Book Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

 

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik - 4 Stars - 3 Brave Women making hard choices and sacrifices.

This is the story of 3 brave women who each have their own hard choices to make, quests to embark on and sacrifices to make. Told in 1st person, with multiple perspectives, I think we have 6 in total, but a few primary perspectives. Many have said this is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling, but I would say it’s loosely based on that and truly made into its own fairytale. We follow 3 main women’s stories – Miryem, Wanda and Irina. Each have an important role to play in this quest to stop the all-consuming threat – the king of the Staryk – grim fey creatures who seem to be more ice then flesh.

I feel like we had some great “found family” vibes in this book and the story truly kept me engaged – especially since Fantasy isn’t my go-to genre. That’s really why I give it 4 stars, because I read this in 1 day – I was SO interested and engaged in the story. This book really has winter vibes to the highest level – it really feels like winter is personified into its own character – which I love. You truly feel the atmosphere while reading it.

My only complaint is the chapters/perspectives are not labeled, so I had the hardest time trying to figure out who was talking sometimes – mostly at the beginning as Naomi does a pretty good job differentiating the voices of the characters in general, but I still think this book could benefit from having titles for each POV throughout the story, especially since they’re all 1st person.

Our characters were very strong-willed women and I loved it. Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father was not making the effort to get their money back. With their mother sick and no food in sight, Miryem takes things into her own hands and sets out to claim what is owed. She becomes known for being able to turn silver into gold, which gets the attention of the king of the Staryk, leaving Miryem with some extreme struggles. Miryem is also Jewish, so I loved seeing the details surrounding her traditions and family. Very layered. I wish we had more of those details.

Then we have Wanda, she is hard worker who works for Miryem to pay off her father’s debt but also starts working for her own money as well. Her mother passed away and her father is extremely abusive, so she is so thankful Miryem basically saves them from their bad home life by taking her to work for them. Wanda is a strong woman who will do anything to protect her family and those she cares about.

Lastly, we have Irina, whose Father schemes and wants her to marry her off to the “tsar”. We are following Irina’s crazy path with this “tsar” as he holds a secret within himself that threatens ALL.

Miryem and Wanda were my favorite characters but Irina was great too. Overall, a wild adult fantasy story that I thoroughly enjoyed! THAT ENDINGGGG had me on the edge.

Content warnings: I would say this is a secular, adult fantasy story that leans a bit on the grimdark side, deals with family trauma, parental abuse, family death of parents and children, alcoholism and discussions of sexual assault. One character has a dark side that some may find rides a fine line of what they could be comfortable with – as it did for me, but I was overall ok with how it was portrayed.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5372499552
Amazon: https://amzn.to/44nh9ZC
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0