Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Between Dog and Wolf

Review of The Orchard
By: Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
I’m not as familiar with Russia and its history having only dipped into Russian literature and learning from others who know more. This was a hard read as this is one of the darker times in Russia, or before Russia became Russia and was considered the Soviet Union. Anya and Milka are growing up during this time going to school and experiencing the first flush of young love. This foursome barely understands what is happening to their home and are just trying to get by as they grow up, but it is a trying time
I wouldn’t call this a fun read, but it was riveting story and I always feared for Anya and her friends, as well as her parents. It was an enlightening read telling me about what happened to the Soviet Union in a fictional way. I felt connected to Anya, though I couldn’t relate to her life experiences. I have led a privileged and free life in America while Anya lives in a government-controlled country where she doesn’t have as many choices. I understand her confusion and anger about her life. Lopatin is my least favorite character as I find his arrogance and ignorance frustrating. He is one of those privileged types who doesn’t acknowledge and rather bury his head in the sand. I adored Trifonov and Milka is a tragic figure in the story. The writing is lovely with poetic pros that makes this a beautiful, though tragic, story to read. It was also cool that they were fans of Queen one of the few things that’s not from Russia they get access too.

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gloriazthompson's review against another edition

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DNF (did not finish) and stopped at 25%

I appreciated snippets of Russian life in the 1980s. Descriptions of the food, family, friends, reminiscing on hard times of the war and the toughness of the soviet experience. The "realness" of it, I loved. HOWEVER! I had to stop because of the complete unnecessary use of crude/vulgar language of each others bodies and obsession of sex. It was gratuitous, distracting and pulled me out of the story. A quarter of the way through and the author probably used the words: "nipples", "tits", "pubic hair" like 100 times. It did not need to be added for this story to be good and for what the author was trying to evoke. Also nothing was really happening plot-wise. Just two teenage girls coming-of-age. I think this is an example of why literary fiction doesn't suit me.

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sjanke2's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

Russia's very own My Brilliant Friend. Because it's loosely based off of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, I was worried this novel would fly over my head. But that wasn't the case. I ached for Milka, especially after reading the acknowledgements and learning she was based on the author's best friend in her own Soviet childhood.

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