Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

81 reviews

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

kot_zbigniew's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Child death, and Death of parent

atthelibrarywithmegan's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Tbh, this took me a month to finish. I think it was a combo of the fact that I had a massive book hangover and this is a pretty slow paced book. I do also feel like it would have been easier to read a physical copy rather than an ebook. That being said, I really loved it. This was my introduction to Naomi Novik and I really enjoyed her writing style; so much so I bought the physical book for Indie Book Day! This world is filled with so much detail, that I know I missed things. It’s told from 6 different POVs. Our main character is a Jewish young woman, Miryem, who works hard to bring her family out of poverty. She ends up making some unlikely alliances to help combat the evils around her. There’s found family and a little bit of enemies to lovers, but no spice. The imagery and details of the books, as well as NEEDING to know if Miryem, Wanda, and Irina succeed really helped pull me through this story. I cannot wait to read another one of her books!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, and Child death

mallorypen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I LOVE me a fairytale, and a feminist fairytale retelling is my jam. Wanda, Miryem, and Irina are all badasses in their own stories, and I enjoyed the way they all came together in their narratives eventually.

I also like how evil was not black and white. The tsar was entirely misunderstood, and his petulance, arrogance and cruelty were all born of despair and a literal lifetime of abuse - while I don’t think I found him entirely sympathetic at the end, I did enjoy the way Irina’s cleverness (refusing any payment but protection for herself and her people) saved him in the end. And the Staryk king was actually a super good and noble dude … by the standards of his people, not mortals. His transition from thinking he was condemning himself to an awful marriage to courting his wife was delightful, and I loved that we never learned his name.

I also enjoyed that Miryem’s name from her Staryk people was Open-Handed, and that her sense of generosity and fairness were so solid she was able to build back a kingdom with not only her powers, but her brains.

I took off a star for two reasons: the story took awhile to get really interesting, and the transitions in perspective were a little hard to decipher. The characters didn’t all have unique-enough voices to really know who was narrating right away, and trying to figure out which storyline I was in took me out of the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Racism, Murder, and Child abuse

Minor: Rape, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcoholism

Minor: War and Rape

brassmonkey's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The second half is just really fucking boring. Sorry. Cool concept.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Antisemitism, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Blood

Minor: Stalking, Miscarriage, War, and Animal cruelty

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

chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The plot, atmosphere and retelling of the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin was really well crafted. All the different parts of the story pulled together for the final. 
I enjoyed how it drew from Mythology as well as different aspects of the fairy tale and the use of thrice repeated. The Winter atmosphere of both the mortal and Stark Kingdoms along with the harsh world's of both created a fantastic winter setting.
Themes of a pragmatic business sense and greed were mixed with compassion and weakness along with women at the bottom of life's ladder finding inner strength to take their place in the harsh unrelenting world.
It was nice to see Jewish representation with a fantasy and the family values were the spot of warmth that was well needed. 
Despite this, I did not warm to the characters and I can’t pinpoint why. I liked them and followed their adventures, but i did not make friends with them and grow attached like I usually do with at least one characte. I'm not sure if this was a narrative voice choice where secondary characters gave first person perspective and I would have preferred 3rd person? That could be a factor. I am glad I read this, but it's not going to be a favourite re-read, which I think is down to my personal preference. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Child abuse

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

seadeepy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Sexual assault

Minor: War and Rape