jajalala

Had a delightful fantasy fairytale-esque read of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik!

This was so fun!! The fairytale vibes carried super well while maintaining a modern writing style/feel. There's clear inspirations from fairytales but it's very much its own thing. The story follows several clever and interesting women of various economic/religious classes, but the main one is the daughter of a moneylender (who pretty much becomes a moneylender herself) who ends up "changing silver to gold" through trade and ends up coveted by a ruler of fantastical ice people who love gold. There's a bunch of other stuff too--a meek duke's daughter who end up in what seems like an awful marriage with a cruel prince, but who uses her position to become an extremely thoughtful and fair ruler, plus a very poor daughter of a drunk who slowly builds up her skills and escapes her father while protecting her brothers... just so many cool characters!

My favorite part I think was all the clever ways in which people fulfilled various agreements/debts. There is a lot of fae-esque rules where people have to complete certain tasks to fulfill agreements or to bind monstrous creatures, but the characters are clever and find ways to complete even what seems impossible by being very particular with how the thing is worded.

The themes of debt/owing people I felt like was a SUPER strong thoroughline, especially with a moneylending main character. It made for a great parallel to see the fantastical creatures bound by all these various rules/debts, but then also to see a human moneylender carefully booking and keeping track of debts. Made sense how they aligned and understood each other.

There were two love interests for two of the protagonists, both with a similar vibe that made me feel like "Hmm I wonder if this is the author's type" XD. Both were men who were initially shown to be violent/monstrous/incomprehensible, but then over the course of the story (and thanks to the whip-smart women who ended up chained to them in some way) they are shown to be vulnerable/suffering and thoughtful in their own ways and become more inclined towards the woman they grow to love. Think Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Normally I'm not a big fan of that--I don't like when love interests are violent towards or around their loved ones for the most part, but somehow I ended up really enjoying these ones. I think the extremes made for a delicious contrast once they were shown to have vulnerabilities. Even though they spent a good portion of the story seeming like solid no-good guys, there were JUST enough itty-bitty cracks that when their weaknesses were revealed it felt really satisfying for them to really broke down and have to rely on their girl to help them out.

This might be a basic thought, but I'm imagining a little recipe of a fantastic love interest like... Someone who's very high up in some way, possibly in a position of huge power like royalty/rich etc, preferably with a cold/stoic/prideful personality. BUT--this is the important part--they have to be laid low at some point, and have to have a weak point or two that gives them a vulnerable charm. Preferably I like if they generally only show that side to the person they're in love with, willingly or not. It's about someone super powerful becoming pathetic and dependent to a person that reads like desperate devotion that I'm a sucker for.

If a love interest is too perfect... there's no tension, no sense that desire is so strong that the love interest is willing to grovel/debase themselves for the sake of their loved one (oh my god this is Mr. Darcy from Pride & Prejudice isn't it... he's a blueprint).

I think I've said this elsewhere on DW before, but I love the idea of a big burly butch girl getting dressed up in delicate feminine clothing (or also big masculine men in flimsy lingerie), and I think the reason I love it is that contrast. There's a delicious embarrassment to someone being forced into a "vulnerable" role that drives me nuts, specifically if they are NOT well-equipped to handle it and it's uncomfortable/difficult/embarrassing for them. It makes it more meaningful that their loved one gets to see them like that.

Also this is a separate thought but for Spinning Silver specifically, there were TWO scenes where characters almost slept together for reasons of "duty"... and I was literally like "ahaha I wish this was a smut book CAUSE I WANNA KNOW how they would fuck", but it still amped up the tension all the same to have the two characters kind of look at each other like "Oh no... do we have to fuck???" even if they found ways to evade it.

Forced vulnerability <3. Even a big strong character can feel awkward and nervous when facing the bedroom. It made me want to read some arranged marriage stories, where two characters IN THEORY know what their duty is to do, and they can be LITERALLY MARRIED and yet still uncertain like "But do they really LIKE like me???"

So yeah I had a lot of fun with the story, loved it, and it gave me some food for thought as to what I like in a love interest.

On my list is still Jane Eyre (and maybe Rebecca), but I'm taking a break with a more contemporary read. My youngest sibling told me that they're reading a book called Dykette, which happened to be available atm, so I've picked that up as well and am enjoying it so far. My sibling said that the POV character is the kind of character who is kind of mean and you don't want to root for sometimes, so I'm excited to get into it. Yum depth and nuance, hopefully.