Hardcover, 500 pages
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Published by: Feiwel & Friends
Read from: October 31- November 11, 2021
Gilded, #1
Source: Bought
TW: Stabbing
For Readers Interested In: Fantasy, Romance, Re-tellings, Fae, Magic, YALong ago cursed by the god of lies, a poor miller’s daughter has developed a talent for spinning stories that are fantastical and spellbinding and entirely untrue.
Or so everyone believes.
When one of Serilda’s outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her… for a price. Love isn’t meant to be part of the bargain.
Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.
Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author, returns to the fairytale world with this haunting retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I first saw there was another Marissa Meyer book coming out, I was hella excited. But then I saw it was a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. I’m not going to lie and say I was immediately excited, because I wasn’t. But in true Meyer fashion, she already has me chomping at the bit for the next one.
You think you know the story of Rumpelstiltskin already, but you don’t exactly know it in this way. In this story you will find a poor miller’s daughter who has a passion for telling outlandish stories to children and anyone that will listen. One day her stories gets some unwanted attention from Erlking. And of course, he wants her to do the things she’s said she could do…. Like turning straw into gold. When she can’t, she enlists the help of Gild who agrees to help her for a small price. Them falling for each other wasn’t exactly part of the plan.
Originally I wasn’t going to read this. I did not want or care about a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. I knew it wasn’t going to be like a modern retelling, and I just didn’t care. But then I remembered who it was by. If you don’t know, Meyer is one of my favorite authors, so I knew I had to at least try. And sure enough, I was hooked. It wasn’t the story, so much as the story telling. I found that funny since this was about a book a girl who was a good story teller, and this was by someone who is also bomb at telling stories.
I didn’t care for the fact that it wasn’t enough of its own story tho. Like it was exactly the story of Rumpelstiltskin with nothing extra added. There was the fae aspects, but I thought that was more of a set up for the sequel than the story itself. I think I was expecting more of the Lunar Chronicles type of retelling since Rumpelstiltskin was so already so “exact.” But it was literally just like I was reading the original story.
I also didn’t care for the ending. But now, seeing that there is a sequel and the fact that it already has a synopsis, I see why it ended that way. So I would go back for the next one. But I’m going to warn you here. The next one doesn’t seem like a retelling. It’s like a continuation of this one, so maybe? I’m not sure. But the ending of this book is left open, and doesn’t really solve anything. In my opinion.
The magic in this book though was bomb. I loved the way it was just part of the world, even though it wasn’t supposed to be. Does that make sense? Like it wasn’t supposed to be there, but her story telling brought it to life. I do wish she had explained some of the magic system, but it didn’t really need it. It wasn’t something that the humans in story had, but morseo the magical creatures.
This book wasn’t what I expected. Of course it was good, it was Marissa Meyer…. But this also was a great book for other reasons. If you want to be entertained, read this!
Overall, I give this,
