Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Half Life of Valery K

Possibly my favorite book I've read this year so far and a contender for an all time favorite. I'm a big fan of Pulley's writing style and the way she just sucks you into the story. I read this book in just a few short days, staying up late each night because I couldn't set it down to go to sleep.

The people in this story just feel real, supported by such a real and well researched world inspired by very real events and places. It is so clear how Pulley spent ages reading and understanding the science of radiation and the politics and the history of what it was like in the Soviet union.

Additionally, stories where characters are queer but it's not the point and romance isn't the main storyline are so lovely, and this is no exception. There's a slow burning love story that happens alongside everything else, but in addition to the romantic love we also get to see the way that Valery's platonic love for humanity and his comradeship for those around him inspires rebellion and whistleblowing for the greater good of fellow humans living in danger. A++ work all aroundn with incredibly satisfying payoff that is irrefutable and inevitable without changing the tone or genre of the book when it happens.

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fdallachy's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad slow-paced

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

3.5

In some ways I enjoyed reading this book - the writing is quite breezy and full of nice turns of phrase and little jokes - but on the other hand, in some ways I had to force myself to pick it up again to continue. I'm not sure why this was. It might have been partly because the subject matter is quite bleak.

I'm not sure how widely the incident on which it's based is known, though I was certainly aware of the apparent nuclear-accident coverup at Chelyabinsk, which means there isn't really a mystery as such to be revealed here.

Although I did like the central character, Valery, I didn't entirely warm to others.

I also found the romantic relationship which develops between Valery and another character didn't ring true for some reason.

I don't want to put anyone else off reading this, I think in many ways it was an excellent novel, it just didn't connect with me for some reason.

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jens6791's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Oh boy. Where to start.
There are so many problems I have with this book - with the characters and how they're framed, with the pacing, with the treatment of women especially. There is the most superficial overlay of feminism by an author who seems incapable of writing more than one kind of woman. Its honestly kind of insulting. Everything pales in comparison to that one revelation though.

This is not a review for potential readers; more a rant to keep all my thoughts about this in one place. I might have had more patience with the book if I'd read Pulley's other works first and had more goodwill. I might also have been less angry if it didn't start out pretty promising. Be warned that this review has been written in state of annoyance and there will be swearing.

First, the treatment of women by the narrative is abhorrent. Every female character (except for the child) is a ruthless science girlboss. The horrific train scene honestly feels framed more in terms of Valery's character development than anything else. And Anna's been left to care for the kids, while she and her daughter are slowly dying of radiation sickness?? But it's fine at the end because our heroes are together??

I honestly think that this book could have been really good if it actually engaged with the whole fucked-up-ness of its setting and with the characters being who they are and making the decisions they do.

Instead, we get Valery and Shenkov being excused by each other and the narrative for the most awful actions, all in service of the romance storyline. Shenkov is literally a KGB agent who kills people for a repressive state, but from Valery's perspective what we keep being told (this is really just repeated over and over throughout the book) is that Shenkov is man who knows how imposing and threatening he can be, and so he's deliberately kind, but also the system he's forced to participate in makes him brittle and fragile. Yay. Doesn't change the fact that he literally murders innocent people but go off. I cannot believe that this is the love interest. There are times when the book makes a wider point about how the system makes people do terrible things and there's no real escape from the cycle of suspicion and violence (he still shoots the dog), but the narrative uses it to absolve Shenkov of guilt so we root for him and Valery. Which certainly is A Choice.

Now Valery.
Initially I loved his character, I thought his way of seeing the world was fascinating. In the first few chapters especially, I thought Pulley did a fantastic job of using his perspective to navigate the world of Soviet doublespeak. The initial stages of unfolding the mystery of what really happened were done well.
All of that is completely blown out of the water by the revelation that he took part in human radiation trials with fucking Mengele. Genuinely, I don't know what the fuck Pulley or the editors were thinking. If the goal was to tarnish Valery as a character so that he'd be on an equal footing, morally speaking, with Shenkov, it was misguided to say the least. If it was guilt fodder for Valery's backstory, it could have been easily swapped out for something fictional. The inclusion of an Actual Fucking Nazi in the book was just not necessary. It overshadowed literally everything else, and again, is just so, so gross. I understand that the whole book is based on real events, but that's the setting, not the characters. You cannot have your main character collaborate with Nazis and carry out experiments on humans (and we all know precisely who they were carried out on) and still expect your readers root for them. (Although looking at other reviews you apparently can). Moving on from this because I am filled with the rage of a hundred dying suns.

Couple of minor gripes to conclude. The idea of them fleeing to the west and encountering Gender Norms™ for the first time is so bullshit. Were women in the Soviet Union more able to pursue certain careers and at least have the language of equality apply? Absolutely. Does this mean that neither Valery or Shenkov would have encountered misogyny like they do in the UK? Of course not. Pulley obviously did a lot of research for the book, so I don't know why it didn't translate in this dimension.
Finally, the book was just very British. I know the way that the characters speak is to make it equivalently native to Russians speaking Russian, but it honestly just made me laugh in places because it took me (a native English speaker not from the UK) completely out of the atmosphere that the story cultivated.

Okay, rant over. There were a few things I really enjoyed about the book. The setting and background are really strong, there's some beautiful writing and I thought Resovskaya was a fascinating character (mainly because the narrative didn't try to excuse her actions). If the science of it checks out, I definitely learned a lot. Ultimately though, it was a disappointment that did not meet the expectations set by a great opening. Crucially, I feel like it was let down by a few choices and by forcing sweet romantic tropes onto a situation where they don't really work; I'm mad and disappointed.

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