Book Review - 'Spinning Silver' by Naomi Novik

‘Miryem is the daughter of her village’s moneylender. But poverty beckons as her father’s too kind-hearted to collect his debts. Then Miryem hardens her own heart and takes up his work. Her success creates rumours she can turn silver into gold, which attract the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her an impossible challenge – and if she fails, she dies. Yet if she triumphs, a fate worse than death awaits.
Irina’s father schemes to wed her to the tsar. However, their dashing ruler hides a terrible secret, threatening mortals and winter alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and Irina embark on a quest. It’s one that will encompass sacrifice, power and even love.’

The book, in first-person, is told from Miryem’s point of view, and we’re quickly introduced to her family situation:
‘My father was a moneylender… He wasn’t very good at it. If someone didn’t pay him back on time, he never so much as mentioned it to them. Only if our cupboards were really bare, or our shoes were falling off our feet, and my mother spoke quietly with him after I was in bed, then he’d go, unhappy, and knock on a few doors, and make it sound like an apology when he asked for some of what they owed…’

Most of the money they’d had, had been her mother’s because:
‘My mother’s father was a moneylender, too, but he was a very good one.’

Miryem looks forward to visiting her grandparents who live in a city some forty miles away from the ‘unwalled… half nameless’ town where she and her parents live.

She’d be treated to new clothes and shoes, and would be fed ‘to bursting three times every day…’

She and her mother could have stayed there, for there was room, ‘but we always went home, because we loved my father. He was terrible with money, but… endlessly warm and gentle, and… tried to make up for his failings…’

By the second page, we’re given an inkling that things close to home aren’t what they seem, when, in relating the journey to the city, Miryem mentions they ‘sometimes… caught glimpses of the other road through the trees, the one that belonged to the Staryk, gleaming like the top of the river in winter when the snow had blown clear.’

We gather from the way Miryem’s mother reacts, it’s best to avoid the Staryk, whatever they are.

On one of their journeys, Miryem remembers hearing the hooves of the Staryk ‘as they came off their road, a sound like ice cracking, and the driver beat the horses to get the cart behind a tree, and we all huddled there… They rode past us and did not stop. It was a poor peddler’s cart… and Staryk knights only ever came riding for gold… a knife-wind blew over us… my thin braid was frosted white… But the frost faded, and as soon as it was gone, the peddler said to my mother, “Well, that’s enough of a rest, isn’t it,” as if he didn’t remember why he had stopped.’

When her mother falls ill, Miryem decides enough is enough, grits her teeth, and goes to the people who’d borrowed from her father and had yet to repay him, stubbornly refusing to leave until they’d worked out a repayment schedule that works for her and them.

And so, despite her parents not liking it at all, Miryem holds ‘the cold knotted under my ribs’ and becomes the moneylender in the town.

One of the people Miryem visits is a widower with three children who is unable to pay her in money or goods.

Miryem’s solution is for his oldest child, his daughter, to go to work in her parents’ house to pay off the debt.

And so, we are introduced to Wanda, the widower’s daughter… another point of view character who also tells her story in first-person.

Her family are very poor, and she tries to shield her two younger brothers from their father’s violent outbursts.

Miryem excels in her role as moneylender much to her grandfather’s approval and he advises her how best to invest the silver she has earned by exchanging it for gold.

And it isn’t long before she attracts the unwanted attention of the Staryk king, the king of winter, who prizes anything of gold.

Midway through Chapter 6, in comes Irina, the third point of view character; she also tells her story in first-person.

As already stated in the description at the beginning, her father wants to wed her to the young tsar who is hiding quite the secret.

What transpires to link the three main characters?

What does the Staryk king want with Miryem?

What is the tsar’s secret, and how does it affect them all?

All these questions, which sound intriguing enough, but, sad to say, I wasn’t that bothered the further into the story I went.

‘Spinning Silver’ is said to be a retelling of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’; it’s only very loosely based on said fairytale.

Miryem’s family are Jews, so I guess the story is set in our world, in a fictional country called Lithvas, inspired by Lithuanian, Polish and Russian cultures.

The thing I found most annoying was the switches between characters mid-chapter, which stopped the flow of the story for me as I realised, I wasn’t in, say, Miryem’s head but instead either in Wanda’s or Irina’s.

Unsurprisingly, all three girls prove to be strong and independent, yet they all sound the same; other than their surroundings, nothing really distinguished one from the other.

Then, in the last third or so of the book, even more perspectives are introduced – six more!

Why?

Perspectives that did nothing to advance the plot, like Wanda’s youngest brother, who’s about six, I think, and Irina’s nurse.

The only perspective I did enjoy was that of the tsar, Mirnatius.

Having said that, the two main male characters, Mirnatius and the Staryk king, could have been written better; one started out strong, became a little one-dimensional before turning limp, and the potential of the other one just disappeared, overshadowed by one of the female characters.

I did like the Staryk road and the gradual reveal about it.

That was the one thing that grabbed my attention – the Staryk

I wanted to know more about their world, their culture, traditions, their interactions and how they interact with a human in their world.

Unfortunately, it was not to be as Novik doesn’t do much other than give these otherworld beings the most superficial treatment.

As I got closer to the end of the story, I lost count of the number of coincidences that popped up, one after the other, like mini deus ex machina moments!

I feel obliged to mention there is one scene that involves domestic abuse against children.

Since having children myself, I’ve become averse to reading or watching violence against, especially, children and animals.

If it’s to do with adults I can stomach a little bit but find it hard if it goes on for too long.

It is definitely not for me to tell anyone how to write their stories, but, personally, I thought the scene in question went into more detail than I felt necessary.

Yet, afterwards, the children didn’t seem to be that badly affected, mentally, as I thought they might be.

One thing I can say for certain is, Novik can write.

Her choice of words and the way she weaves them together make for effortlessly beautiful reading.

Unfortunately, for me anyway, her writing style wasn’t enough to carry the story, which is a shame as I’d been looking forward to reading this and really, really wanted to like it.

Anyway, these are only the thoughts of a self-confessed fussy reader.

If you haven’t read ‘Spinning Silver’ and like the sound of it, I’d say, give it a go and I honestly hope you enjoy it.