What I loved in Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (spoilers):
1) The writing. It was so intricately and tightly written. It all made sense. I could feel with the characters; and everything was so well-connected.
2) Multiple perspectives. There were no chapter headings with different character names like most books with multiple perspectives. Every character's voice was distinctive and recognisable. At first I had expected just one main character like in Scholomance, but as I read and talked to someone else who had read it and recommended it to me, and also after seeing certain fanarts, I expected there to be three main characters and I expected only the main characters to have povs; but then we got Stepon's perspective which was so heartbreaking, and then we also got Magreta's perspective which I didn't mind and rather found insightful in regard to Irina's characterization. I also liked how we saw certain incidents through different character's perspectives, especially in the beginning as new characters were introduced — as when Wanda was introduced through Miryem's perspective first, and I didn't pay attention to her then that this girl whom Miryem has kinda bought from her father to pay his debt would turn out to play a major role later, but then we see Miryem through Wanda's eyes! Same thing happened with Irina too. Oh, and I also liked how snarky and ultimately sad Mirnatius's perspective was.
3) The theme of abusive parents. How the theme of parents selling their children was executed through different characters in different ways. Wanda, Irina and even Mirnatius were all dealt shitty hands in regard to parents, though Irina was still better off than the other two. I was glad when Wanda and the kids escaped. I felt part of why Wanda's voice sounded the way it did, so pragmatic and stoic, was because of her traumatic childhood. Then there was Mirnatius, who was bargained away while still in his mother's womb, which reminded me of Scholomance.
4) The theme of remembering and forgetting. This theme also reminded me of The Winternight Trilogy. I really liked the fairytale-esque effect of this theme in both. After Miryem was gone with the Staryk, it was so hard for others to remember her or where or when she had gone. During the confrontation with the Staryk, it was only when her mother remembered her that others could remember her too. I liked how memory was connected to love in that scene. The Staryk would have found it easier to take Miryem against her will if others had totally forgotten her. Unlike Miryem and Irina, Wanda didn't have any powers but she did have the bond of love and memory, and through that she helped Miryem. Wanda and her brothers also remembered how they had needed help and got it, and so wanted a house so that they could be in a position to provide similar kind of help.
5) The characters. I loved the stubbornness of Miryem, the ruthlessness of Irina and the strength of Wanda. I also liked the other characters like Miryem's parents, Wanda's brothers, Irina's companion Magreta, all the staryks whom Miryem met and Mirnatius. I loved how all these characters were portrayed with empathy and understanding. They were also understanding of each other's situation. None of the characters at any point felt unreasonable to me.
6) The representation of antisemitism. These lines by Wanda, when she along with her brothers and Miryem's parents came to stay with Miryem's extended family, particularly seemed to emphasize the experience of being a minority: I thought that when Miryem had to go to the Staryk kingdom maybe it was like this for her. All of a sudden everyone around you was the same as each other but not like you. And then I thought, but it was like that for Miryem already. It was like that for her all the time, in town.
The ending chapters. I felt like not enough happened and not all characters were properly utilized at the end. I had loved how Scholomance had ended and was expecting something similar but this one felt less somehow in that aspect.
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