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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
I love historical fiction and this book is well written. I couldn’t put it down.
Very good at first, 5 stars, then at about page 200…dragged too much and reminded me of a Kate Quinn book but did not wrap up as neatly. I was disappointed, the HF part is interesting but there were just sooo many characters, places, and names…and too many details. Cranky review because I had really high hopes for this book- especially at the beginning.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Historical fiction mixed with family drama and some romance. Beautiful writing kept me going even when I felt a bit lost trying to follow the family through different timelines. Ultimately, it selfishly made me long to return back to Russia some day but it also made me feel hopeless about the state of the world.
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:
No
hopeful
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3 ⭐️ // The mystery of this story kept me glued to the pages, but the last half left me very confused.
Our main character, Rose, returns to Russia after her mother dies and ends up on a discovery journey that reveals the creepy secrets of her family’s past.
The writing style of this novel was easy to read. While it’s seeped in Russian culture—as one should expect given its setting and subject matter—it doesn’t use many complicated words and there’s a nice balance between dialogue and description that readers don’t get bored trying to weave through it to understand what’s going on.
The execution of the overarching plot, however, is where things get hazy and unclear. I was tracking pretty well until I got to part two.
This story is really two and half stories in one with a lot of unfinished fairytales mixed in. We’ve got the larger frame story of Rose returning to Russia to attempt to find out why her mother, who has recently passed away, was the way she was. This is all taking place in the 1990s. Then, we’ve got Antonia and Valentin’s story which begins during the Russian Revolution of 1917-1918. Initially, readers are hooked because we’re not told how these two stories or how these characters are connected. But towards the end on part one of the story, we learn enough to hint that the connection may be familial.
And then things take a weird twist. I don’t know it’s because of the sorrow and secrecy of the setting that makes things suddenly hard to keep up with, or the fact that the earlier timeline seems to skip huge chunks. To be honest, Tonya and Valentin’s story felt like the story “One Day” by David Nicholls—like we’re only seeing a snapshot of their lives at a time and being told every few details to try and fill the gaps. And then there’s the whole element of the creepy doll makers who insert themselves into their lives without Tonya and Valentin actually knowing they’re there. Finally, when we think we’re about to learn what happened to Tonya, she just disappears and we’re suddenly given a third timeline story, this time from the perspective of Katya. We don’t get much from her, other than she was a poor ten-year-old girl who clearly misinterpreted things going on around her and then was manipulated by creepy doll makers that had, unbeknownst to her parents, been creeping on her family.
And so the unraveling of the mystery becomes hard to keep up with. On the one hand, if the author was trying to keep readers from being able to figure things out until the actual reveal, she did a good job. But I’m afraid the strength of the plot suffered because of it.
I’m still not sure I understand how everything really played out. Sure Tonya and Valentin get their happy reunion, but it’s also riddled with the sadness of the family’s tragedy. Except, it doesn’t make sense that their tragedy needed more than what the setting of Soviet Russia provides. I don’t understand why the creepy doll making family was a necessary part of the story other than to steal Katya away, therefore further distancing Rosie from her heritage. But then there’s also the question of what the heck happened to Tonya? She goes looking for Katya and then just disappears, then reappears at the end of the book in 1993 as an old woman.
There are a couple of love stories throughout the novel, the strongest being Tonya and Valentin’s, but while romantic love keeps these two coming back to each other, romance is not the driving factor in this plot—except in the beginning of their story. But after part 2, when the setting of their story becomes Soviet Russia, then things start to jump so quickly that you don’t see how their relationship progresses and grows, just that it does. And Rosie and Richard’s relationship is a farce, but there isn’t enough of development for readers to really understand how she could leave him for Lev. It would have been more believable if she had just left Richard for herself.
So even though I couldn’t put this book down, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. It had so much potential, which was squashed by random creepy plot details.
What another incredible read. Such an amazing and original story. Unlike anything I’ve ever read before... and also this story went places I could not have even fathomed in my mind. As I read, I like to think ahead and try to solve the puzzle. This puzzle though - well puzzles - was dark and twisty and much more macabre at moments then I would have expected. It is beautifully written and the prose was something that felt very conversational to me, which I love in books that can be complicated at times.
This book was very close to 5 stars for me. There were some things though that knocked it down for me. First of which, there’s a decent amount of Russian in this book. Enough to where I had to stop and google a few things here and there. I would have liked to have had footnotes on some of the words so that way I didn’t have to stop. Google. Reread. Some of these words had significant meaning to the plot so it was necessary at times. Also, I am not a history buff by any means... but I know a good bit about world history. This book however tested that. I found myself also googling a lot of events and timelines to help things fall into place. I would have loved a timeline to have been included in the book.
This was a fascinating story and one that will stick with me. I loved the characters. This is a thicker book too - at right spring 400 pages. It didn’t feel like it though.
This book was very close to 5 stars for me. There were some things though that knocked it down for me. First of which, there’s a decent amount of Russian in this book. Enough to where I had to stop and google a few things here and there. I would have liked to have had footnotes on some of the words so that way I didn’t have to stop. Google. Reread. Some of these words had significant meaning to the plot so it was necessary at times. Also, I am not a history buff by any means... but I know a good bit about world history. This book however tested that. I found myself also googling a lot of events and timelines to help things fall into place. I would have loved a timeline to have been included in the book.
This was a fascinating story and one that will stick with me. I loved the characters. This is a thicker book too - at right spring 400 pages. It didn’t feel like it though.
I really enjoyed this one. While I do think the development with Rosie was a little weak, I still enjoyed the layers of this story.