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A review by doc_erinnicole
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
Easily my worst reading experience of the year (and that's really saying something), which ultimately left me in a reading slump. The content of the book was solid but the execution really didn't work for me. Thoughts:
-The first 25% was SO slow. And by the time it sped up I kind of didn't care anymore?
-One of my all-time biggest reading pet peeves is the subtraction of grammatical devices (such as not using quotation marks, not having chapters or paragraphs, etc). This book had multiple POVs that weren't labeled. Why? What was the functional reason for this? Besides what I can only assume was laziness? Drove me absolutely nuts.
-There were some weird side threads that didn't really make sense because they weren't really fleshed out. Such as things that were happening at court. Those elements were hard to follow because it didn't seem all that important to the plot and we didn't know any of the players. It was very strange.
-Also (and this is a spoiler so I'll name it as such) I can't believe Irina and Miryem ended up with those HORRIBLE men. The tsar was so fucking mean to Irina all the time...and not all of it can be blamed on his demon within. Also, the Staryk is literally and figuratively the coldest man alive. What is going on here??
Listen, I'm obviously missing something because this book is incredibly high rated. And yet, I found myself making the audio faster and faster just to get through it.
-The first 25% was SO slow. And by the time it sped up I kind of didn't care anymore?
-One of my all-time biggest reading pet peeves is the subtraction of grammatical devices (such as not using quotation marks, not having chapters or paragraphs, etc). This book had multiple POVs that weren't labeled. Why? What was the functional reason for this? Besides what I can only assume was laziness? Drove me absolutely nuts.
-There were some weird side threads that didn't really make sense because they weren't really fleshed out. Such as things that were happening at court. Those elements were hard to follow because it didn't seem all that important to the plot and we didn't know any of the players. It was very strange.
-Also (and this is a spoiler so I'll name it as such)
Listen, I'm obviously missing something because this book is incredibly high rated. And yet, I found myself making the audio faster and faster just to get through it.