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A review by lilith89ibz
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
2.0
TL;DR Unless you really like YA fantasy, proceed at your own risk.
After reading this book, I can understand why Novik's writing gets such mixed reviews. Some people love this book but hate [b:Uprooted|22544764|Uprooted|Naomi Novik|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550135418l/22544764._SX50_.jpg|41876730] or the other way around. This is my first of her books and I was tempted to DNF it all the way up to like 50%. I'm giving it 3 stars mostly because I enjoyed the ending and because this is a YA fantasy, and I don't really like YA fantasy, so this is more about me than the book. I wanted to read something of hers before adding [b:A Deadly Education|50548197|A Deadly Education (Scholomance, #1)|Naomi Novik|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581167884l/50548197._SY75_.jpg|75543174] to my TBR. I'm still not sure that I'll like it, but I'll give it a try.
I'm a big fan of fairy tales and mythology and I think what didn't work for me for the entire first half of the book was that it felt like decaffeinated grimdark. And don't get me wrong, I don't like grimdark in general, unless it's a fairy tale, but I was forged as a 5-year-old fairy tale reader in the fire of the Brothers Grimm. If small children are reading the actual stories, I don't see the point of a retelling toning the violence down for teenagers. I think that's what the YA spin does to fairy tales, and I don't care for it. It turns them into a creepy romance instead of a clear message of "stay the hell out of the forest, and don't talk to strangers, that's how people die".
My main issue is that I found most of the characters unlikeable from the beginning. Not necessarily because they're bad, it's just not fun to read about people who are angry all the time for almost 500 pages. Absolutely nothing funny or even slightly amusing happens in this entire book.
Another issue I had with this book is that even though these are all Russian characters, nobody uses patronymics?? It's a weird choice. But honestly, I read [a:Katherine Arden|13922215|Katherine Arden|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1510754830p2/13922215.jpg]'s Winternight Trilogy first and this book is just... not that. This book has magic in it, but until quite far into the plot, it doesn't have *~º*MAGIC*º~* in it, if you know what I mean. It lacks whimsy and charm. The writing describing the scenery is pretty enough, but I did not feel transported to a wintery Russian forest, or a fae castle in a land covered in ice. I liked the little house that existed in both realms and pretty much everything that went on in that house I loved. But everything else fell flat in comparison.
One thing that did not bother me was the number of POVs. The characters were individual enough that it wasn't hard to follow their stories as you changed POV. You start with only two POVs and by the time more get introduced, you've already met them in the story, so there's really not that much room for confusion. Some of it got repetitive because a few scenes were told more than once from different POVs. That said, I did like that Stepon read like he was on the autism spectrum. A bit too stereotypical, perhaps, but not obnoxiously so.
The ending was the happiest part of the book. As I said, proceed at your own risk. You may love this, but it wasn't for me.
After reading this book, I can understand why Novik's writing gets such mixed reviews. Some people love this book but hate [b:Uprooted|22544764|Uprooted|Naomi Novik|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550135418l/22544764._SX50_.jpg|41876730] or the other way around. This is my first of her books and I was tempted to DNF it all the way up to like 50%. I'm giving it 3 stars mostly because I enjoyed the ending and because this is a YA fantasy, and I don't really like YA fantasy, so this is more about me than the book. I wanted to read something of hers before adding [b:A Deadly Education|50548197|A Deadly Education (Scholomance, #1)|Naomi Novik|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581167884l/50548197._SY75_.jpg|75543174] to my TBR. I'm still not sure that I'll like it, but I'll give it a try.
I'm a big fan of fairy tales and mythology and I think what didn't work for me for the entire first half of the book was that it felt like decaffeinated grimdark. And don't get me wrong, I don't like grimdark in general, unless it's a fairy tale, but I was forged as a 5-year-old fairy tale reader in the fire of the Brothers Grimm. If small children are reading the actual stories, I don't see the point of a retelling toning the violence down for teenagers. I think that's what the YA spin does to fairy tales, and I don't care for it. It turns them into a creepy romance instead of a clear message of "stay the hell out of the forest, and don't talk to strangers, that's how people die".
My main issue is that I found most of the characters unlikeable from the beginning. Not necessarily because they're bad, it's just not fun to read about people who are angry all the time for almost 500 pages. Absolutely nothing funny or even slightly amusing happens in this entire book.
Another issue I had with this book is that even though these are all Russian characters, nobody uses patronymics?? It's a weird choice. But honestly, I read [a:Katherine Arden|13922215|Katherine Arden|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1510754830p2/13922215.jpg]'s Winternight Trilogy first and this book is just... not that. This book has magic in it, but until quite far into the plot, it doesn't have *~º*MAGIC*º~* in it, if you know what I mean. It lacks whimsy and charm. The writing describing the scenery is pretty enough, but I did not feel transported to a wintery Russian forest, or a fae castle in a land covered in ice. I liked the little house that existed in both realms and pretty much everything that went on in that house I loved. But everything else fell flat in comparison.
One thing that did not bother me was the number of POVs. The characters were individual enough that it wasn't hard to follow their stories as you changed POV. You start with only two POVs and by the time more get introduced, you've already met them in the story, so there's really not that much room for confusion. Some of it got repetitive because a few scenes were told more than once from different POVs. That said, I did like that Stepon read like he was on the autism spectrum. A bit too stereotypical, perhaps, but not obnoxiously so.
The ending was the happiest part of the book.