Review: Spinning Starlight

Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

RC Lewis's first book was a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella that was...okay. I can't find a ton to fault it, but I can't find a ton to love, either, especially since Marissa Meyer is sort of leading the charge. Spinning Starlight is a science fiction retelling of Swan Lake, and while the similarities are a little rough around the edges, the story is BRILLIANT once it gets rolling. A society girl of sorts gets transported via portal to a long-forgotten planet and loses her ability to speak, and then it essentially becomes an alien visitation story in reverse? Pretty great.

This story is bogged down a bit because it takes nearly a quarter of the book to get going. I very nearly tossed it aside, but the moment Liddi hits the new planet, the story becomes something a little special. It's great to see the problem solving, the cultural differences, the language barriers, and done from a perspective that most science fiction stories don't quite get to. Much like how the first book uses an old fairy tale as a framework, so too does this one, and it doesn't feel so weighted down by the concept.

The end is not as frustrating as the beginning, but still doesn't quite work the same way the rest of the book does. Flawed, for sure, but still worth a read and still glad I read it overall. Closer to a 3.5.

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