is it the old favourites?
This book started off at a disadvantage with me. Rumpelstiltskin is far from my favourite fairy tale. Re-tellings are a vice of mine, however, and there’s yet to be time I pass one by.
Here’s the thing: viewed in an ungenerous light, the whole story is a kind of extended pun on the idea of spinning stories vs. spinning yarn.
(I accept that this might only be a problem because I‘m full-up on smuggled references to the art of storytelling in books, I seem to be finding them everywhere just now.)
“Your stories, I think they’re sort of like spinning, too. Because it’s like you’re making something beautiful out of nothing.”
I do love the world of this book, the plot and the pace were enough to keep me turning pages. Serilda’s relationship with the children in her village is a lovely touch, but brace yourself for what happens to them, it’s brutal. A little abruptly so actually.
But it’s the characters where Meyer loses me. They felt flat, and—I suppose inevitably—that sent the dialogue off-course. With character and dialogue out of the frame, I couldn’t get on board with the love story. I enjoyed the use of touch; Gild hasn’t been touched by anyone in a LONG time and his reaction to bumping into Serilda felt genuine as well as warm, and funny. But for me the rest of their romance never lived up to that first spark.
“She was trying to ignore the frightening possibility that she might be falling in love with a ghost.”
Do I recommend it? Honestly, not quite. If you’re new to Marissa Meyer, I don’t think this is where you’ll find her at her best; start with the Lunar Chronicles. And if I’m being brutal, Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver is better.
