Reviews

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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siann's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious relaxing tense 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

4.75

ebonyramsdale's review against another edition

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5.0

this book dug its icey little claws into my heart

katmystery's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

A brilliant, beautiful, and inventive tale and told in a powerful folkloric voice. It felt just like reading a Russian fairytale. Every twist and trope turned on its head was a refreshing surprise. The characters felt so real and original. Miryem, especially, was such a strong character- one of the strongest female leads I've read in a fantasy book in a long time. The women were all brilliantly written, brave and flawed and caring and cold when they needed to be. They make mistakes and learn from them. They don't apologize for asking for what they're owed. And the book has incredible Jewish rep, something I haven't seen before in high fantasy. This is an absolute must-read for fans of fairytale retellings.

Note: though it has multiple first-person POVs, it is never announced who is narrating each section, so you have to look out for context clues. This made the audiobook a bit tricky to follow at times.

rhianne's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

4.0

I read this book after Uprooted and there's just something about the way Naomi Novik writes that feels like I'm reading a fairytale in the middle of winter curled up with a blanket.

I didn't love some things about this book, namely pacing and there being a confusing amount of POVs felt a bit frustrating to switch in and out of, but I enjoyed the read and found the ending satisfying. I was rooting for Miryem the whole time but didn't really care for the other POV characters so reading through those felt a bit of a slog.

sabinaandreea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

stateoffriction's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The first half was very slow and challenging to get into but the ending saved the book for me. I do think the conclusion came about too quickly, and I didn't feel there was good relationship building between the two main characters.