Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
So I technically started reading this book on July 29th, 2019; I read until chapter ten, then I got worried about Wanda and put the book down for literally over a year. I thought about this book all the time and basically just didn't pick it back up because I didn't want to restart it. I clearly decided to restart it recently and am now in love.
Spinning Silver begins with Miryem, a young Jewish woman living in a small village outside of an enchanted forest. Her father is a moneylender but is not particularly good at this job. One cold winter, while her mother is very ill, Miryem decides enough is enough and takes over her father's job; she begins collecting what is owed to her family. As she becomes more and more successful, people start saying she is turning silver into gold. The Staryk, the magical beings of the winter, hear this and strike a bargain with Miryem; if she can turn their silver into gold, she will be rewarded, just not with anything she wants. But failure would certainly mean death. As the book goes on, we add more and more points of view, the world expands, and the characters begin to encounter each other.
I really liked reading a Jewish author's take on the Jewish banker trope, seeing the way she explores the different reasons this family is involved in this field and the ways they are met by other characters throughout the story. I also really liked that this story was mostly focused on the peasantry, though we did jump throughout many different social classes throughout the story.
The character work in this book was superb; I love when a story can turn you around on how you feel about a character. Multiple times throughout this book, I realized I had completely changed my mind about how I felt about a character. But even just focusing on the character journeys of the three primary leads of this story, each story pulled me in and kept my attention incredibly well. The stakes for each person were so high. I was also so impressed that there was not ever a time where I was mad about a character perspective switch; I loved what each character brought to the plot.
Basically, I loved it, and I am happy, and I will be talking about this book for forever. Thank you bye.
