JULY 2018 - AudioFile
Novik updates the story of Rumpelstiltskin with a wildly original fantasy tale that has all the markings of a future classic. A young woman with a special gift attempts to save her family but is swept up in world of magic and demons. What follows is a dark fantasy focused on three complex women in a morally nuanced world. Lisa Flanagan’s steady narration, especially her accents and inflections, elevate the story wonderfully. Every character benefits from a distinct and engaging voice, particularly the raspy growl of the fire demon. The story alternates perspectives often, and Flanagan ensures that the transitions are smooth. Novik's story would stand on its own, but Flanagan’s fantastic narration makes it even better. J.M.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2018 Best Audiobook, 2019 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - Choire Sicha
…Naomi Novik has gathered countless old tales and turned them into something all kinds of new. The theft of summer, a burning demon who lives inside a prince, a witch's hut in the woods, the secret power of names, the frozen winter road that winds its way through the depths of the forest—they're all here…Novik's last standalone book, Uprooted, is a flawless and straightforward tale of a young woman's awakening as a witch. It is single-minded and precise…Spinning Silver feels different, sprawling and shaggy in a sophisticated way (though it also feels suitable for any smart middle-schooler or adult). In richness of ideas, and in glory of sentences, both these books are spectacular. Where Uprooted was clean and thrilling, Spinning Silver is like falling asleep in the passenger seat of a car and waking with a jolt of fear, a cold window sticky against your cheek, a strange night country outside. Where are you? Here, in a book of not very comforting stories, a big and meaty novel, rich in both ideas and people, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.
Publishers Weekly
★ 04/23/2018
This gorgeous, complex, and magical novel, grounded in Germanic, Russian, and Jewish folklore but richly overlaid with a cohesive, creative story of its own, rises well above a mere modern re- imagining of classic tales. Novik (Uprooted) begins the story through the eyes of Miryem, a Jewish moneylender’s daughter, whose pride in her ability to wring payments from borrowers draws the demanding attention of the terrifying, otherworldly, and rules-bound Staryk, who are ruled by a wintry, gold-loving king. Secondary characters—a peasant boy, a duke’s daughter, a tsar—eventually become narrators, weaving interconnections that feel simultaneously intimate and mythic. Novik probes the edges between the everyday and the extraordinary, balancing moods of wonder and of inevitability. Her work inspires deep musings about love, wealth, and commitment, and embodies the best of the timeless fairy-tale aesthetic. Readers will be impressed by the way Novik ties the myriad threads of her story together by the end, and, despite the book’s length, they will be sad to walk away from its deeply immersive setting. This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever. (July)
From the Publisher
A perfect tale . . . This book is about the determination and quiet competence of women doing remarkable things without knowing first that they can do them. . . . A big and meaty novel, rich in both ideas and people, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Gorgeous, complex, and magical . . . This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Cool and clever and . . . dire and wonderful.”—Laini Taylor, author of Strange the Dreamer
“A book as cool and mysterious as a winter’s night, with two marvelous heroines at its heart, Spinning Silver pits the cold of endless winter against the fires of duty, love, and sacrifice. I couldn’t put it down.”—Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale
“Masterly . . . Novik addresses weighty questions of power, choice, prejudice, beauty, and identity with aplomb.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Naomi Novik knows how to weave words into magic, and Spinning Silver enchants the reader from the first page. This magnificent tale of three courageous young women who find the power to change their fates will catch you in its spell and linger long after the last chapter is read.”—Christina Henry, bestselling author of The Mermaid
“A brilliant reclamation of ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’ digging deep into that story’s anti-Semitism and pulling up something nourishing from the roots . . . One of the year’s strongest fantasy novels . . . I’m in awe of how Novik spins moldy, hateful straw into warm and glimmering gold.”—Amal El-Mohtar, NPR
“A thoughtful, emotionally complex, absorbing drama.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Novik has a knack for creating richly layered fantasy worlds with complex social dynamics, ruthless rulers and epic plot twists; her poetic narratives often recast magical motifs in unexpected ways. . . . This one, a stand-alone retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’ includes a feminist exploration of the politics of money.”—Newsweek
