A Curse Dark as Gold in Into the Forest

Nov 21, 2009 Cara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: awesome-covers, 2010, fantasy, historical-fiction, fairy-tales

If there is one word that I would use to sum up this book it's intricate. I was floored to find out that this was the author's debut novel. Ms. Bunce is up there with the best veterans of the fantasy genre.

Charlotte Miller knows her share of hardships. Her mother and baby brother died, and the book starts with the reader witnessing Charlotte and her sister burying their father. Too bad for Charlotte that this is not the last she is going to see of bad luck. With her father gone she has to shoul If there is one word that I would use to sum up this book it's intricate. I was floored to find out that this was the author's debut novel. Ms. Bunce is up there with the best veterans of the fantasy genre.

Charlotte Miller knows her share of hardships. Her mother and baby brother died, and the book starts with the reader witnessing Charlotte and her sister burying their father. Too bad for Charlotte that this is not the last she is going to see of bad luck. With her father gone she has to shoulder the responsibility of being in charge of the mill. Stirwaters is everything to their town, and she can not and will not let it fall. She literally will do anything to keep the mill going. When things start to get rough a mysterious man who calls himself Jack Spinner comes in to save the day. Charlotte being the level-headed young woman she is doesn't buy it at first, but Jack Spinner proves himself to be reliable. Of course everything always comes at a price. Will Charlotte be willing to pay the highest price of all?

In the beginning of the book you feel like Charlotte, that everything is rooted in reality. As the story progresses though you can feel that the lines of reality begin to blur into this magical world around them. Not even once did I think this world was not real. The historical background of the story gives the reader a sense of realness and helps to make the magic more believable.

Charlotte at times could be stubborn beyond comprehension, but I understood her even though I didn't always agree with her. She always did everything to protect the people she cared about, and you really can't be mad at someone who has that quality. The plot is done superbly. Every character and every bit of info comes back around to show what had been hiding in plain sight all along. The right person just had to be willing to look. Characters are always the heart of the story and this particular cast of characters were true to form and kept the book pulsating. Randall was my favorite, but I'd say the most interesting was Uncle Wheeler. Uncle Wheeler I'd say is the one who really hits the theme of what a name truly means, and what it doesn't.

A brilliantly crafted story of love, mystery, and magic. ...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Mir rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, fantasy

This retelling of Rumpelstiltskin changes the focus of the story to the mill. Orphaned Charlotte and Rosie are struggling to retain their family mill after their father dies. Desperate for money, they make an unwise bargain with a shifty stranger. For my taste, there was too much detail about milling, cloth-production, and worker employment -- very well done, just not interesting to me. I kept skimming to try to get to ahead with the story and ended up skipping so many pages that I couldn't real ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Lacey Louwagie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: youngadult, retelling, youngadultfantasy, fantasy, fairy-tales, ghosts

The library catalog lists this book under "ghost stories." At first, I thought it was misfiled. It was a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, not a ghost story! Well, turns out it was both. Which works surprisingly well.

This is the first Rumplestiltskin retelling I've ever read, and it brought several truly new things to the table. Besides the ghost story angle, the tale is also set during a time that mirrors the Industrial Revolution rather than the more typical medieval setting. I've seen many review ...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Julia rated it really liked it

Shelves: based-on-folksong-myth, 50-states-locales-ya-challenge, fairies-fae-faeries, alternative-history

I really quite like this novel about a girl who makes deals that she ought not to to keep her woolen mill in an unspecified area of England or New England in the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th Century. However, I read it because someone said it was set in Kansas. The author lives near Kansas City, MO and that’s not the same thing, at all. It’s a delightful novel with plucky, courageous daughters, an unreliable uncle, a wonderful husband, supportive villagers and an ultimately sad, believ ...more

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Sep 22, 2013 Katy rated it liked it

This is a fantastic retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It is aimed at the young adult audience, but it well written.
I was a bit frustrated with our young heroine as she makes her poor choices and doesn't let those she should trust help her, but it is a fairy tale and that would have made the story end too soon. ...more

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Aug 15, 2021 Shannon marked it as dnf

DNF'd at page 93

I actually originally put this book down in 2010, possibly before as it looks like it got imported from paper when I started goodreads, then picked it up again in 2020, and put it down again in January 2020. I'm just not interested in this. Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe because I'm less interested in fairy tale retellings as a broad category (more interested in specific ones), ...more

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