Helpful Score: 2
Master storyteller Novik returns to a fantasy eastern Europe with this wonderful book. She's taken some elements from the Rumpelstiltskin story but this is not a simple re-telling. It's about love, and duty, sacrifice, prejudice, a little romance...it's lovely. So many layers to this; you can read it as a simple fairy tale, but look deeper. I read it straight through but I think it deserves a slower pace so you can appreciate better what she's done here. There are narratives from several different characters, all told in first person, so you'll have to pay attention as the chapters begin.
