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sashahc's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
5.0
I just finished “The Half Life of Valery K” by Natasha Pulley. In all her books, Natasha Pulley writes terrible things happening and acknowledges they are terrible, but the characters are so engaging and there is a sweetness that keeps you reading. This one is no exception, and it has a whole HOST of trigger warnings. I’m sure you can look them up, but the biggest one for me was nuclear accidents and radiation sickness. (It may seem odd for this to be my biggest one considering what all happens in the book, but there is personal history there.) This #book is a bit of a thriller, and a bit of a character study, and it’s queer. And there’s an octopus named Albert who steals the TV remote. So.
This one will stay with me for a while.
This one will stay with me for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality
Moderate: Homophobia
bestknownfor's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Child death, Terminal illness, and Homophobia
Minor: Antisemitism, Rape, and Body horror
zigzagzmak's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Miscarriage, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal death, Terminal illness, Child abuse, and Cancer
beetle_'s review
challenging
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Medical trauma
wheemsicott's review
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.5
When it comes to Pulley's books, I'm used to looking past the degree of cultural insensitivity she casually throws in the mix every time; I don't think she's capable of coming up with anything that won't elicit a "why is a british white woman writing about this" reaction from me and I've come to just let that stuff sit in the back of my brain while I go along for the ride. The Half Life of Valery K was no exception. I accepted she felt qualified to write about the Soviet Union in such excruciating detail and, while I disagree with her about whether she should, I still enjoyed the characters she crafted.
The plot dragged a bit and I was sad to see all speculative traces wiped out in the face of hard science, but I get it. It fit the story Pulley wanted to tell. What really lowered my rating and soured my general experience of this book to the point I can't think about it without feeling sick is the way it handled patriarchal violence. Pulley wanted so bad to analyze the ways in which men hurt women, but instead she wrote a novel about a male biochemist trying to shed light on the top-secret radiation study he's involved with. And she made the main "villain" (the term feels quite cheap here, but bear with me) a woman.
Already that undermines the goal; not because a woman is doing bad things, but because the protagonist is a guy and his love interest is also a guy. Not the most practical canvas to depict male tyranny. Pulley does try to weave in some social commentary from Valery's Feminist King point of view, and for the most part it works! I believe it! Until she feels the need to put the train sequence in there.
The train sequence is a terrifying, disturbing account of something so inhuman it pushes Valery to kill every single man involved. Good on him, but we first hear about it in a scene that's meant to solely make some ripples in the budding romance between him and his guy. It's all to make him even more sympathetic (as if we needed that--dude's a traumatized kitten) and amp up the tension. We could've done without. We could've done without, or used something else, and instead we get the rape and murder of many desperate young women and girls stuck on a train to the gulag. Now, of course I'm not saying you can't write about these things. You can, and you could argue Pulley does it masterfully by building a visceral crescendo to the act and then cutting right before it happens. But she writes the whole thing as fuel for her male main character. She tries so hard to criticize gendered violence, only to reproduce it on the text in a way that is potentially deeply triggering--just because she needs to make Valery even sadder. Just because she can have him say "almost all (cis) men are monsters ready to explode". What godawful fucking framing, to be frank.
Anyway. I am a fool and I only wanted to write a quick note about a book that clearly chose its subject matter wrong, but here's the full rant instead. I don't think The Half Life of Valery K is an unreadable mess, but it did make me feel gross.
The plot dragged a bit and I was sad to see all speculative traces wiped out in the face of hard science, but I get it. It fit the story Pulley wanted to tell. What really lowered my rating and soured my general experience of this book to the point I can't think about it without feeling sick is the way it handled patriarchal violence. Pulley wanted so bad to analyze the ways in which men hurt women, but instead she wrote a novel about a male biochemist trying to shed light on the top-secret radiation study he's involved with. And she made the main "villain" (the term feels quite cheap here, but bear with me) a woman.
