away from the female ones. Also, like Uprooted, they are unprepared for what they start. I'd argue that the antagonists here are more complex, often more sympathetic, but they are also held accountable for their actions, even if the reader comes to understand how they became monsters. Irina and Mirnatius' mirror narrative is particularly compelling and a lesson in how to keep from making more monsters.

I could gush about this book all day. It's clever, original, beautiful and everything I needed to read right now. You should read both this and a Uprooted, but they are only thematically a series and can be read in either order.

I had previously read Uprooted, and adored it, so I was eager to get my hands on this book as soon as it came out. I was very excited to see it as a Book of the Month choice for July, and quickly made it my pick!

I received the book while I was at Anthrocon, so I didn't get a chance to sit down with it until the day after it officially released. I proceeded to read straight through the entire book because it was SO. GOOD. Novik writes absolutely ENTHRALLING fairy tales. And in Spinning Silver, she has written fae as beautiful, alien, capricious, and as absolutely bound by rules as they should be. Doing a thing three times, even by normal means, gives one the power to ACTUALLY do the thing; in Miryem's case, turning the Staryk's silver into gold (by creative buying and selling) means she gains the power to LITERALLY turn silver into gold. Which then gets her into the trouble the rest of the book is built on.

One of my favorite lines was very near the end of the book, about the Staryk palace:

“The Staryk didn't know anything of keeping records: I suppose it was only to be expected from people who didn't take on debts and were used to entire chambers wandering off and having to be called back like cats.”

My only real quibble with the book is that it shifts viewpoints between at least five characters, and doesn't start their sections with names or anything, so it takes a few sentences to figure out who's talking. It never takes too long, but it did occasionally make me go “Wait, who is this....ah, okay.”

The plotlines weave in and out of each other's way for most of the book before all colliding into each other at the end and showing how everything connects. I was definitely confused on occasion, but it was that enchanting Alice-in-Wonderland kind of confusion more than actual puzzlement. The book is, by turns, a mix of Rumpelstiltskin, Tam-Lin, Winter King vs Summer King, Snow Queen, and a little Hansel and Gretel. I love seeing elements of so many fairy tales woven together and yet still remaining recognizable.

And the ending! Oh, the ending was absolutely, marvelously perfect.

I loved this book, just as much as I loved Uprooted. I can't wait to see what fairy tales Novik spins next!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Spinning Silver is much more than the retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It incorporates fantasy, myth, and dark retellings making it a lush layered novel with flushes out characters and worlds.
The story starts with Miryem, daughter and granddaughter to a moneylender. Her family is poor since her father repeatedly fails at collecting dues. When her mother becomes ill and Miryem has grown sick herself from constant poverty she goes out to collect the funds owed. She soon finds she is good at the job and over time turns more silver into gold. But this causes the notice of the Staryk, a terrible being who brings the winter and wants gold above all else.
The story includes a woman hired to pay her (physical) abuse father's debt and take care of her siblings. There is also the story of a noble girl, considered plain and useless to her father but who must fight for her life and those she loves after she is married to a cruel tsar cursed with a fire demon in his body.
The world building is seemingly simple. The introduction to the world builds on the people's stories and fears till the magic is more then just under the surface but true and an increment part of these women's everyday lives.
Novik has a talent for presenting multiple character point of views with complex sub-plots weaving everything into a single brimming tale. I didn't find it hard to follow the different perspectives. Each character had a distinct voice but the book also uses a corresponding symbol for each character at page breaks or beginning chapters. I loved the strong empowering female theme throughout. Another thing to note is Miryem and her family are Jewish. The novel touches on the importance of her Jewish identity as well as with small town prejudices, and anti-Semitism making it more relevant to today's world.
Spinning Silver has a way of taking historical and present topics of discussions, mixing in myths and fairytales, and making everything relatable. Overall, Naomi Novik can transport you to a time and place you can believe without a doubt is real and that is real magic.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review. Spinning Silver by Noami Novik will be published by Dey Rey on Tuesday July 10th 2018.