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nighthawk702's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Violence
lorraine19's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
The stories in this book were very interesting. Topics from prostitution to disabilities to environment to war are covered. The stories are all very personal and there's a wide variety of people interviewed.
However, I feel like the formatting was completely distracting and inconsistent. There were also points it was difficult to follow the stories or it seemed like transitions were missing. It's hard to say how much of this was the writer vs the translators though. (Leaning towards it being translation as there are 2 distinct styles and I have previously read articles by this author.)
Overall, I felt like having the book formatted as short stories or a collection of interviews/articles rather than a novel would have made it much easier to follow. But it does not take away from the importance of topics discussed and the very real, yet dystopian, stories of people living in Russia.
However, I feel like the formatting was completely distracting and inconsistent. There were also points it was difficult to follow the stories or it seemed like transitions were missing. It's hard to say how much of this was the writer vs the translators though. (Leaning towards it being translation as there are 2 distinct styles and I have previously read articles by this author.)
Overall, I felt like having the book formatted as short stories or a collection of interviews/articles rather than a novel would have made it much easier to follow. But it does not take away from the importance of topics discussed and the very real, yet dystopian, stories of people living in Russia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Forced institutionalization, War, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Child death, Classism, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Sexism
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Cursing, and Hate crime
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