Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

136 reviews

bethann_coleates's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Alcoholism, Racism, War, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

sinceraly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ideally, I'll write a longer, more well thought out review at some point, but for now:

Spinning Silver is an excellent adaption/retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that does a great job of setting itself apart from the original. The book is excellently written with some of the best prose I've read all year, and Novik is so incredibly skilled at describing things so well you really can picture them all in your head.

The only thing stopping me from rating the book 5 stars is the amount of perspectives the book gets written through, and the nonsense order of how they happen. At first it's as simple as Miryem/Wanda/Irina, but then you toss in perspectives from the tsar, from Irina's handmaiden, from Wanda's brother, and they all happen randomly, it feels like. Though I loved the switch in perspectives at first, eventually it led to the middle section of the book feeling disjointed and not as cohesive as it could have been. Maybe on a second read, I'd feel like it's worth it, but it was a big enough negative for me to keep the book from 5 stars.

Also wish the book would have given me an epilogue if only because I wanted to see more of the Staryk king post "you fight good" moment. I'm a sucker for proud bitches and a redemption arc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Miscarriage

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Great story, I enjoyed seeing the characters evolve and women outsmart their situations. Wanda was my favorite heroine.

My biggest critique is while the women were single they were protrayed as intelligent and determined to survive, yet at the end Irina and Miryem stayed married with their captors. I know this is a fairy tale re-telling and the men changed for the better, but the romance felt so shallow. 

I had a good time listening to the audio book, but it was challenging recognizing when POVs changed. The narrator sublty changes her voice between the female characters so it's really easy to miss if you aren't fully paying attention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Rape and Death

nofrigatelikeabook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Child abuse

sustainably_lucia's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

I don’t understand why people love this book. I started it back in December and put it down after about 20% because I was confused about the world and didn’t care about the characters (zero emotional engagement). I picked it back up because one of my book clubs was reading it and it felt more doable with a group. 

Uprooted was SO much better for me. This was dry and unengaging. I felt like an outsider the whole time. It switches between POVs without warning and they aren’t labeled which is super confusing especially since they are all in the first person. Some simple world-building would have been helpful rather than assuming the reader is familiar with the fairy/folktales it is based on or can infer a lot of things through context. I switched to the audio version about halfway through and listened to it at about 2x speed which helped me get through some of the more boring bits. There is a good story underneath but it did not draw me in. The ending was satisfying but not worth the effort it took to read the whole thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

sshinesea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The best Novik novel yet! Incredible depth of character, showing the many shades of grey in female characters missing in so many other books.  Beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Child death, and Xenophobia

annastorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

redpanda_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism and Murder

diasg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Antisemitism, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

ink_and_wings's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Body horror, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty