Review: Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand. 

Spinning Silver has a cracking opening line, I'm not going to lie. You just know the book's going to be good from that point on, regardless of whether or not you've read Uprooted and know what excellence to expect! First things first, I need to hit you all with TW: DOMESTIC ABUSE for one of the POV's so none of you are caught unawares! 

I have to say, I very quickly warmed to Miryem and I was backing her all the way. Watching her father get mugged off by the people he'd lent money to, who refused to pay him back, while they lived in luxury compared to Miryem and her family actually made me quite angry. Miryem and her family struggled so much, while these people had whatever they wanted or needed and begrudged paying back what they'd loaned!? I really don't blame Miryem for taking matters in to her own hands. I actually quite admired her, she was intelligent, she made her family up from nothing. She made herself and her family a success. She's strong, smart and she doesn't give up. She does what she thinks is right, and I really respected that from her. 

I honestly started shipping her and the Staryk Lord pretty early on. I was like "come on dude, thaw yourself a bit. I know it's hard, but you know you want to". The ending had me cheering, it was too cute but also...totally them, no gushy romance, it was just perfect and wrapped up their story really well! 

Alongside Miryem we have a couple of other POV's, one of which is Wanda. I got so damn proud of her the further along the book went. She starts off quite quiet, but she ends up becoming friends with Miryem and stands up for her and for herself at different points throughout the book. Her father is very abusive, like that's actually an understatement. He's a nasty piece of work, and he's very violent and really doesn't treat Wanda like a human. Despite all that, Wanda see's the magic in even the simplest thing, and I really loved that about her. 

In the beginning her narrative was an interesting contrast to Miryem's, because Miryem talks about what she does to get the money, she's very businesslike and matter of fact about it, and it's very...real world, if that makes sense? Whereas Wanda looks at Miryem turning this silver in to gold or other goods and she see's magic. There's a few other instances where something very basic and ordinary, is seen as magic by her and I really liked it! I feel like Wanda appreciated the magic more! 

One of our other POV's is Irina, and I honestly get so frustrated on behalf of characters like Irina, forced to marry a-holes like Mirnatius except he's extra evil. The thing is...I felt for her, but I kinda ended up not liking her very much because I really liked and respected Miryem as a character and I was on her side, and I feel like...while I get why Irina does what she does at the end, I just felt like she was kind of selfish about it and doesn't even consider anything Miryem has to say. She just annoyed me a bit towards the end. 

Those are kind of our main 3 POV's, but there's a couple of others throughout the book too, new POV's kept getting added in with excellent timing! It was fantastically done, they where only added when you really needed them and each brought something to the story and the plot, and it was interesting to see some of them! 

I have to say...Mirnatius surprised me. I didn't particularly like him at the beginning and I thought he was pure evil....but his is one of the POV's that comes in over the course of the book and....I found myself liking him!? He's actually pretty hilarious...rude...but ultimately hilarious. Who draws someone over and over purely to ask people if they think she's pretty!? He was so baffled, I was cackling! I genuinely ended up feeling sorry for him, and I was pleased with how things turned out for he and Irina. 

This is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin but honestly...I don't actually know much about it other than what I picked up from watching Once Upon a Time and a few other bits? I do know it involves spinning straw in to gold and I saw aspects of that in the story with the silver to gold, and spinning was mentioned a few times. I did pick out Irina's ring and necklace too, as the miller's daughter gives them to our shady friend Rumpel in exchange for his help...plus the three rooms of silver coins getting bigger each time...the silver was substituted for the straw if I remember correctly. 

As much as this is a retelling....Novik has put her own spin on things and while there are things you can pick out if you know what you're looking for...it feels like a different story. Spinning Silver has a proper, lush, fairy tale vibe to it from beginning to end! The final sentence...the writing...the magic, it all screamed fairy tale. Although full disclosure...much as I was fascinated by the Staryk, at the beginning I was kind of picturing White Walkers from GoT! 

I also really enjoyed reading about and learning about the Jewish characters, and their community and celebrations! Especially in a fantasy setting! 

The writing is lush, and rich and paints the world. Building it up, and the mythology and lore around it are woven in too. The characters are complex and well written, we see a lot of character growth and change from them over the course of the book, and I really felt like we'd all become a giant family by the end! Speaking of, I loved how the book showed that you can be family whether you're related or not, it had a very strong family theme throughout despite the domestic abuse. 

Spinning Silver has an excellent, steady pace and the plot builds up slowly...it's also so much more than it first appears upon reading the synopsis. The synopsis just scratches the surface of what this book is. I enjoyed delving deeper and deeper and having the plot develop and grow and expand and take us on this fantastical journey. I really got lost within the magic and rich storytelling and was completely engrossed. It wasn't super fast paced, nor was it action packed. It had action, but it wasn't every single chapter, if you know what I mean. But the writing and plot enchants you so much that you're completely hooked and you leave the book satisfied with how it all wraps up and comes to an end! 

Uprooted

Uprooted
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood's powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia - all the things Agnieszka isn't - and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl. And when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him.

