Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (Fantasy)

Writing: 3.5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 3.5/5 Overall personal enjoyment: 3.5/5

A beautifully done fantasy novel that (as an aside) turns gender stereotyping on its head. It’s a merge of fairy tales, with a well-blurred line between the magical and the familiar and an unparalleled evocation of place — with plenty of descriptions of ice, cold, and snow. In what I was surprised to realize was an unusual choice, there was a wide thread of Judaism throughout — the culture, the community, and the place within a non-Jewish community.

Told in alternating voices, we follow the storylines of three women: Miryem, who takes over the moneylending business of her too kind father and thereby attracts the unwanted attentions of the Staryk by appearing to turn silver into gold; Wanda, whose services are given to Miryem by her drunken brute of a father in payment of his debt; and Irina, the very plain daughter of a scheming duke, wed to the cruel tsar through magical trickery.

The common thread amongst these unlikely heroines is that while they begin their story with the common fairytale happy ending (being married to wealthy royalty), they end up rescuing themselves, and the world, from several layers of bitter fate.

The plot is delightfully twisted, and I enjoyed the line between recognizable reality and the fantasy. Magic in multiple forms — from the fairytale style magic of the Staryk and his realm to the magic Wanda feels when she is taught how to read to the “high magic” — “magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it.”

A little long for me at 430 pages, but masterfully done.