Spinning Silver
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
It must be me since so many others have enjoyed this greatly. Maybe my expectations were too big here, but I couldn’t get into this one. DNF @22%. Back to the library for you (I’m so glad I didn’t purchase this book)!
How a 400 pages book can be so long? It took me what seems to be months to finish it (and I had 700 pages books finished in 4 days). Ok, what can I say. There is something great to say about it and, euh, something other.
Something great:
1. It surely reads like a magical fairytale - winter forrest, weird creatures, demons, suspense, uhh!
2. It has an Eastern European setting (called Lithvas, which seems to be a mix of Lithuania, Belarus and Poland)
3. Two main heroines are great - Miriyem and Irina (a bit later on the third one)
4. The plot turns out to be not what it seemed at the beginning (I love when it happens)
5. The writing is beautiful, it's so pleasant to read and extremely detailed
Something other:
1. It's extremely detailed. Yes, I know I put that point in the list above. The thing is that I actually like when the author use little details to let you dive into the story. But Naomi Novik doesn't know where to stop, especially towards the end. She gives detailed descriptions of how people get their hair combed and braided, and what they cook and eat, and how they knit and sew. And oh, these endless inner monologues everybody does! All this REALLY slows the story down. If the editor would cut the exessive details I'm sure the book could be read faster and with much more feeling
2. The 6-POV-idea was noooot good. Especially the last three of them. I really did not understand why we needed the voices of these people, they did not add anything new to the story (except extra pages)
3. I'm undecided about Wanda (third MC). It seemed to me she did not contributed to the story much. I mean, it would be ok to keep her and her brothers as characters but I did not see much sense in having them as POVs.
4. Chernobog's backstory would be nice to have (instead of the endless detailed descriptions)
5. Romance is the weakest part. I would be ok if there were no romance at all but if the ending needed the romance I'd prefer it to be more distinct and emotional.
So, all in all, this books needs editor who'd make it faster and more focused. Then it would be a 5 star read. But now it's more like 3 1/2.
Something great:
1. It surely reads like a magical fairytale - winter forrest, weird creatures, demons, suspense, uhh!
2. It has an Eastern European setting (called Lithvas, which seems to be a mix of Lithuania, Belarus and Poland)
3. Two main heroines are great - Miriyem and Irina (a bit later on the third one)
4. The plot turns out to be not what it seemed at the beginning (I love when it happens)
5. The writing is beautiful, it's so pleasant to read and extremely detailed
Something other:
1. It's extremely detailed. Yes, I know I put that point in the list above. The thing is that I actually like when the author use little details to let you dive into the story. But Naomi Novik doesn't know where to stop, especially towards the end. She gives detailed descriptions of how people get their hair combed and braided, and what they cook and eat, and how they knit and sew. And oh, these endless inner monologues everybody does! All this REALLY slows the story down. If the editor would cut the exessive details I'm sure the book could be read faster and with much more feeling
2. The 6-POV-idea was noooot good. Especially the last three of them. I really did not understand why we needed the voices of these people, they did not add anything new to the story (except extra pages)
3. I'm undecided about Wanda (third MC). It seemed to me she did not contributed to the story much. I mean, it would be ok to keep her and her brothers as characters but I did not see much sense in having them as POVs.
4. Chernobog's backstory would be nice to have (instead of the endless detailed descriptions)
5. Romance is the weakest part. I would be ok if there were no romance at all but if the ending needed the romance I'd prefer it to be more distinct and emotional.
So, all in all, this books needs editor who'd make it faster and more focused. Then it would be a 5 star read. But now it's more like 3 1/2.
This book was kinda just meh for me. I was so excited to read it and there were some very exciting parts, but it took forever to read and I thought it could have ended multiple times. So it was just meh...
Somehow in my head I've got this book, Uprooted, The Bear and the Nightingale, and The Girl in the Tower (which I'm reading now) all mixed up into one world -- and it's a world I love. This was satisfying on every level -- fairy tale, feminism, overcoming ethnic prejudice, magic, supernatural beings, they're all here. Ms. Novik is such a skillful writer that even though the point of view switched often between characters, there was never any difficulty in identifying who was speaking.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.