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A review by mcaliz
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? No
4.0
Content warnings: physical child abuse, killing of animals, killing of children*
*It is VERY gruesome as to how the children are killed. They are murdered by sliced throats, left to die out in the cold, hanged & or mutilated and have bodily organs removed. So while we never see on page the killing of these children, we still see their dead body’s & the aftermath of their death.
Rep: father/daughter bond, magical creatures, queerness, talks of motherhood (Open this at your own risk ( there is a pregnancy )
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
This reminded me A LOT of Little Thieves by Margaret Owens. In terms of the voice of the narrative, Vanja & Serilda both being seen as nothing but Liars & both being blessed by the Gods in these (Germanic?) worlds. If you liked Little Thieves then I highly recommend that you try this! Or read Little Thieves then read this. I am interested in where the next book is gonna go & how the story will end, given what happened at the end of the book & what the original tale of Rumpelstiltskin entails, but I am excited nonetheless for the next book in this duology.
The chapters in this can be considered to be really long, but I honestly didn’t really notice it. There was always something going on in each chapter that made me keep turning the page. But I can see how someone could find this story on the boring side & the chapters being long-winded. Cause I’m gonna be honest, this book is one of those stories where nothing and everything happens. There were easily could have been some scenes, or a number of pages/events that could have been taken out of the book & it still would have been just as good. But because this book is more character driven than plot driven, there are scenes that seem kind of pointless & have some sense of significance later on in the book. But I liked the story so much that I didn’t mind the fact that this was more character driven.
Pros:
I really liked the relationship that Serilda had with the children in her village. It was really sweet. Since most of the people in the Village ostracize her for the markings in her eyes, the children were the only ones that really paid any attention to her & liked the stories she told them & appreciated that aspect of her, rather than shun her & ignore her.
I loved how Meyer explored storytelling & the purpose that it can serve depending on who is telling it & who the audience is. Cause in this one Serilda continuously tells stories that everyone, even she, thinks are just tales or lies that she makes up. And some of them are just that, lies, embellishments or things that she makes up on the fly, but some of them make you wonder if what she says is true . But that is part of story telling, for some it is true while for others they are just fictional tales. But all tales are based off real people/entities and true events & it is simply up to the storyteller and the listener to determine for themselves what they think is true or not. And I really liked that aspect of that in this & it honestly is one of the biggest things that kept me reading the book.
I loved the lore in this. I LOVE the story/myth/legend about the Erlkiong, also known as the Alder King, & I LOVED HIM in this. I think Meyer did such a good job of characterizing him with his wickedness, his trickery, and the mystery about him. Just, chef’s kiss. He honestly was a deplorable being and he did ATROCIOUS things, seriously, but I loved it.
Good dialogue about gender identity & queerness. We do get to see a potential sapphic relationship bloom & discussions about people being nonbinary & how individuals do not have to stick to the gender roles of the communities that they were born into if that is not what they want to do or part of who they are.
Gripes:
I don’t know how I feel about the ending, it’s the only real complaint I have. There was a certain revelation , you could say, at the end of the book & I just don’t know how I feel about it. (It pertains to a certain aspect of the Rumpelstiltskin tale…about a baby. IYKYK) I honestly don’t even know how to express how I feel about it, after thinking on it for a couple of hours, I just don’t know if the way that part of the original story was integrated in this was done right? I’m not sure how Meyer would have incorporated it differently, but I just feel w e i r d about it.
The romance(s):
Serilda & Gild: I thought that they were cute. They had really good banter between the two of them. I can see there relationship be described as “insta-lovey” & while that USUALLY gets on my nerves, I thought it was handled well in this one. Given how people have treated & VIEWED Serilda all her life, Gild was one of the very few that didn’t see her as a bad omen, he saw her as something more. And once you learn about Gild’s background, you can understand his fascination & attraction to Serilda. Their relationship was at a QUITE interesting moment at the end of the book, and I can already feel the angst of the next book 😹 But I have hope for a happy ending for them
*It is VERY gruesome as to how the children are killed. They are murdered by sliced throats, left to die out in the cold, hanged & or mutilated and have bodily organs removed. So while we never see on page the killing of these children, we still see their dead body’s & the aftermath of their death.
