Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - The Sisters of the Winter Wood

Really fun take on Russian/ Ukrainian/ Jewish folklore and sisterly love. Very fast and engaging read. Though the ending felt a bit rushed to me, it was still a fun time that I’d recommend.

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jennfs10's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved the Author’s note at the end where she explained how the villages, some of the events and people were from either her own family’s history or historical people and events. Rena Rossner did such an incredible job weaving all of this with the magic and folklore in her story.

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jelliestars's review

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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fieldsofcow's review

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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kurumipanda's review

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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ffx1v's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters. Learning about Eastern European and Jewish folklore was very interesting and new to me, and the contrast between verse/full-text chapters made this a very unique reading experience. The pacing and imagery were both great, and I loved the author’s writing style and incorporation of Yiddish words throughout the book.

There were parts where I got really annoyed at the two protagonists, particularly at Laya. But then again, her recklessness and her mistakes and her irritating behavior is typical of (almost) any 15 year old, so despite how annoying she could be, it was accurate to how teens her age are in real life. Even Liba, who is 2 years older, displayed typical 17-year-old behavior that got on my nerves, but added realism to the story because it showed that both characters behaved as real teenagers would. Had they acted more maturely and “less annoying,” especially at their ages, the story would’ve been much shorter, less realistic, and a lot less interesting to read, imo. After all, the point of a book is to make you feel things, even things you don’t like (this depends on whether it’s purposefully written to make you feel that way, though). I wouldn’t be rating the book so highly if I had agreed with every single decision the sisters made.

There WERE some parts that made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t get the context or the original folklore the book was inspired by, so I can’t say if it was just a random decision made by the author or not. Still, some scenes between Laya and the weird fruit boy were a bit much for me and I wish they’d been less descriptive, though they weren’t really detailed to begin with. It was as just odd.

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