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alonewolf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
allyexa's review
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Holy moly.
A childhood tale of a boy growing up in 80s-00s Siberia, and it was a very hard life. Add to that the fact that the boy was queer, small for his age, and loved poetry, and it’s amazing he lived to tell the tale.
Yes, the book was mostly bleak. Abuse, bullying, sexual assault of minors, poverty, oppression, government corruption, gang violence, etc, etc… But the boy and the story persist. Through the love of family and a few friends, the support of a handful of well-placed teachers and other adults over the years, and Alexey’s own true passion for learning, he keeps living and growing and figuring out life.
The writing is immersive, vividly drawing one into freezing pre-dawn two-hour treks to school, catching butterflies in babushka’s garden, riding all the semi-working transportation, sneaking into apartment blocks to hang out on the roof. I learned history alongside Alexey, who often had to learn from his cool friends or figure out what the real story was behind the propaganda. There was plenty of humor sprinkled throughout, and a great deal of understanding for some of the worst times and people.
Ah, I’m explaining it poorly. I’ll just say then, that the book moved me, I’m glad to have read it, I’ll never read it again, and I’m looking forward to reading part 2. If this is indeed a thinly veiled autobiography, then going from this childhood to living the enviable life from the author’s bio should be a wild and hopeful ride.
2/12/24
A childhood tale of a boy growing up in 80s-00s Siberia, and it was a very hard life. Add to that the fact that the boy was queer, small for his age, and loved poetry, and it’s amazing he lived to tell the tale.
Yes, the book was mostly bleak. Abuse, bullying, sexual assault of minors, poverty, oppression, government corruption, gang violence, etc, etc… But the boy and the story persist. Through the love of family and a few friends, the support of a handful of well-placed teachers and other adults over the years, and Alexey’s own true passion for learning, he keeps living and growing and figuring out life.
The writing is immersive, vividly drawing one into freezing pre-dawn two-hour treks to school, catching butterflies in babushka’s garden, riding all the semi-working transportation, sneaking into apartment blocks to hang out on the roof. I learned history alongside Alexey, who often had to learn from his cool friends or figure out what the real story was behind the propaganda. There was plenty of humor sprinkled throughout, and a great deal of understanding for some of the worst times and people.
Ah, I’m explaining it poorly. I’ll just say then, that the book moved me, I’m glad to have read it, I’ll never read it again, and I’m looking forward to reading part 2. If this is indeed a thinly veiled autobiography, then going from this childhood to living the enviable life from the author’s bio should be a wild and hopeful ride.
2/12/24
nicoleanneramirez's review
3.0
The way I feel about this book is similar to how I felt after reading Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen María Machado - the author has so much talent and so much of the prose is beautiful, but the organization and pacing wasn’t my favorite. Some of it felt like a nostalgic queer coming-of-age story and some of it felt like a wild history lesson and it didn’t always flow for me. I really wish I’d loved it but would like to read more from this author, and from Machado!
libraryfiend21's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
emikateb's review
5.0
I absolutely loved this book, it was so hard to put down that I put off reading physical books and instead picked up my kindle any chance that I got. I love stories that follow a character over a long period of time in general but the way the Mozgovoy described the different periods made it all feel like I was growing up with Alexey instead of just reading about it. I also loved the writing style, it felt as if each word was deliberately placed to evoke certain emotions or senses. Overall this book was unlike anything I’ve ever read before! We need more queer coming-of-age-ish books set in places other than the US & UK where everything isn’t all sunshine and rainbows at the end because for so much of the queer community around the world that is the reality, and it’s easy to forget that when you are privileged enough to live in a society where you don’t have to live in fear every day. I want to read this book over and over and tell everyone else I know to read it as well because it’s such an important story that needs to be told. Thank you so much to the publisher and to Artem Mozgovoy for letting me read this early! I’m looking forward to reading more from you in the future!!
aworga's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Beautifully written and extremely moving. Vivid descriptions of landscape, other people, and sociopolitical happenings combine to create a portrait of a boy coming of age, rapidly changing, in a place that is trying to move forward while still being irrevocably tethered to its own past.
alenka_ballhausen's review
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bethreid's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
wormariwood's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is a review for an ARC provided by Netgalley.
