Where to find it: Libraries, bookstores, and ebook providers
What is it, in summary?: Loose Rumpelstiltskin/Hades and Persephone retelling in a Snow Queen-like setting: Miryem, a Jewish woman whose father is a moneylender, gets fed up with how their customers take advantage of him and hate her family, and takes over the business, turning it around to the point where she boasts that she can turn silver to gold. This catches the attention of the Staryk, a sort of winter fairy, whose king sets her tests and then spirits her away to be his queen.
What do you love about it?: I love Miryem a lot - I love practical, hard-headed, ruthless female characters who get into adventures because of, rather than in spite of, those qualities. I like how Naomi Novik, the author, weaves fairy tales into the history of the Jews in this setting, and I like Miryem's relationships with the other female characters, including Wanda, initially her servant and later her friend, and Irina, the tsarina who has her own secret.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? - Writing and/or requesting plotty femslash or gen.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - antisemitism; some violence; brief instance(s?) of fear of rape, though nothing happens
no subject
Media: Novel
Approx length: 480 pages
Where to find it: Libraries, bookstores, and ebook providers
What is it, in summary?: Loose Rumpelstiltskin/Hades and Persephone retelling in a Snow Queen-like setting: Miryem, a Jewish woman whose father is a moneylender, gets fed up with how their customers take advantage of him and hate her family, and takes over the business, turning it around to the point where she boasts that she can turn silver to gold. This catches the attention of the Staryk, a sort of winter fairy, whose king sets her tests and then spirits her away to be his queen.
What do you love about it?: I love Miryem a lot - I love practical, hard-headed, ruthless female characters who get into adventures because of, rather than in spite of, those qualities. I like how Naomi Novik, the author, weaves fairy tales into the history of the Jews in this setting, and I like Miryem's relationships with the other female characters, including Wanda, initially her servant and later her friend, and Irina, the tsarina who has her own secret.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? - Writing and/or requesting plotty femslash or gen.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - antisemitism; some violence; brief instance(s?) of fear of rape, though nothing happens