Book Talk: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (Book 31)

Today I'm grumpy because this book wasn't longer, because there wasn't more to read, and because I already finished it!  And I don't own it so I don't get to read it again!

The book was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, and I really, really enjoyed it.

The conceit of the book is the story of Rumpelstiltskin.  A girl - Miryem - is tired of being poor, and being treated badly by the people of her village because her father is a kind-hearted moneylender who doesn't collect debts.  She hardens her heart and takes over his business - and finds that she not only succeeds in that, but also has a head for business.  This attracts the attention of the Staryk, winter fairies who come to the human's realm for gold.  Miryem is coerced into turning silver into gold - and if she fails she will be killed, but if she succeeds she will become the fairy lord's queen.

That is about as succinct as I can be for the book's basic premise.  So on to what I thought about it!

I'm a huge fan of fairy tales in almost any format, and new takes, re-tellings, fractured fairy tales, and any new interesting twist on a classic tale all really get my attention.  And this was an excellent example, because it took the bones of the Rumpelstiltskin story and made it into something totally new, as well as inverting anti-Semitism from the original story and making the fact that Miryem and her family are Jewish into an important point and theme of the story. 

The pros:

• I loved the writing!  It was beautiful and engaging and fluid.
• The characters were all interesting and distinct and I was really invested in their stories.  Along with Miryem, there are two other characters we follow: Irina, the daughter of a duke, and Wanda, a poor girl with an abusive father who winds up working for Miryem's family.  All their stories are interesting, and they're all well fleshed-out people that I really came to care about.  Irina especially had a really fascinating story, and it was wonderful to see how she made the best out of her situation.
• As I mentioned above, the story itself was really compelling, and the author took several disparate threads and wove them all together for a really satisfying ending.  
• There was a really lovely scene where two characters in two different realms were sort of communicating - one knit something and the other unravelled and counted to learn the pattern and then finished it.  I guess if you don't knit or do any fiber arts you wouldn't care, but I just really, really liked it - and not only for the knitting, but the way counting and numbers were described as magic.  

The cons:

• Because there are several different plot threads, the story does take a while to get started and initially the pacing is slow
• The story is told in alternating POVs and this can be a little jarring.  Overall, this actually belongs in the Pro column for me personally, because even though at first it was quite jarring and switching to a new story/point of view took me out of the story a little, the writing is so strong that I got pulled back in quickly, and this was very effective at the end.  So this is a con, but...  con lite.
• There is an element of romance that while I don't dislike, doesn't really add anything to the story.  It's not really fleshed out and I had no investment in the relationship.  I was half surprised that it was there at all, because while it was what I expected to happen, because it wasn't really fleshed out when pretty much everything else was, it took me a little by surprise.  (I will say that this did lend to what has been one of my favorite ending lines ever.)

I really could go on about this, because I liked it a lot.  I left out spoilers (still hard for me, but I think I'm getting better at it), so now: Reader, I compel thee!  Pick this up.  It's so good.  And if you need more convincing, here is a review, much more eloquent than mine, that also talks about it: review here.

If you read this, let me know what you thought!  And I'm always in the market for more fairy tales if you have any recs!