Spinning Silver: Illumicrate Exclusive Edition

by Naomi Novik

Comes in hardback with the original UK cover, with exclusive: metallic sprayed edges, endpapers, embossing on the hardbacks and quotes on the spines, and have a bound-in author letter stamp signed with Naomi Novik’s signature. The book has a ribbon bookmark and comes inside a fully designed slipcase.

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Naomi Novik has once again been influenced by classic folktales, following Uprooted. Taking Rumpelstiltskin as her starting point, Spinning Silver is rich, original and a joy to read.

Will dark magic claim their home?
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's too kind-hearted to collect his debts. They face poverty, until Miryem hardens her own heart and takes up his work in their village. Her success creates rumours she can turn silver into gold, which attract the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her an impossible challenge - and if she fails, she'll die. Yet if she triumphs, it may mean a fate worse than death. And in her desperate efforts to succeed, Miryem unwittingly spins a web which draws in the unhappy daughter of a lord.

Irina's father schemes to wed her to the tsar - he will pay any price to achieve this goal. However, the dashing tsar is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of mortals and winter alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and Irina embark on a quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power and love.

'Dire and wonderful; I loved this book so much' - Laini Taylor, author of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.

'Pits the cold of endless winter against the fires of duty, love and sacrifice. I couldn't put it down'- Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight trilogy.

• Publish Date: October 2020 (first published 10 July 2018)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Edition: Illumicrate Exclusive Edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English
• Special: Sprayed Edges

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

A couple years ago when I read Uprooted, I went in knowing I would love it because I LOVE Beauty and the Beast retellings! Then I came out on the other side feeling extremely disappointed. When I heard about Spinning Silver, I was skeptical, but when I found out it was a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin I let myself get caught up in the hype. Before I actually read this book I owned the ARC, the US edition, and the UK Goldsboro edition. And I am again, disappointed.

Spinning Silver is a lot different from Uprooted, despite the matching covers. In this story we have Miryem as the main POV from the beginning. She's the daughter of a moneylender who's really bad at his job, which allows her to show how cold she is when she takes over the family business. The Staryk come every winter to Miryem's town where they rape and pillage and murder. She's just trying to keep her family afloat. Unfortunately, I found it really hard to connect with her. The attempts to make her a "cold" and "hard" character really just made her too distant and flat to relate to.

Somewhat early in this book, other POVs emerge as well. A lot of them. At first it's just Miryem and Wanda, the girl who works for her. Then another girl is thrown into the mix - Irina, the daughter of a duke who's being forced to marry the Tsar who is really more than a Tsar. Then Wanda's very young brother Stepon gets a POV, the most painful to read of them all. And then Wanda's maid(?) gets a POV. And then the Tsar gets a POV. Honestly, EVERYONE GETS A POV! To make the million POVs worse, they are all written with the exact same voice (with the exception of Stepon) and there is no indication of who is speaking. It's exhausting trying to keep up.

And amongst all these POVs, I couldn't find a single character to connect with. The characters in this book are all boring, to be honest. The Staryk King, who finds out how good Miryem is at her job and decides to use it to his advantage, is really the only one who I found a little bit interesting. Everyone is terrible to everyone. The Staryk King and the Tsar, the two love interests, are both awful people. The two couples hate each other to the point of everyone literally plotting everyone else's death. The Staryk King has no redeeming qualities and the Tsar might have one.

Moving on to the story, calling this a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin is really a stretch. The similarities start and end with something being turned into gold. This is a much too long and convoluted story about... I couldn't tell you what the moral of the story is. This book is slow and meandering in the same way that Uprooted was, but I feel like this one was worse. The romance is also similar to Uprooted in that the male love interests are jerks throughout the entire book and then they catch feelings out of nowhere.

The atmosphere and world building were really what kept me reading Spinning Silver. Throughout the first 75% of this book, the fantastical world kept me believing that the story would get better. I loved the descriptions of the Staryk kingdom and the winter woods. The "real" world, I have no idea about. I'm still not sure if it's supposed to be our world or not. Miryem is Jewish and there's a mention of Israel, but of course there's magic everywhere.

It was in the last 20% that I realized there wasn't any hope of redemption. I picked this up with every intention of loving it and finding the love for Naomi Novik's fairytales that everyone else seems to have. Sadly, this just was not for me. It's obvious from the reviews that I'm again in the minority, but I just could not find much to enjoy. The multiple POVs were too much, especially with nothing to distinguish the characters, and the story was much too slow. I think this may be my last foray into Naomi Novik's world.