Waiting on Wednesday: Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Oh my goodness gracious, did I ever mess up today! I post the daily book talks to my school's learning platform in my "Library Links" group first. Then I copy and paste the post here. At 6:15, I posted a #tbt post there, then came here to copy and paste and noted that I missed my "Waiting on Wednesday" post! Only, I didn't because today is Wednesday. It wasn't until midway through the first period of my day, when I noticed comments on the post in the group, that I realized my error. They were very gentle, but clearly told me that I was mistaken. Oh, did I laugh!

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Gilded by Marissa Meyer. 512 p. Feiwel & Friends/ Macmillan Publishers, November 2, 2021. 

Waiting on Wednesday features Gilded by Marissa Meyer. Ms. Meyer mashed up a variety of fairy tales in her inventive Cinder series and in Heartless, she envisioned what motivated the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland to become such an evil queen. In Gilded, she reimagines the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale. Here's the publisher synopsis: 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. Love isn't meant to be part of the bargain.

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.