Book Review: Spinning Silver

 

I really enjoyed this book. It's the second one I read from Naomi Novik. I read Uprooted about five years ago and loved how original it was. I confess the ending was a bit confusing, but the journey was pretty amazing. When I heard the author had another book out, I wanted to read it. It took me a couple of years to buy it, and then it stayed in my TBR pile for about a year. 

Now that I have finished it, I can say I am satisfied with the story over all. I had a vague idea about the plot, and at first I didn't truly understand what was the main character's purpose. There is also magic in this book, which I did not expect, although it was a nice surprise.

The tale is a bit long and there are a lot of parts to it, but in the end, it all ties up rather nicely and I understood why the author took us through all those adventures following all those different characters—they all had a part to play.

Perhaps the only thing that bothered me was that—the many POVs. The story starts from the main character's point of view, but then another point of vide is added a few chapters in. And then another. And then another and another. It got to the point when it took me a while to understand whose thoughts I was listening to, since the clue as to which POV it is comes rather late in the chapter.

As a writer, one of the things my editor is always pointing out is how I should state the point of view in the beginning of the chapter. And now I can see how important that is. In Spinning Silver, I sometimes had to re-read a chapter after I finally knew who the chapter was about. That was a bit annoying, but I still enjoyed the book very much, regardless.

I still recommend the book. Like Uprooted before it, it doesn't follow the formula. It's a fun fantasy where unexpected things happen.

Cheers!