#summerreadthon update

Hey guys! Today, I finally finished Gilded by Marissa Meyer! I’ve now read three books (including Yolk from before) for the readathon which I’m really happy about! I’m hoping to finish at least one more before the end of the month. But in the mean time, here’s a mini review:

Gilded - 4⭐️

I really liked this unique take on the Rumpelstiltskin retelling. Even though it followed most of the parts from the fairy tale, I liked that the world building was more in depth, with different creatures and ghosts and such. It also had an interesting twist and a mystery that you figure out as you’re reading it.

I loved Serilda. She’s such a strong and interesting character who’s been made an outcast because of the golden wheels in her eyes, a gift from Wyrdith, the god of lies. I love the stories she would tell and how she could weave her way out of dangerous situations. But sadly her life does change drastically and not for the better.

Gild was an interesting character too. I didn’t warm up to him at first because he kept touching Serilda without her permission to feel her warmth and that made me kinda uncomfortable lol. But he started to learn and keep his boundaries until they grew closer. I was hoping for this to be the new favourite ship but it didn’t give me the kind of deep and emotional romance I wanted (which is happening a lot to me with every book I read and I’m guessing I have high expectations for romances that don’t just involve physical intimacy lol).

I appreciated that Marissa Meyer was trying to add some representation in this story too. There’s an awesome bisexual woman called Lorraine who is the mayor of a small town and has a crush on a lesbian librarian called Frieda. We don’t see a lot of their interactions unfortunately, but I loved the representation. I also thought it was interesting the discussion Serilda had with the children about the gender of the gods, how they can be whatever gender they want or neither.

It’s ironic that I wanted a light-hearted read because this grew increasingly dark lol. I don’t know if Marissa Meyer’s writing is getting darker lol but I guess it makes sense considering that most of the cruelty inflicted by the Erlking is to show how cold and unrelenting he is, but it did get to me a bit that children weren’t spared. Let’s say there’s a lot of doom and gloom in the second half lol. I just find it a bit annoying when the villain is considered invincible and that there’s no hope in the good guys winning because he’s always a step ahead and gets what he wants.

A Spindle Splintered - 5*

This book took me by surprise! Having read two of Alix E. Harrow’s books, her writing style was slightly different for this book and was written in first person rather than third person! But it made a lot of sense considering that Sleeping beauties don’t have the luxury of expressing their own voices.

I loved Zinnia as a character! I love her quirky personality and how vibrant she is. As a character with a rare genetic illness, you learn about how she’s had to limit what she can do in her life because no one survives the illness past the age of 21. You also learn how people usually act around her, either with pity or disinterest. It was nice to see her go on a journey and realise that most of her time was spent preparing herself for the end of her life and how she doesn’t have to play by the clock.

I also love that we got some lesbian rep in this book, especially with her friend, Charm. I really liked their friendship and how easily Charm was able to believe whatever multi universe chaos was going on.

Of course, this is a sleeping beauty retelling and it was really nice to see Primrose express herself more in this book. She gave me Giselle vibes from enchanted lol. I liked the twists and turns in the story, how everything is not as it seems like with the “evil” fairy that cursed her. It makes sense that this story got turned into one where women have a voice and are empowered by their own choices.

There were some other interesting characters introduced from different worlds. I hope we get to see more of them in the series since we didn’t get much from them.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when reading this, especially how it would end. I appreciated that Zinnia wasn’t magically cured by her journey, but that it gave her a chance to see what she wanted to do with her life.

As eerie as the illustrations were, I liked seeing them throughout the story. They added a darker atmosphere to the book.