Already that undermines the goal; not because a woman is doing bad things, but because the protagonist is a guy and his love interest is also a guy. Not the most practical canvas to depict male tyranny. Pulley does try to weave in some social commentary from Valery's Feminist King point of view, and for the most part it works! I believe it! Until she feels the need to put the train sequence in there.
Anyway. I am a fool and I only wanted to write a quick note about a book that clearly chose its subject matter wrong, but here's the full rant instead. I don't think The Half Life of Valery K is an unreadable mess, but it did make me feel gross.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Rape, Animal cruelty, and Police brutality
breadwitchery's review
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Violence, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Medical trauma, Confinement, Murder, Gun violence, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, and Police brutality
Minor: Cursing, Racism, Ableism, War, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit
bel017's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Too horrifying for me (though I finished it), should have checked the content warnings first.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Death, Torture, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, War, Police brutality, Murder, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Genocide
readundancies's review
dark
inspiring
tense
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
4.25
I am on a fucking roll with reads right now.
This one was no different. I was living my best radioactive life here.
I also immediately fell in love with Valery from like the first couple pages. He’d named a prison rat Boris. BORIS. That is simply the most perfect name for a rat, and I will not be taking comments regarding that claim at this time.
Ok, so as a student becoming a nuclear energy worker in the medical field, the lack of dosimeters in this story is terrifying. And as we slowly get more clues from Valery’s research, I was getting more and more tense and anxious. I can’t even imagine being in Valery’s position, I would be drowning in a sea of perpetual desperation knowing what he knows and not being able to do fuck all about it. The death that lingered around every corner of City 40 would force anyone into a state of deep antipathy just to numb one enough to be able to survive another day.
The discussions on ethics and morality and sacrifice for the greater good were frustratingly based in reality and it’s depressing as fuck. But so we’ll written. Natasha Pulley sure knows how to write in a manner that can provoke an emotional response in her readers. Because the writing is chilling. I had goosebumps. Like this shit was dark. We’re talking human atrocities being commonplace and enforced in a manner that is beyond callous and unfeeling, beyond immorality, kind of dark. It was transactional and frigid and hollowed out to the point where the nothingness that remains is sinister.
How to describe how much the writing unnerved me? Well, my anxiety was a physical presence, sitting next to me. I was all tense and uncomfortable with the plot and its focus on radiation effects on humans, and it’s entirely due to the phenomenal writing. It’s got this quiet and sort of understated brilliance to it, and Valery’s perspective specifically has this soft honesty to his voice. I glommed onto his character immediately.
This was such a good read, truly. There was this hopefulness amongst all the dark topics and themes that the plot delved into, and Valery was like a port in the storm, a Lighthouse signalling out to those who are lost (aka the readers).
The ending is rather out of place however. We get a resolution but it’s rather odd and awkwardly tacked on based on everything that comes before it, and there’s still a lot that could have been addressed that just isn’t. Let’s also not gloss over the discussion on gender roles that occurs which I think was supposed to be reflective of the time period and instead just came off as strange and unnecessary.
I also understand why this book is polarizing based on historical inaccuracies and historical figures who were included, as well as the fact that you can totally tell that the author is not Russian at all based on the dialogue alone. I think the historical angle is understandably a main gripe for some, but coming from a STEM background, I was drawn to the prose concerning the chemistry and physics. And I can only gush that I really enjoyed those science aspects, especially since I have both a chemistry and a radiation sciences degree. I thought they were not only written in a manner that made sense for those that may not be familiar with radiation to any large degree but also in a way that just added to the serene and lulling prose.
I’ve also seen some criticism regarding female portrayal in Natasha Pulley’s books. In this case, I understand but I don’t think it was maliciously misogynistic, I think it’s part to do with the nature of the content and how dark it is and also the fact that the characterization outside of Valery and Shenkov is decidedly lacking. All of the secondary characters are very surface level, not a lot of substance, or not a lot of substance that’s explored. More of the former I think.