I know you guys are going to be really annoyed right now that I've not done my own synopsis and given you more information on the plot, but honestly, if I did, it would ruin the book for you. When you start reading you're immediately sucked in to the story and the world, and it took me a couple of pages to realize I was going to love this book and it was going to become one of my favourites. It deserves every single bit of hype it gets and I'm usually wary of super hyped books! Which is why I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this.

I started to read, and I was loving it but I was wondering where this was going to go....and then it blew me away with the entire rest of the story. I read this in one sitting because I was absolutely enchanted with the world and the characters. I really want to regale you all with the entire plot, but the synopsis is vague for a reason, so I will just fangirl to myself! 

The world is so incredibly well built, sucking you in and keeping you enmeshed there with the characters as you read, it was so vivid and atmospheric you couldn't help but be totally engrossed in it and thus totally engrossed in the world. This book was a bit darker than I think I was expecting, and the atmosphere really lent itself to that, you could feel the malevolence of the Wood, feel the darkness floating through the air. It was truly brilliant. 

There where lots of descriptions, beautiful descriptions but they where also not overly done, so you weren't slogging through pages and pages of description. Just enough to help you visualise everything that's going on, where it's going on and picture the characters so well that they pretty much come to life right out of the book. At the same time, this book is incredibly entertaining, and one you'd read again and again. I got so much enjoyment out of this book and I will again and again. It truly is a fairytale, albeit a darker one. 

There's a subtle romance to the story that adds to the entertainment and it reminded me a bit of Beauty and the Beast in the beginning, he was SO like the Beast when Belle first comes to the castle, coming across all wrong and being way too rough round the edges. Yet Dragon, along with Agnieszka, just kind of make you go "aw" and are kind of totally heart meltingly cute at times. Or maybe that was just me? I thought they where cute so whatever. They where also as funny as they where heartwarming, and I just loved their entire relationship, so love/hate, so perfectly pitched, so perfectly written. 

I think one of the things that makes this book so perfect is that you don't know what's going to happen next, you're surprised from the beginning, because the synopsis is vague on purpose. You're constantly being surprised, and being pleasantly surprised not like...horrifically surprised. I was literally speeding through the book being delighted every time a new thing happened or a new fact came about. 

Each character becomes so real as you read, and all of them are just so, interesting, charming, intriguing, realistic, I could go on and on. I LOVED Kasia, and I had some angst about her at one particular rough part of the book when I was like OMG NO. But it was all good, her entire friendship with Anieszka was just...perfect. Seriously I keep using that word but this book is SO perfect. All of the characters where so realistically human I couldn't actually find a fault with any of them, most likely because the author has got the nuances of human nature down so well. Even Marek when he was being seriously questionable and I kind of wanted to smack him one...I could still see where he was coming from with his mother and everything. Marek is a prime example of how Novik has written some very well created characters, they're flawed which just makes them more believable, I wasn't too sure of Marek but then he redeemed himself and then I was like ugh not again and then I liked him again and yeah. I still understood where he was coming from no matter his behaviour. You could see both view points and so it was hard to judge any character. 

Even the Woods as it where, by the end of the book you understand the Woods and I even felt a bit sorry for them and couldn't even bring myself to dislike them. All of these characters are so well created, so fleshed out, multi-dimensional and so utterly charmingly realistic, you loved every character. 

While the book is very well wrapped up, there's no outstanding questions, I could still see a sequel, just because I want to know what happens next to some of the characters and I loved the world so much I don't want to let it go entirely. I kept seeing people saying this was a fairytale and I was a bit skeptical, but it really is, and the ending, it was so CUTE and so perfect for the two characters, and then Kasia getting a life for herself. Seriously. 

I keep seeing this compared to Robin Hobb, and while yes, fans of her would most likely love this book, this was altogether a much easier read than any Hobb book, while still being complex, and beautifully written and full of wonderful descriptions and settings and so on. It doesn't lack for anything. I love Hobb, really I do, but I'm first to admit it does take me a while to read one, I couldn't read one in one sitting like I did with this, and let me tell you. Thor: The Dark World, and Beauty and the Beast before that, where all playing in the background as I read. (I have to have the TV on to drown out the neighbours noise if I want to read). Anyway. I LOVE both of those films. Yet while I was reading.......I couldn't have cared less. I was oblivious. Totally engrossed in the book, and reading so easily. 

Uprooted deserves every single bit of praise and hype it receives, it's one of the few books that truly lives up the hype. It's a fairytale, but slightly darker than any Disney fare you would have spent your childhood knowing and loving, yet it still invokes the feelings you experience when watching a well loved Disney fairytale. 

Uprooted is surprising from beginning to end, magic saturates every page and engulfs you, the darkness, the malice, the malevolence and the general creepiness ooze off the page and embraces you, drawing you in to the world until the very last page has been read. But the story and the characters, characters so believably written they come to feel like new friends, will stay with you long after you have closed the book. Uprooted is a truly enchantingly magnificent read and I cannot praise it enough. There just aren't words, or I don't have them, one of the two!