Reviews

I Love Russia by Elena Kostyuchenko

nyeran's review

1.0

✿ A volte è difficile stare dietro a nomi e dialoghi che non seguono una logica lineare.
Da una visione della Russia reale? No se a leggerlo è una persona che un minimo si interessa dell'estero, di geopolitica o si tiene informato. E anche tutte queste storie che racconta non fanno nulla per dare un quadro veritiero e indipendente della 'sua' russia, sembrano solo un tentativo di dire "ora tutti ci odiate ma la Russia è casa mia, è un bel paese, siamo brave persone". I russi brava gente, insomma.

Resta da capire quanto questo amore verso la propria patria sia vero e quanto sia frutto di propaganda, nazionalismo e un senso di superiorità senza fondamento. 

ninjamuse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Addiction, Suicide, Drug use, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Police brutality, War, Genocide, Death, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Alcohol, Child death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Medical content, Addiction, Abortion, Homophobia, and Ableism

Minor: Racial slurs, Mental illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

readingonfogo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

lilyaugust's review against another edition

4.75

Just fucking rough. Kept crying while reading it. Her way of storytelling is incredibly clean and impactful. My heart hurts 

daralexandria's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, War, Murder, Racism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Child death

yatsinar's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

kittyburritoland's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.25

vee_spanks's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

maisela25's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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. 

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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