Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik || Angry women are my aesthetic

Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.

Publisher: Del Ray

Published: July 10th 2018

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Death, Parental/Physical Abuse, Animal Deaths, Mention of Rape, Sexual Assault, Alcoholism, Torture, Violence, Murder, Misogyny

“Because that’s what the story’s really about: getting out of paying your debts. That’s not how they tell it, but I knew. My father was a moneylender, you see.” 

This is a very intimidating book. Dialogue is limited, POV’s are abundant, and pacing is slow… but after I finished I loved it. This is a very loose Rumplestiltskin retelling— I loved the spin Novik put on the spinning gold aspect and how though that was a major plot point, so much is happening in the story that there’s never a dull moment.

The writing was so lush and atmospheric and vivid. maybe because it’s winter and this book is set in the freezing cold, but I felt it. Yet even then, her writing is poetic and tells like a tale being passed on from person to person— my favorite kind of storytelling.

“Anger was a fire in a grate, and I’d never had any wood to burn. Until now, it seemed.” 

We follow quite a few POV’s, though three are the focal point:

❥ Miryem – the main character of the story- a Jewish moneylender providing for her family who has surrounded her heart with ice because no one else will do it. Her story arc was probably my favorite not only because we spend more time with her, but because her storyline had a lot of things going for it. Her relationship with her family, with money, with her religion— which was amazing to see in a Fantasy.

❥ Wanda – a girl Miryem takes in to pay off her father debt, who comes from an abusive home and has to take care of her two brothers. Her story arc was probably the most hard hitting and one that really stuck with me.

❥ Irinushka – daughter of the duke who is overlooked and pawned over to a possessed prince, someone who has to be cunning and ruthless in her survival and the welfare of her people. While I liked her scheming and how she manipulated her way to safety, she was my least favorite. No, I’m not wording this right— out of the main three, I was looking forward to being in her head the least. 

“But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.” 

These three came from some kind of oppressed background, paying for the things the men in their lives have done— whether it be silencing their voices of being discriminated against, but all managed to rise to the occasion. All found a way to make lemonade out of lemons… for a lack of a better term.

I just appreciated this story on angry girls being unapologetically angry, doing what needs to be done because no one will do it for them, because in a world where women only have one job, they’re underestimated.

But like I mentioned above, they’re not the only perspectives we get to see. We also get:

❥ Stepon –  Wanda’s younger brother who’s POV is sporadic at first, but becomes more prevalent in the latter half of the book.

❥ Magra – Irina’s nursemaid who just wants her to be safe and happy? Yet her POV was a bit unnecessary? Her backstory was interesting to read, but… she didn’t add too much to the main plot.

❥ Mirnatius – Irina’s monstrous husband who’s POV comes in 50 chapters through the book, which felt like a sympathy play. I get it and understand where he’s coming from, but is he redeemable? Not really, no.

“So the fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice. We should put them in a room together and let them make us both widows.” 

It was a bit confusing seeing who’s head we were in; the POV would change without notice or any kind of header— I’d be halfway into their narrative before I’d finally find out who’s talking. Yet, it also didn’t help that the chapters were lengthy even though the story was moving.

And sometimes their voices were hard to distinguish. All three girls are angry, cunning girls… I was well into the book before I could separate them with less of a struggle.

Yet the men are almost as interesting. I would have loved a POV from the Staryk, but even from the beginning I liked him. He was complex from the first interaction between him and Miryem, even without giving away anything.

There’s a big theme of the different types of families you can have and how sometimes family isn’t blood. The found family aspect was so unexpected and heartwarming to see. But there’s also so much I’m just not mentioning that you should discover for yourself. I don’t think you’d regret it.