Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

17 reviews

dcdc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Grief, Misogyny, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual violence

val_theburrowofstories'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

4.0

From the very first pages I felt like I was in a dream with the way this book is written, I really like how this author was describing the setting and presenting the characters, besides the narrator has such a nice voice and it changed it for each POV… it was a full experience and from the beginning this was a 4 ⭐ for me!

This is a young adult book with fantasy elements and magic! Which is perfect for me, but if you’re looking for romance this isn’t it (like AT ALL, and I’m okay with that but I know it’s a deal breaker for some people), also, the fantasy is very low in the beginning but after a few chapters is there.

I liked Miryem from the second we met her, I don’t care if she’s “cold” or “ambitious” for others, to me she was caring for her family, doing the job, she was organized, really wise, not afraid of anything and always with a plan, proud of her religion and loyal to the people she loves until the very end. I just love her.

I was rooting for Wanda all the time, I just wanted her to be okay in the end, be free from her father, find her way and have a good and happy life. She’s such a hardworking girl, smart and quick learner, but overall she has a lot of courage and is ready to protect her family from anyone (even if it’s a demon or a scary King!)

Then we have Irina who I also came to love by the end. She looked weak in the beginning but she quickly adapted to her new reality, she was protective of her people and so brave. I just love women plotting, taking action, involved in politics, always with a plan and one step ahead!

I loved these girls so much! I’m tired of reading about girls who just go and do whatever without thinking, no plans, making things worse and not caring about the others. But Miryem, Wanda and Irina? They have such different backgrounds and yet their main qualities were being hardworking, really smart, brave and protective over their love ones. Honestly? I feel like that’s just me, in each girl I saw myself reflected and maybe that’s part of why I loved them.

When you are reading this book, I understand why some people might find it boring, but to me it was as if I was enchanted by it, so focus on the story and the characters with this beautiful writing. Besides the audiobook helped and I knew when the POV changed from one girl to another (or sometimes another character), it was so addictive and interesting.

So yeah, I don’t think this book is for everyone but I still recommend you give it a try if the premise sounds interesting to you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content

Here is a list of the content warnings and how is it that they’re present in the book, if you don’t want spoilers just skip this part:

Death of parent / Grief: Wanda lost her mother when she was eleven years old.

Child death: Wanda’s mother had a lot of babies but I think they died soon after being born or were stillborn.

Domestic abuse / Child abuse / Alcoholism / Violence: Wanda’s father was a really bad man, beating his three children for years and spending most of his money on alcohol.

Sexual content: There is just talk around the topic or slight mention of it, not explicit at all.

Misogyny / Sexism: Because Wanda’s father would just give her in exchange for a pig or alcohol. And there’s some other instances.

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Antisemitism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

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

bettysbookishworld'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcoholism

Minor: Miscarriage and Grief

mzynda's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Grief

haley49's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This was such an intricate and beautiful fantasy. All the povs fit together so well and told a story that was masterfully done. There were some skimmable parts, too many povs, some pacing issues, and a need (in my opinion) for more side character character depth. However, in the end the world building and continuous story was so well done I couldn’t help but enjoy it. I liked how the MC was Jewish as I hadn’t seen that in fantasy and you can really see how it effects her life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Grief, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Classism, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Abandonment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Violence, and Torture

brie333's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I have a ton of thoughts so just rapid fire bullet-points:

- the book was a bit too long, but somehow the ending was too short. I wish we could’ve gotten a more fleshed out ending. I came to love these characters and it was hard walking away when they were so unsettled. I also feel like some of the lore or the whys behind actions was not discussed enough, but we have whole flashbacks or memories on the clothing everyone wore. Sometimes it felt like the author focused undue attention on building the setting/visuals. 

- that being said I loved the set up to the overall story, the world building, and Miryems storyline in particular. Novik is brilliant at details and really bring everything to life for you. Her descriptions felt familiar and well explored. I just wish this wasn’t always at the expense of explanations of how things came to be. 

- I purposely picked this book because it was a standalone but I’m now wishing for a sequel to flesh out the ending and explain some of the castoff plot lines. 

- I can handle multi-povs but with nothing more than a page break, sometimes I would be deep in a paragraph before getting clarity on who was speaking. I think maybe the intention was to keep time moving and explain everything while keeping the reader a little on the outside of the story. But for me, it was a little dizzying. I understand that there was language choices and symbols that differentiated the povs but while each person had a distinct voice I will admit to being a little lost at some points of the story. 


- Overall, a great story, one of the best I’ve read this year. Well crafted and complex. One I would read again but the pacing and abrupt ending to all but one plotlline took away a star. I don’t want to leave the impression that this is not a book to pickup. It absolutely is and I highly recommend it. Novik can write and write well. I just found myself wanting to walk in her cold winter woods a little longer and with a little more knowledge of how we got there. 

- this has nothing to do with the author but I was told this was a fantasy with romance and I completely disagree. It’s a fantasy retelling that speaks on love, found family, and how far someone/anyone is willing to go when more is demanded of you. From any side. What little romance there is, and I do mean little, it’s serviceable to the story but not important enough to merit a claim

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Reads like a fairytale! I loved the many interconnected elements, and it was great having a Jewish main character in the cast. The way the author expertly wove in themes of supportive and toxic family, good and evil (and neutral), magic, antisemitism, misogyny, poverty, and others really called back to folktales. My biggest complaint is that it took me a long time (an hour of listening) to realize the narrative was switching between characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Sexism, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death

kaziaroo's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

 I’ll begin by admitting I was disappointed in this book because I was hoping it would be like Uprooted (by the same author), which I enjoyed a few years ago, and given the rave reviews I was sure I’d enjoy it even though the blurb didn’t sound very interesting to me. And in the first half, I was optimistic; it was nothing like Uprooted, but I still held out hope that I could enjoy it because it was well written if a bit slow. My attention was wandering, but I was sure that as the plot progressed and I got more into it I’d be more interested. 

Unfortunately, the second half was only worse. By the time I was two thirds of the way through, I was thoroughly bored and couldn’t wait for it to end. I didn’t warm (pardon the pun) to any of the characters, and by the end I was sick of them. Unlike most reviewers, I enjoyed the unlabelled point of view (POV) transitions – that is, until the number of POVs kept increasing and I was dragged back to the perspective of side characters who had no reason to have so much time in the spotlight. None of the character relationships were convincing or fleshed out enough to be interesting, and the characters themselves were unlikeable. It seemed like no matter whose perspective was next, I was still disappointed. 

I also want to mention some more serious flaws in this book (avoiding spoilers as much as I can). This book tries very hard to make certain characters forgivable, even for horrible sins, making their sins not only forgiven but also forgotten as if they never did anything wrong. This makes the ending very uncomfortable as the author clearly wants you to believe that the characters will live happily ever after, but there’s just no precedent for this. Characters who hated each other (for good reason) throughout the book suddenly love each other with no build-up, further shattering any remaining suspension of disbelief. Everything is tidied up into a neat happy ending with no negative consequences, even when they are justly deserved. This left me feeling sour and unsatisfied. 

Despite this, I gave Spinning Silver three stars because it was still well written on a sentence level and the characters had distinctive voices (although I did forget who was talking halfway through a chapter once or twice, so maybe not always!), and the first half was decent. There were some nice domestic scenes which, while they slowed the book down, I found enjoyable to sink into. I’m now teetering between 2 and 3 stars, so who knows, maybe I’ll go back and edit this later after thinking further. On the other hand, I feel like I've spent more than enough time with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment