I went into this book thinking I wouldn't be interested. I was unsure where the influx of Rumplestiltskin retellings was coming from and didn't really see the appeal. Despite myself, I was drawn in and should have know Meyer would produce gold like she always does ;). I am not much of a romantic but this book does have it all. The scene in statue alcove where they just fade? I cried! I never cry! The book ended on a cliff hanger and I absolutely cannot wait for Cursed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this new book by Marissa Meyer. I am excited to see the sequel announced and I look forward to reading that one as well. Definitely will be one I recommend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5/5 Stars
📝 Cliff hanger; Fade to black scene, check triggers below

Any time I think of Rumpelstiltskin, I think of the 1995 movie version. I grew up watching that movie with the creepy little man. However, this Rumpelstiltskin retelling is nothing like the version I grew up with.

While this story has many similar plot points of the original fairytale, Meyer took this story and made it her very own. I really enjoyed her some of the darker elements within this story with the inclusion of ghouls, forest folk, monstrous beasts, mythology and curses. With the slight touch of romance, it gave a well rounded balance to this story.

The only thing that I think could have been improved was the length. I think at times it could have been stretched out a bit long and maybe she could have condensed it a bit. With that said, I’m intrigued to see what happens in the next book.

Audiobook Thoughts: Rebecca Soler & Marissa Meyer are a dynamic duo! I loved listing to Soler bring the Lunar Chronicles to life, so I was excited to see her narrating this series as well.

Trigger Warnings: Death of children

Serilda enjoys creating stories to tell and embellishing the tales every time she retells them. One snowy night, she hears noises outside her house. She dares to go outside and she sees two moss maidens trying to hide from hunters. Serilda helps them hide but lies to the Erlking to keep them safe. He’s intrigued by her story of being able to spin straw into gold so he sends for her to come to his castle. After that, she's bound to keep going back to the castle because the Erlking won't let her go. She meets Gild, who the Erlking classifies as a poltergeist. Gild has the gift of magic that allows him to spin straw into gold. He helps Serilda but requires payment in return each time he helps her. The first two times, Serilda gives him the gifts the moss maidens gave her when she saved them from the Erlking. The third time, she offers her future firstborn child as payment. That is the only thing she has to offer. Gild accepts this offer, so his magic will work. Everything grows more complicated and the people Serilda love become endangered. The Erlking is heartless, cold and brutal. He will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
Gilded is one of the best fairytale retellings I've read because Marissa Meyer adds twists and brings original characters to the story. Suspenseful, dangerous and interesting fairytale retelling, 5 stars!

Stars: 5,000/5!
Overview:
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. (copied from Goodreads profile!)

Review:
PICK UP A COPY NOW! In my star rating, I gave this book 5,000 stars because it is SOOO GOOD! The writing is simple and flows nicely with the story! This one was recently published so I recommend everyone pick up a copy because it is such an amazing retelling and story!

I have always been a Marissa Meyer fan but this may be the book that inspires a cult following, the characters, setting, plot, and writing fit together perfectly. It grabs your attention from the first page and doesn’t stop! I don’t want to give anything else away; anything else would be a huge spoiler. Go grab a copy! For more reviews and bookish content follow me @3am_bookmarks on Instagram!

I would like to start this out by saying I L O V E folklore and fairytales; they are some of my favorite forms of storytelling and if I didn’t have a character limit, I would absolutely go on a tangent about it. That being said, Rumplestiltskin has always been my favorite of the German fables and I can honestly say that I am not disappointed in Marissa Meyer’s spin on the story. It was really interesting to see how she stayed true to the original and where she took her creative liberties. She turned it into a dark fairytale with a hint of adventure, a dash of adventure, and a pinch of investigative exploration.
I will say that I feel like the beginning was a little stagnant. There were a lot of words used to basically move the story two feet forward and I was getting close to DNF’ing at 15% before the Erlking got things moving with his motives and actions. Additionally, I felt like Meyer took a lot of inspo from the Once Upon A Time version of Beauty & The Beast with how she set Gild (the new Rumplestiltskin) up as the love interest and had him play more of a role in the story than “i show up, i spin my gold, i steal your child, and i go home.” Serilda was starting to work my nerves at times but I loved that the miller’s daughter in this version of the story was someone who did more than cry about her issues.
Overall, as someone who generally enjoys Meyer’s writing, I’d say this was a success. Giving it a 4 just due to the lack of action in the beginning. I’d say that I already prefer this series to the Lunar Chronicles and I loved those books. Here’s to waiting until November for ‘Cursed’ which is Book 2 in the Gilded series. I wonder if Gild will spilt himself in two in her version?

All That Glitters Is Not Happily Ever After: Marissa Meyer’s Gilded

If there’s anyone who is adept at spinning familiar fairy tales into radically new retellings, it’s Marissa Meyer. Best known for her Lunar Chronicles series, the bestselling author has turned Cinderella into a cyborg, trapped Rapunzel in a satellite, and cast a spell with a Moon-dwelling Wicked Queen.

Gilded, her new yarn about the mischievous Rumpelstiltskin, is being described as her return to fairy tales, yet simultaneously it feels like she never left. But just as with her magical contemporary romance Instant Karma, Gilded is something new for Meyer: pure fantasy shot through with chilling darkness, interrogating every angle of the Rumpelstiltskin source material with the endeavor of finding (or creating out of whole cloth) the two sides to the story.

In the original Brothers Grimm telling, the eponymous imp helps a poor miller’s daughter whose father has trapped her in the lie that she can spin straw into gold. For three nights, he saves her life by spinning gold for the king who would otherwise kill her if her deception were discovered; but whereas she can pay him with trinkets the first two nights, by the third she is empty-handed and so desperate that she promises her hypothetical firstborn child. When she eventually does give birth and tries to wriggle out of their pact, the only way the imp will release her is if she can speak his true name—which she does after eavesdropping on Rumpeltstiltskin singing about himself. Thwarted, the imp leaves the miller’s daughter-turned-queen, her king, and their child in peace.

In Gilded, Meyer centers the tale on eighteen-year-old Serilda, and makes you root for a liar: “blessed” by the trickster god Wyrdith with uncanny gold eyes, she is capable of spinning outlandish tales, which land great with the village children she tutors but makes Serilda seem untrustworthy to adults and downright cursed to her peers. Yet she delights in embellishment and how it brightens her humble life at her father’s mill following her mother’s abandonment of the family and Serilda’s own lack of marriage and employment prospects. What’s more, it’s her quick thinking on her feet that saves her when the fearsome Erlking—undead sovereign of the dark ones—descends upon her village for the dark realm’s monthly hunt.

Unfortunately, the problem with fantastical lies is how they draw attention, and the Erlking, normally dismissive of mortals, has special use for a gold-spinner. And so he whisks Serilda to his castle in the nearby town of Adalheid, pitting her against a dungeon full of straw and the truth that could kill her. But when a mysterious redheaded youth appears at her time of need, Serilda finds herself inexplicably drawn to the young man named Gild, who can save her life with his magic… for a price, of course.

Meyer smartly expands the original fairy tale by having it still take place over a handful of nights, except that each is separated by a month—the Hunger Moon, the Crow Moon, and so forth. This lunar worldbuilding realistically depicts the life cycle of a lie: Every month Serilda has the chance to confess her deceit, only to instead build upon the original falsehood until she has dug herself so deep into this previously thrilling story that it seems she will become a casualty of its telling.

Serilda’s compulsion to lie—equal parts divine gift and mortal foible—makes her an endearing narrator. Especially so in the sly reversals in which her monthly adventures grow more fantastical, and more true, yet no one will believe her; and as the lies she is forced to continue telling begin getting away from her, forcing her into specific paths and choices based on how she initially misrepresented herself. At the same time, her travels pull her away from her stagnant life at the mill and into the path of new friends and allies, from a kindly maternal innkeeper in Adalheid to the intriguingly touch-starved Gild.

The book also has a satisfyingly dark side to it, mimicking the veil between the Erlking’s world and Serilda’s—what starts out as a small tear to be passed through only on a given Moon, but which frays and expands with this gods-touched mortal’s movements back and forth. Just as she is exposed to the Gothic thrills of a long-dead castle, the Erlking’s threat reaches beyond just her, to the people she holds most dear. Meyer impressively commits to ghastly consequences for Serilda’s actions, in bleak callbacks to the truly grim origins of Jacob and Wilhelm’s recorded tales.

The story does occasionally spin away from Rumpelstiltskin, however. The archetypal character has long been presented as a cackling trickster, whereas sensitive, vulnerable Gild bears very little resemblance to his supposed namesake. By casting him and the Erlking as night-and-day allies and antagonists to Serilda, some gray-area nuance is lost, especially as readers begin to catch on to which plot beat Meyer has grasped next, to run through the figurative spinning wheel to fill the next narrative bobbin. Additionally, Meyer’s dialogue often lends itself more naturally to futuristic stories, in which language has evolved along with culture. Some of the phrasing or personality quirks that come out of the mouths of Serilda and others can come across as anachronistically self-aware for a fantasy setting, even one whose characters can speak their fates into existence through stories. (That said: Serilda using stories about nonbinary gods to teach the children that they can grow beyond their society’s gender roles, which relegate girls to the spinning wheel, fits wonderfully into this world.)

The book concludes in such an abrupt fashion that it is unclear if Meyer is setting up a potential sequel—there is certainly story left to be spun—or ending on the kind of cliffhanger that will invite readers, like Serilda’s eager audience, to fill in what they believe happens next. Despite a slow pace in parts, it’s an admirably fresh examination on the line between spinning a harmless fairy tale and unleashing the dark magic of a dangerous lie, worse than any curse, on the world.

Once I realized this wasn't a standalone, I really enjoyed this beginning to a duology that takes the Rumpelstiltskin story and flips it on its head, then twirls it around a bunch. After lying to the dark Erlking that she can spin straw into gold to save two moss maidens, Serilda is kidnapped each full moon to do just that - turn entire rooms of straw into thin gold threads. Unfortunately, she does not have this power, but rather the ability to tell very good stories. Luckily a ghost-not-ghost-maybe-ghost? boy appears that DOES have the ability to turn straw into gold. As Gild helps her, Serilda becomes determined to figure out the story of the castle the Erlking inhabits during the full moons, who Gild really is, and what happen to her mother when she was a young child.

There is a lot going on in this story to the point that I genuinely thought it was going to be an unhappy ending if this was a standalone book. Serilda is a headstrong and determined character with a lot of curiosity and often a lack of self-preservation skills. Gild is adorably smirky and sweet. The Erlking is the exact perfect amount of darkly intriguing and totally terrifying. The way this first volume ends flips everything on its head, and I really look forward to seeing where this goes. Marissa Meyer is an expert at turning common faerie tales into something much bigger and complex so that they feel completely new.

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.

This is the retelling I’ve been wanting! I always held fascination for the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, but I never quite found a book or retelling that cinched my curiosity or fulfilled my reading satisfaction. Of course I would enjoy one from Marissa Meyer, who blew me away with her Lunar Chronicles series years ago that also featured retellings with new twists and turns. I can’t wait to finish the story in the next volume of the series!

Gilded is another excellent fantasy retelling from author Marissa Meyer. These are consistently my favorite Meyer books, and this retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin story with an Erlking twist does not disappoint.

I have always been a huge fan of Marissa Meyer and have been eagerly awaiting her return to retellings! Rumpelstiltskin is one of the best fairy tales in my opinion, and it was great to see a twist to it. While I knew it was a retelling, there was still so much orginiality to the book that made it feel so different. Marissa Meyer is incredible with retellings and I can't wait for the sequel!

I liked the story telling as well as our MCs made up stories. I appreciated her imagination and generally liked her character. However a few things bothered me. This definitely could have been much much shorter. It felt too stretched out, and so the pacing felt off and inconsistent. The “romance” and “romantic tension” if you want to call it that, seemed forced or lacked chemistry. Also she knows NOTHING about Gild, he hardly knows anything about himself, and yet she’s falling in love with him? I wonder how, since they know absolutely nothing of each other. She only ever told him stories (not about herself) and he only ever listened. This whole aspect of the story is not believable, however I understand it’s need towards the end of the book. All that being said, overall I liked it for the most part

This was my first Marissa Meyer book after hearing a lot of my book friends telling me she was the queen of fairytale retellings and I am trash for fairytale retellings. So how had I not read any of her work? Not idea. But, I digress. This book was fun, but very long, probably because there isn't much from the original fairytale to go of off so Meyer had to weave her own tale. Which was commendable.

While I enjoyed the characters as well as the writing itself, it did drag in a few places and was probably at least 100 pgs too long. But, it certainly wouldn't stop me from picking up anything else she puts out or anything in her backlist.

A solid, beautifully written book, that just happened to be a little long in the tooth.

Marissa Meyer has done it again. Master storyteller. Tale spinner extraordinaire. Magic weaver. Fairytale Queen.
There is just something about the way she writes and her books that I can't stop thinking about them.
She will always be one of my top five favorite authors of all time.

Serilda was somehow relatable even though I didn't have much in common with her. I feel like if I were in here shoes I just would have made the same choices she did or reacted the same way. She is quick witted and very clever. One of the smartest MCs I've read about in a long time. I love her gift of story telling, because telling stories is power, is it not?

Gild. Oh my precious sweet cinnamon roll Gild. Insert all the cry faces her. What a tragic story he has!
I love them.

And all while stuck in the Alder King's castle. Hate that dude.

Definitely a dark retelling of Rumpelstiltskin (which is a dark tale anyways!) . Just pure magic. LOVE LOVE LOVE! Cannot recommend this enough!

I have to admit, I’m a simple woman: if Marissa Meyer wrote it, I will read it, and I will thoroughly enjoy it. Her prose is as charming as ever in this newest retelling, and the classic Rumplestiltskin story has enough of a unique spin on it to make it feel like her own. The characters are interesting and likable, and overall this was an enjoyable setup for what I’m sure will be an impressive second novel.

This book makes me so mad. I ended the book incandescent with rage? As anyone who knows me knows, I’m a big fan of fairytale retellings, and Meyer is a heavyweight in the fairytale retelling game.

But this book just didn’t hit. It had a really strong start, but then it dragged. Meyer had a tough task with Rumpelstiltskin, because not a lot happens in the original story. This meant she had to make up a lot, and some of the additional mythology was interesting. That said, it was very clear very early how the plot as a whole would take us. I wouldn’t mind this, I’m not reading a fairytale retelling to be surprised - but Meyer wrote a 500 page book and didn’t even finish the story. I can’t believe Marissa Meyer is going to make me read multiple books about Rumpelstiltskin.

3.5⭐️This was my least favorite Marissa Meyer book but it was pretty good for everything she brought to the table for a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. I feel like there was a lot of running around in the book that wasn't needed. By the end of the book I was left kind of unsure of everyone endgame. Meyer is still the reigning retelling queen of my dreams and top tier auto-author buy for me so you know I can’t wait for Cursed!!!🥰❤️

Marissa Meyer has blown me away time and time again with her retellings. And I wondered how in the world she would be able to make Rumplestilskin into something modern, believable, and yet remain true to the original fairy tale. But as usual, she's blown me away. But what will I be able to tell you about the story without spoiling any of it?

Gilded took about 10% for me to feel hooked into the story. While that might not seem very long, at 502 pages 10% is 50 pages. But once I was hooked, I wanted to keep reading. Even though I often found the fantasy descriptions a little long-winded. I suppose so much of the world was unique enough to need these descriptions, but I skimmed a little if I'm honest. Another issue I had was the words I had no reference for pronunciation. I don't mind unique words, but so many of them I just have no clue how to go about pronouncing correctly. And my last major complaint was the brief PC push on gender limitations.

I'm not sure I could say that Serilda was the most likable character. Of course, I still rooted for her, but something just kept me from loving her to her core. I did love her love of stories even though I also wanted to skim some of the stories that she told. Those became more important as the overall story moved along.

I liked the ghost story and darker elements brought to the fairytale. This couldn't just be about a king wanting earthly wealth and a poor girl who falls in love with the greedy king.

Favorite quotes:
-She was met with eager curiosity, the children leaning closer with bright eyes and growing smiles. Despite the cold, Serilda flushed with her own excitement. There was a shiver of anticipation, for even she rarely knew what twists and turns her stories would take before the words slipped from her tongue. Half the time, she was as surprised by the revelations as her listeners. It was part of what drew her to storytelling— not knowing the end, not knowing what would happen next. She was on the adventure every bit as much as the children were.

-full-hearted commitment was the only way to persuade someone of an untruth.

-After all, why be accommodating when one can be difficult?”

-“You’re saying the story made you feel something then?” “Of course it made me feel something. And that something is awful!”

-“Oh no. Not until you tell me what happens next.” She huffed. “I don’t know what happens next.” His expression was priceless. A little dismayed, a little horrified. “How can you not know? It’s your story.” “Not every story is willing to reveal itself right away. Some of them are bashful.”

-This was the worst part of Serilda’s terrible habit. It was so easy to forget what lies one had told, and in what detail.

-It’s hard to be close to someone when you can’t trust them.

My review copy did have a few corrections needed, specifically the very last sentence of the book. But I'm sure those have long been corrected for the final release.

Gilded ends in what is supposed to be a cliffhanger. I have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers, but this was my favorite kind...one that gives the character and the reader hope. Of course, there's much more of the story to come, but I enjoyed Marissa Meyer's unique retelling of Rumplestilskin. Gilded gets 4 Stars. Have you read Gilded? What did you think? Let me know!

Gilded is what my dark fairytale dreams are made of. One of my favorite things about this story is its main character, Serilda. Reading her story through her own storyteller eyes made for such an enchanting reading experience, from her dialogue to the way she views the world that surrounds her to even her inner monologue and thanks to the nature of her character, I found there wasn’t a single dull moment in this book. I’d sell my heart and soul to be able to read Gilded for the first time again. It’s an absolutely stunning story, with wonderful writing and an incredibly charming, unique main character; I can already tell I’ll never tire of revisiting this story.