Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver Cover

Spinning Silver

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6/13/2019
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I think that this novel is really well-written and makes some innovative use of the folktales and fairytales from which it is drawn. Novik is very good at writing beautiful but accessible prose and taking old stories and twisting them into something new.

My problem with the novel is that is has not one, but two, women choosing in the end to stay with selfish, abusive husbands. And yes, theoretically in the end both women are in charge of their lives and their worlds. But the "a bad man can become a good man, if only a woman loves him hard enough" trope needs to die a fiery death. It hasn't caused as much damage to our society as the "when a woman says no, she really means yes, you just have to convince her harder" trope, but it's still done a lot of damage.