Regardless, I think if you like a genre defying read, this is not a bad bet. Because this book was so many things: a sweet little queer love story (not to be confused with a romance, a love story), a political thriller, a historical nightmare that dredges up a very dark part of the Cold War, a brief introduction to nuclear radiation written with an eye for science, a glimpse into the dark annals of academia and the lines humanity will cross against morality and ethicality when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge, and a tale of survival despite the odds and in the face of extreme adversity choosing to take a stand with kindness in your heart and a smile on your face.
This one was no different. I was living my best radioactive life here.
I also immediately fell in love with Valery from like the first couple pages. He’d named a prison rat Boris. BORIS. That is simply the most perfect name for a rat, and I will not be taking comments regarding that claim at this time.
Ok, so as a student becoming a nuclear energy worker in the medical field, the lack of dosimeters in this story is terrifying. And as we slowly get more clues from Valery’s research, I was getting more and more tense and anxious. I can’t even imagine being in Valery’s position, I would be drowning in a sea of perpetual desperation knowing what he knows and not being able to do fuck all about it. The death that lingered around every corner of City 40 would force anyone into a state of deep antipathy just to numb one enough to be able to survive another day.
The discussions on ethics and morality and sacrifice for the greater good were frustratingly based in reality and it’s depressing as fuck. But so we’ll written. Natasha Pulley sure knows how to write in a manner that can provoke an emotional response in her readers. Because the writing is chilling. I had goosebumps. Like this shit was dark. We’re talking human atrocities being commonplace and enforced in a manner that is beyond callous and unfeeling, beyond immorality, kind of dark. It was transactional and frigid and hollowed out to the point where the nothingness that remains is sinister.
How to describe how much the writing unnerved me? Well, my anxiety was a physical presence, sitting next to me. I was all tense and uncomfortable with the plot and its focus on radiation effects on humans, and it’s entirely due to the phenomenal writing. It’s got this quiet and sort of understated brilliance to it, and Valery’s perspective specifically has this soft honesty to his voice. I glommed onto his character immediately.
This was such a good read, truly. There was this hopefulness amongst all the dark topics and themes that the plot delved into, and Valery was like a port in the storm, a Lighthouse signalling out to those who are lost (aka the readers).
The ending is rather out of place however. We get a resolution but it’s rather odd and awkwardly tacked on based on everything that comes before it, and there’s still a lot that could have been addressed that just isn’t. Let’s also not gloss over the discussion on gender roles that occurs which I think was supposed to be reflective of the time period and instead just came off as strange and unnecessary.
I also understand why this book is polarizing based on historical inaccuracies and historical figures who were included, as well as the fact that you can totally tell that the author is not Russian at all based on the dialogue alone. I think the historical angle is understandably a main gripe for some, but coming from a STEM background, I was drawn to the prose concerning the chemistry and physics. And I can only gush that I really enjoyed those science aspects, especially since I have both a chemistry and a radiation sciences degree. I thought they were not only written in a manner that made sense for those that may not be familiar with radiation to any large degree but also in a way that just added to the serene and lulling prose.
I’ve also seen some criticism regarding female portrayal in Natasha Pulley’s books. In this case, I understand but I don’t think it was maliciously misogynistic, I think it’s part to do with the nature of the content and how dark it is and also the fact that the characterization outside of Valery and Shenkov is decidedly lacking. All of the secondary characters are very surface level, not a lot of substance, or not a lot of substance that’s explored. More of the former I think.
Regardless, I think if you like a genre defying read, this is not a bad bet. Because this book was so many things: a sweet little queer love story (not to be confused with a romance, a love story), a political thriller, a historical nightmare that dredges up a very dark part of the Cold War, a brief introduction to nuclear radiation written with an eye for science, a glimpse into the dark annals of academia and the lines humanity will cross against morality and ethicality when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge, and a tale of survival despite the odds and in the face of extreme adversity choosing to take a stand with kindness in your heart and a smile on your face.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, War, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Infertility, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Terminal illness
jackiemcguire's review
dark
tense
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Murder, Homophobia, Xenophobia, War, and Medical trauma
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