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Parents' Guide to

Gilded

By Carrie R. Wheadon, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Bold, at times gory reimagining of "Rumpelstiltskin."

Book Marissa Meyer Fantasy 2021
Gilded Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

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age 13+

Based on 1 parent review

Thankfulmom
Thankfulmom Parent of 14-year-old
January 16, 2022
age 13+

Rumpelstiltskin Retelling

This is an interesting take on the story of Rumpelstiltskin. The book starts slow and picks up as it goes. There is a lot of mystery and the main character is trying to figure out all of it. She is a storyteller which seems to get her into trouble but her gift runs deeper than she realizes. There is violence, gore, and two characters have sex but it is not described. This is the first of a duology.
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In GILDED, Serilda, a miller's daughter, is an outcast of her agrarian village because of her strange golden-spoked irises. Her father claims she's been blessed by Wyrdith, the goddess of storytelling and lies, and indeed Serilda is adept at both. She's so adept that, when the dreaded undead Erlking visits one full moon with his Wild Hunt, she's able to save the lives of two moss maidens from the enchanted wood with only her tongue. Serilda is spotted by the Erlking and his undead friends just after she hides his moss maiden prey in her cellar. The king is full of questions. Has she seen the moss maidens? And why is she out in the middle of the night? Serilda is terrified, but still bold enough to weave one of her stories for him. She's out collecting straw, she tells him, because she can only spin straw into gold by the light of the full moon. The Erlking leaves, a little confused but satisfied, and Serilda breathes a sigh of relief. But the next full moon a ghost arrives at her door with a carriage. She's to ride to the Erlking's castle on the other side of the enchanted wood and on the other side of the veil separating the living and the dead. And she has one night to spin a roomful of straw into gold or she dies. Beyond despair, Serilda calls for help and it arrives in the form of the poltergeist of the castle, a mysterious redheaded boy who remembers nothing of his own life before.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (7 ):

This deliciously dark retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" full of ghosts, curses, and gnarly creatures has a surprisingly tender love story at its center. Gilded is author Marissa Meyer's most immersive fairy tale world since she took Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White to the moon and back in her Lunar Chronicles series. Innocent villages butt up against a dangerous enchanted wood, and one town lives in the shadow of castle ruins that spew forth a terrible undead king and his merciless hunting party every full moon. The castle is full of secrets both because its inhabitants are ghosts and because its history is lost. As the story unfolds, this lost history becomes an even stranger curiosity, and perhaps the kind of knowledge that may save the main character's life.

The romance between Serilda and Gild weaves in like a glint of golden thread amidst the sinister stuff, and it's an ingenious turn away from the Brothers Grimm's "Rumpelstiltskin." What if the hunchbacked, warty, ancient magic dude that demanded the cruelest payment imaginable for his spinning services was actually a handsome, stand-up guy? What if he was someone lonely and lost and just as much a victim of the Erlking's cruelty as Serilda is? Can a trapped poltergeist and a storytelling miller's daughter make it work? The greedy Erlking has other ideas, and the dark twists at the end of Gilded will have readers clamoring for Book 2.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the surprising deaths in Gilded. Were they hard to read about? The original (or closer-to original) versions of Grimm's fairy tales were full of sometimes shocking violence. Why do you think that most of the fairy tales we read now are so much tamer? Which versions of fairy tales do you prefer?

  • How is this story like the original "Rumpelstiltskin"? How does it differ? Have you read books featuring the Wild Hunt before? It pops up often in Cassandra Clare's fantasies. How is Marissa Meyer's version of the Wild Hunt different?

  • Will you read Book 2? What do you think will happen to the main characters?

Book Details

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