Gilded by Marissa Meyer Book Review

Marissa Meyer is one of my favourite authors and probably always will be. I devoured her Lunar Chronicles books in their primetime and I can’t decide if her Renegades series is better or not, but the day I revisit both series, I’m going to have a tense grin on my face. With this one it’s a bit of a different story, but I guess it’s cool knowing Meyer is willing to test new types of stories. Yes, this is a fairytale retelling just like her Lunar Chronicles and Heartless, but this one has a very different overall feel.

A regular miller’s daughter, Serilda, ends up one night getting in way more trouble she could’ve thought possible when two creatures primarily made of moss appear from the forest to Serilda’s farmland and beg to be hidden. Serilda is able to just before a mighty and infamous prince called The Erlking comes by. Asking what Serilda is doing out when it’s dangerous at night, she hears herself saying she was weaving straw into gold, and that it’s only during the full moon when she can do so. This takes the Erlking by surprise and decides to see if Serilda is telling the truth and brings her to his castle to prove it.

Serilda is unable to, and one of the book’s best moments is her desperation and fear that starts to envelop her as the night goes by and no gold comes of the straw she’s given. But she is then visited by a strange boy, a sort of ghost named Gild, who says he can turn the straw into gold, but by magic rules, she must give something of equal value. Soon the Erlking ends up holding Serilda as a sort of hostage, keeping an eye on her and forcing more and more gold, and what happens when her lie eventually unravels when she runs out of things to give in exchange? And what does the Erlking want with that gold? And who are these strange spirits that seem to roam the castle?

In my opinion this Rumpelstiltskin retelling is Meyer’s least impressive book because it’s the least exciting, but it is also written probably the best this story could’ve been done. The story doesn’t move very fast, and a lot of this 500-page monster feels like a prelude to the next book, developing the characters and witnessing the pain before the eventual retribution. In most other author’s shoes, I would probably give this two or two and a half stars. The worst part of this book, in my opinion, is a side story Serilda tells Gild about a cursed princess. Whether it’s fiction or not we don’t really know. But the side story itself is very exposition-clogged and difficult to follow, so we don’t care to pay attention to it much as the book brings it up here and there.

But the writing of the main story tackles Serilda’s fear, the creepiness of her surroundings, the mysteriousness of Gild and the nastiness of the Erlking all with a beautiful style that doesn’t push it too hard. I found myself really scared and desperate on the characters’ behalfs, and I’ve been thinking about what is to happen in the sequel for a while. There have been shorter books that have been a lot harder to finish. It’s not as much of a ride as her other books, but Gilded retained enough of my interest against some odds, thanks to the charm Meyer put in telling the tale. I’m looking forward to reading Cursed!