Reviews with content warning for Murder - Spinning Silver

Overall, pretty mid. The concept in several was unique and interesting, beautiful writing, great characters, some very captivating scenes, and the audio narration was great. However it took about 50% before anything really happens. Lots of different perspectives and kept adding more as the book went on, and it quickly got confusing especially since tHey're is no indicator of the POVs changing/who is speaking (at least in audio book., not sure about print.) There were so many points where I had to rewind because I had no idea what was going on.
By 85% I was just ready for this book to be over, then by 92% or so I turned up the audio speed because I was just so ready for it to be over.

Content Warnings

bethann_coleates's review against another edition

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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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annastorm's review against another edition

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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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redpanda_reads's review against another edition

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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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ink_and_wings's review against another edition

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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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mallorypen's review against another edition

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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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brassmonkey's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

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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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