Review: Gilded (Gilded #1)

Gilded (Gilded #1) by Marissa Meyer

Published By: Faber and Faber
Publication Date: November 2, 2021
Date Read: November 24, 2024
Genre: YA – Retellings
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 500

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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.

Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author, returns to the fairytale world with this haunting retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

I’ve been a huge fan of Marissa Meyer for a long while, ever since I read and adored The Lunar Chronicles years ago. Since then, I’ve bought her books as soon as they released but for some reason Gilded sat there unread for a number of years. While trying to clear out some of my audiobooks, I decided to read the audio edition of this one. I am so glad that I finally picked this up as I absolutely loved every moment of it.

Gilded follows the story of Serilda, a poor miller’s daughter with a penchant for telling stories. She is favoured in her village by the children as they love hearing her stories. However, when one of her particularly tall tales, catches the attention of the evil Erlking, he kidnaps her expecting her to spin straw into gold. If she doesn’t… he will kill her. Enter, Gild. A handsome poltergeist who just so happens to be able to spin straw into god and… well… you know the tale! This is a super faithful adaptation of the Rumplstiltskin tale… only add up the sinister evil characters and the creep factor. I remember absolutely loving the Rumplestiltskin tale as a kid and so to see this retelling sticking really close to the tale was a definite plus for me. I love retellings but 99% of retellings stray away from the source material significantly, whereas with this one I found that Marissa stayed true to every aspect of the original fairytale, while adding more backstory and lore around that. That’s what has made this one of my favourite retellings of all time.

Marissa Meyer’s writing is super addictive. Right from the very first word, I was completely obsessed and taken away on a journey by this book. I couldn’t stop reading (or in my case listening). I was loving every word and couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen. I love how she added a ghostly twist to this tale, which made it even more high stakes than the original fairytale. She has just cemented herself as one of my favourite authors, and I will pick up anything that this woman writes.

Gilded was such a fantastic book. It was fun, action packed and had a hint of romance along the way. I feel like this book was really overshadowed by another similar titled book that released at a similar time, and it is honestly a shame because this book is everything! It’s absolutely fantastic and despite me not being a binge reader of series, I will be going straight into the next book of this duology as I cannot wait to see what happens. If you’re a fan of some good fairytale retellings then I urge you not to miss out on this one. I loved every single moment. Fantastic start to what I’m sure is going to be a phenomenal series.