“The Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale has never been as captivating. . . . Spinning Silver further cements [Novik’s] place as one of the genre greats.”—Paste
“Deftly woven and highly immersive.”—Tordotcom
“An inventive retelling.”—Bustle
“A stroke of genius . . . Novik’s characters are compelling, and the moral choices they are faced with are genuinely difficult. . . . Her tone can move from gently humorous, to sweepingly epic, to piercingly sad easily, and back again. . . . Even better than Uprooted.”—Locus
“Spinning Silver follows in the tradition set by Robin McKinley of fairy-tale worlds populated by fairy-tale characters who feel like real people, and of princesses with strength and agency. But it moves the tradition forward.”—Vox
School Library Journal
★ 09/01/2018
Although he's a moneylender, Miryem's compassionate father has allowed the villagers to avoid paying their debts while his own family starves in the cold. With her mother sick in bed, Miryem steels herself and travels door to door demanding payment. Though she faces prejudice and anger because of her gender and Jewish faith, tenacious Miryem soon takes over as town moneylender, earning a reputation as a shrewd businesswoman who can turn silver into gold. Hearing of her skill, a Staryk (cruel, fairylike creatures from the winter realm) lord visits Miryem and demands that she turn his silver into gold. If she succeeds, he will make her his queen, but if she fails, an icy death awaits. What starts as a quest to survive soon morphs into a mission to save the human and winter kingdoms. As with Uprooted, Novik infuses a fairy-tale concept with Eastern European traditions and weaves everything into a comfortingly familiar yet stunningly unique work. This magical tale is a story of strong women overcoming hardship through perseverance, intelligence, family, and faith. With each chapter told from a different perspective, this masterly work pulls readers into the characters' world, making it impossible not to root for them. VERDICT Recommended for teens who love fairy tales and readers who appreciate complex, character-driven narratives that build slowly to a satisfying conclusion.—Lara Goldstein, Orange County Public Libraries, NC
JULY 2018 - AudioFile
Novik updates the story of Rumpelstiltskin with a wildly original fantasy tale that has all the markings of a future classic. A young woman with a special gift attempts to save her family but is swept up in world of magic and demons. What follows is a dark fantasy focused on three complex women in a morally nuanced world. Lisa Flanagan’s steady narration, especially her accents and inflections, elevate the story wonderfully. Every character benefits from a distinct and engaging voice, particularly the raspy growl of the fire demon. The story alternates perspectives often, and Flanagan ensures that the transitions are smooth. Novik's story would stand on its own, but Flanagan’s fantastic narration makes it even better. J.M.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2018 Best Audiobook, 2019 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-05-01
From the author of Uprooted (2015), the splendid Temeraire Napoleonic Wars-and-dragons series, etc., this reworked fairy tale's opening sentence might well have read Once upon a time in Old Lithuania....Expanding a recent short story based on "Rumpelstiltskin," Novik weaves in other elements of Eastern European folklore along with some fine original flourishes. Miryem, the granddaughter of affluent Jewish moneylenders, takes over her incompetent father's failing business affairs. Channeling anger and frustration into business acumen, she collects the debts that are owed, accepting goods or services as well as coin. In this and other ways, Miryem turns copper and silver into gold. Unfortunately, gold attracts the attention of the Staryk, coldhearted fairies who occasionally intrude into the human world, bringing with them forgetfulness and a breath of winter. One such gives Miryem fairy silver, ordering her to change it into gold. Fairy silver, Miryem finds, is so beautiful that it fetches huge sums in gold, especially when made into jewelry magnificent enough to intrigue the Duke. Miryem slowly grasps that she's made a bargain with the Staryk: He will make her his queen if she succeeds in spinning a vast pile of silver into gold—and freeze her solid if she fails. She has no wish to marry him but also notices that the Staryk do not particularly value gold in itself—so why do they want such large quantities of it? In spare prose of great clarity Novik weaves in and out of multiple first-person narratives in sometimes-illuminating, sometimes-disconcerting or confusing ways, exploring human and alien social structures and ethnic prejudices, fathers and daughters, damaged relationships and hidden agendas, wringing unexpected consequences from seemingly simple choices.A medieval fable of obscure moral import blossoms into a thoughtful, emotionally complex, absorbing drama that stands confidently on its own merits.