Rep: father/daughter bond, magical creatures, queerness, talks of motherhood (Open this at your own risk (
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
This reminded me A LOT of Little Thieves by Margaret Owens. In terms of the voice of the narrative, Vanja & Serilda both being seen as nothing but Liars & both being blessed by the Gods in these (Germanic?) worlds. If you liked Little Thieves then I highly recommend that you try this! Or read Little Thieves then read this. I am interested in where the next book is gonna go & how the story will end, given what happened at the end of the book & what the original tale of Rumpelstiltskin entails, but I am excited nonetheless for the next book in this duology.
The chapters in this can be considered to be really long, but I honestly didn’t really notice it. There was always something going on in each chapter that made me keep turning the page. But I can see how someone could find this story on the boring side & the chapters being long-winded. Cause I’m gonna be honest, this book is one of those stories where nothing and everything happens. There were easily could have been some scenes, or a number of pages/events that could have been taken out of the book & it still would have been just as good. But because this book is more character driven than plot driven, there are scenes that seem kind of pointless & have some sense of significance later on in the book. But I liked the story so much that I didn’t mind the fact that this was more character driven.
Pros:
I really liked the relationship that Serilda had with the children in her village. It was really sweet. Since most of the people in the Village ostracize her for the markings in her eyes, the children were the only ones that really paid any attention to her & liked the stories she told them & appreciated that aspect of her, rather than shun her & ignore her.
I loved how Meyer explored storytelling & the purpose that it can serve depending on who is telling it & who the audience is. Cause in this one Serilda continuously tells stories that everyone, even she, thinks are just tales or lies that she makes up. And some of them are just that, lies, embellishments or things that she makes up on the fly, but some of them make you wonder if what she says is true . But that is part of story telling, for some it is true while for others they are just fictional tales. But all tales are based off real people/entities and true events & it is simply up to the storyteller and the listener to determine for themselves what they think is true or not. And I really liked that aspect of that in this & it honestly is one of the biggest things that kept me reading the book.
I loved the lore in this. I LOVE the story/myth/legend about the Erlkiong, also known as the Alder King, & I LOVED HIM in this. I think Meyer did such a good job of characterizing him with his wickedness, his trickery, and the mystery about him. Just, chef’s kiss. He honestly was a deplorable being and he did ATROCIOUS things, seriously, but I loved it.
Good dialogue about gender identity & queerness. We do get to see a potential sapphic relationship bloom & discussions about people being nonbinary & how individuals do not have to stick to the gender roles of the communities that they were born into if that is not what they want to do or part of who they are.
Gripes:
I don’t know how I feel about the ending, it’s the only real complaint I have. There was a certain revelation , you could say, at the end of the book & I just don’t know how I feel about it. (It pertains to a certain aspect of the Rumpelstiltskin tale…about a baby. IYKYK) I honestly don’t even know how to express how I feel about it, after thinking on it for a couple of hours, I just don’t know if the way that part of the original story was integrated in this was done right? I’m not sure how Meyer would have incorporated it differently, but I just feel w e i r d about it.
The romance(s):
Serilda & Gild: I thought that they were cute. They had really good banter between the two of them. I can see there relationship be described as “insta-lovey” & while that USUALLY gets on my nerves, I thought it was handled well in this one. Given how people have treated & VIEWED Serilda all her life, Gild was one of the very few that didn’t see her as a bad omen, he saw her as something more. And once you learn about Gild’s background, you can understand his fascination & attraction to Serilda. Their relationship was at a QUITE interesting moment at the end of the book, and I can already feel the angst of the next book 😹 But I have hope for a happy ending for them