Reviews tagging 'Death'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

48 reviews

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

starlit_pathways's review

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Grief

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

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

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

shostakofish's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

A fantastic and fresh take on a Fae based fairy tale that has about 20% too much of any given part. I enjoy multiple POV characters but this is over the top, and at the point where I thought it would be nice if the story wrapped up soon there was still a whole damn story arc left.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death of parent

ru_bunny's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-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

5.0

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I was reading a Rumplestiltskin retelling. I was all the way at the wedding of Miryem’s cousin, and watching the fight between the demon and the Staryk before “Tell me your name!” “Never!” Felt like anything other than a quirk of their fantasy race. That being said, I loved the way all the pieces of this story unfolded and came together.

Wanda’s story moved me to tears at several points. I loved when she first learned from Miryem how to do the debt collecting, and she called adding numbers together “magic.” For Wanda, anything sufficiently remarkable is magic, and Miryem, even in the mortal world, was a sufficiently remarkable woman. The book had a really good juxtaposition of the ordinary with the fantastic, and Wanda, watching it all come to pass really made me feel like lots of things can be magic… I was crying during the entire last chapter, when Miryem called her “sister” and Sergey and Stepon “brothers”

Oh, and I LOVED the love story and how it genuinely snuck up on me. I am a simp for fae and monsters, and even though I got to the wedding and the three storerooms of silver-to-gold, the fight between the two evil husbands, and watching the demon carry the Staryk away, I thought, “Oh. Bummer.” Because I was a little bit rooting for them to fall in love. 

AND THEN. Like I was having a dream…!

Miryem returns to free the Staryk! 

And he *asks* to court her in the mortal way! 

Oh! And Irina and Mirnatious! The way she saved him with the silver ring was so satisfying!!!!!!!! AND HE THOUGHT SHE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD! 

Just such a wonderful, wonderful read.  Definitely a top 10 of all time for me.  5 stars, and it deserves more, to be honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Misogyny, and Death

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I had a hard time with the first half of the book. It reads very much like a fairy tale, and I found it hard to connect with the characters despite the multiple points of view, because it felt like there was more focus on plot than character. Towards the end though, it became a lot more compelling and I really enjoyed watching all the plot threads weave together into the ending. It's a very a well crafted story, I just wish I could have felt more connection with the characters sooner. While the story is dark, it never crossed the line for me to where I'd be too uncomfortable, but please check the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Blood

Moderate: War, Antisemitism, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Miscarriage, and Rape

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I'd read a whole book of just Irina and Melirnous, but unfortunately Novik didn't feel the same way about writing them, and

robbed us by having their final scene be from the prespective of Margreta. No. I wanted either a Irina or Melirnous ending, not the side character. Yes, Margreta and Stefan are important perspectives, but the scenes from them could easily been reduced by 50% and given to characters with a more active role.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Antisemitism, and Animal death

raquelrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Rape, Child death, and Sexism