From the Bookshelf of Once Upon a Time...…

Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik

Start date: July 1, 2023

Finish date: July 31, 2023

Discussion: Retelling & Fractured Tales

Discussion leader: Gem

Why we're reading this: July 2023 Group Read
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Retelling & Fractured Tales

A Dream of Ebony and White (Beyond the Four Kingdoms #4) by Melanie Cellier - July 2025
By Gem , Belle · 5 posts · 13 views

last updated Jul 16, 2025 04:59PM

Hook's Little Mermaid (The Untold Stories) by Susanna Lynn - May 2025
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last updated Jun 04, 2025 07:42PM

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What Members Thought

Oct 28, 2018 Mia rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, fairy-tale

I'm giving this a bitter, bitter four stars, because I was even more deeply brought into the idea of the two (first two) female leads ending up together, but alas much like Uprooted, it's about men brought from their high haunches to stand equally with women. I mean, that's not bad, that was actually fairly enjoyable in one case and like, I MEAN I GUESS, in another.

What really made this book fantastic was the plot. The book starts from a simple angle, from a simple, familiar world, with a touch I'm giving this a bitter, bitter four stars, because I was even more deeply brought into the idea of the two (first two) female leads ending up together, but alas much like Uprooted, it's about men brought from their high haunches to stand equally with women. I mean, that's not bad, that was actually fairly enjoyable in one case and like, I MEAN I GUESS, in another.

What really made this book fantastic was the plot. The book starts from a simple angle, from a simple, familiar world, with a touch of magic, and then builds and builds and builds and weaves characters in such a way that it really works. I could not put this book down after a certain point, because the plot (held up by the rich characters within) was too exciting and I needed to see what would happen. I really loved the three main gals, and to much UTMOST HATE OF MYSELF also that one male lead (view spoiler). I love Novik's writing style, but I think character names as headings and/or 3rd person would've suited better than flipping back between 1st person, but that's a nitpick.

My favorite thing, beyond the full lush female characters, was the fact that there was an actual sense of reality. Instead of some metaphor for Jewish people, their struggles, and their traditions, there were just actual Jewish people. One of the things that drives me nuts with fantasy (and sometimes Scifi) is the inability to include real world comparisons, because of some weird necessity to be accurate in a world with dragons or other nonsense. Spinning Silver proves that it works so much better to fold in real things into the fantasy world and add magic as you please, because we are already suspending our disbelief within a story, so people who are preoccupied with why there is the Spanish language, when we are reading a story in English, are not going to enjoy a book either way, so stop catering to them.

Besides that rant, loved this book. It only took me a while to read because I got distracted by studying and once I started reading it in full I was entranced.

Still keep those four stars though, because (view spoiler). ...more

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Aug 13, 2019 Kirstie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pure-awesome, fairy-tale, quiltbag-characters, quality-characters-w-disabilities

This book is right up my alley - it feels like a fairy tale retelling, but isn't really - like Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle, existing in that fairy tale world but more than just that.

The real world elements such as prejudice toward the Jews added a cool depth and realism to the world to the point where I wondered if there were myths about the staryck in reality.

I loved all three of the main girls and the way their stories wove together. I really enjoyed the slow reveals and character ...more

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Sep 02, 2018 Jill Heather rated it really liked it

Shelves: fairytale

I loved so much of this book but found the romantic plots unnecessary, somewhat character inappropriate, and grafted on as a "this is how a fairy tale ends" kind of thing. But that's a minor quibble, though as usual a disappointing ending does affect how I feel about the rest of it.

But really, this has all the fairy tales and all the myths, it's amazing. I do have some real questions about what Wanda thinks of keeping kosher and really wish we had heard that very specific and not particularly re ...more

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Dec 02, 2020 Cheryl marked it as xx-dnf-skim-reference

Because Once Upon a Time... group is reading it July 2023...
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Nope. P. 110 (twice as far as I usually read for a dnf!) and I am exhausted by the unrelenting misery. Skimmed the ending, saw a glimpse of a hint that the good people, some of them anyway, survived, but certainly nothing like an HEA. So, no, I don't like grim fantasy about how awful it is to be a woman.

dnf July 2023 ...more

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