If I had to describe this book in one word it would be: Powerful.
Luckily, I do not have to describe this book in one word, and can write to my heart's content about it. And that's one of the main topics that is presented in this book. This is a very real, very raw depiction of what it was like growing up in the USSR up to more modern times in Russia, and in all of the ways that it can break you down while dishing out promises of building you up, the empty promises, the whims of the government, which as you continue to read makes you feel more and more like a trapped bird in cage that can't even sing.
We follow our main character, Alexey, through all of his experiences growing up queer, and the times even before he realized this aspect of his identity, and all the subtle things about his upbringing that singled him out from others; being an outcast in a world that seemed to already want to break up the life he knew and the family he had.
Personally, I've never really had an interest in the Russian ways of life. All I knew from it was from sheltered teachers showing pictures of tourist attractions, traditional clothing, and national foods as a way of introducing us to Russian life, in this rose-tinted ideal of Russian life and historical buildings and a magical land of snow.
And when it came to the actual political aspects of the country, the only way that news is relayed to me is from my worried grandparents after watching their awful fear-mongering news channels. I don't think I really grasped how complicated the history of this country is, and in all the complex ways that the country has been transformed again and again, and at the same time staying completely stagnant in its ways.
And I think that this is something in particular that this book tackles very well. The narrative feels so seamless. We see this country, this way of life at the beginning through the eyes of a child that does not yet know the feeling of nostalgia. And as this child grows up, with descriptions on how the world around him began to change and how this affected his family, we begin to reflect on the earlier stages of his life and learn the ways in which his experiences were rose-tinted, hazy, not encapsulating the full picture of what was really happening to him and his family all along.
And as we progress further into the book, with our narrator becoming more aware of his surroundings, of himself, of his future (and his fears of possibly never seeing it), we as readers get to experience all of the pain, the fear, the glimmering hope, the soul crushing anxiety, through the lens of a teenager simply trying to survive.
This book is nothing short of a spiritual experience, and I would say that this is a worthwhile read to anybody looking to expand their worldview or even to better contextualize the things that they might have learned in their social studies classes.
If I had to describe this book in one word it would be: Powerful.
Luckily, I do not have to describe this book in one word, and can write to my heart's content about it. And that's one of the main topics that is presented in this book. This is a very real, very raw depiction of what it was like growing up in the USSR up to more modern times in Russia, and in all of the ways that it can break you down while dishing out promises of building you up, the empty promises, the whims of the government, which as you continue to read makes you feel more and more like a trapped bird in cage that can't even sing.
We follow our main character, Alexey, through all of his experiences growing up queer, and the times even before he realized this aspect of his identity, and all the subtle things about his upbringing that singled him out from others; being an outcast in a world that seemed to already want to break up the life he knew and the family he had.
Personally, I've never really had an interest in the Russian ways of life. All I knew from it was from sheltered teachers showing pictures of tourist attractions, traditional clothing, and national foods as a way of introducing us to Russian life, in this rose-tinted ideal of Russian life and historical buildings and a magical land of snow.
And when it came to the actual political aspects of the country, the only way that news is relayed to me is from my worried grandparents after watching their awful fear-mongering news channels. I don't think I really grasped how complicated the history of this country is, and in all the complex ways that the country has been transformed again and again, and at the same time staying completely stagnant in its ways.
And I think that this is something in particular that this book tackles very well. The narrative feels so seamless. We see this country, this way of life at the beginning through the eyes of a child that does not yet know the feeling of nostalgia. And as this child grows up, with descriptions on how the world around him began to change and how this affected his family, we begin to reflect on the earlier stages of his life and learn the ways in which his experiences were rose-tinted, hazy, not encapsulating the full picture of what was really happening to him and his family all along.
And as we progress further into the book, with our narrator becoming more aware of his surroundings, of himself, of his future (and his fears of possibly never seeing it), we as readers get to experience all of the pain, the fear, the glimmering hope, the soul crushing anxiety, through the lens of a teenager simply trying to survive.
This book is nothing short of a spiritual experience, and I would say that this is a worthwhile read to anybody looking to expand their worldview or even to better contextualize the things that they might have learned in their social studies classes.