by Marissa Meyer
Published November 2, 2021
Plot: Long 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.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. (2022, Goodreads.com).
Review: In this dark retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, Serilda, the miller’s daughter, is good at telling stories. At telling lies. And after some unfortunate circumstances, and a ridiculous lie - she is taken away to the Erlking’s domain to spin straw into gold. Since she professed that she could after all. Unfortunately, Serilda can’t spin straw into gold and knows she will die once the Erlking finds out. However, at midnight a boy appears and agrees to help her as long as she gives him something of value in return. As the original story goes she is able to fool the king, but this is where the similarities of the retelling end. First of all, the “Rumpelstiltskin” character is not an ugly troll/goblin. He is a handsome boy around Serlida’s age. He has no memory of who he was before being cursed to the Erlking’s castle or why. We also don’t know why he can spin straw into gold or isn't like the other "ghosts" in the castle. Soon the two grow to care for each other, but the Erlking is ruthless and cruel and the story gets very dark after this point. I was definitely surprised towards the last 30% of the book.
Overall, the story was an interesting retelling of the classic story. It did have some similarities, but overall it is it’s own story and world. The writing was good and had an interesting twist towards the end. I did feel it didn’t need to be as long as it was. There were some chapters that could have been taken out - as I didn’t think it progressed the story much. It also gets pretty dark towards the end and so it's not for the faint of heart.
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