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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s about love and art and the ✨scope of history ✨🤌🏻
Bookclubby in a way that I enjoyed. Some really interesting parallels being drawn between two things that will never love you back (ballet, the State) and I was always invested in what both sisters were going to do in response to both institutions bearing down on them as circumstances changed.
Will definitely check out whatever Durham writes next.
Bookclubby in a way that I enjoyed. Some really interesting parallels being drawn between two things that will never love you back (ballet, the State) and I was always invested in what both sisters were going to do in response to both institutions bearing down on them as circumstances changed.
Will definitely check out whatever Durham writes next.
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to NetGalley, author Elyse Durham, and Mariner Books for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
Oof, what a gut punch of a read. I am going to start my review with a disclaimer that I read City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim only a couple of months ago, and it is also about the Russian Ballet world, so my opinion might be a bit influenced by reading two novels of similar subject matter so close together. That book is not light by any means, but my biggest take away from Maya and Natasha was that I was not expecting it to be so dark! Durham is a great writer of setting and characters, and I did feel transported to the world of the Vaganova amidst the Cold War. The book is dreary and tense and depressing, even among the brightness of ballerinas and young women growing and crafting their selves and their art. Maya and Natasha are both unlikeable in different ways at different points in the novel, making it hard to know whose side I was on. I did also enjoy the inclusion of the film making of War and Peace in the second half of the novel, and I learned lots of how the Minister of Arts worked there at that time. I think if I knew how serious Maya and Natasha was as a whole, I might have been more prepared, but because of the subject matter and the repetition of feelings or events in the novel, it took me a bit to get through and left me wanting a little more.
Oof, what a gut punch of a read. I am going to start my review with a disclaimer that I read City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim only a couple of months ago, and it is also about the Russian Ballet world, so my opinion might be a bit influenced by reading two novels of similar subject matter so close together. That book is not light by any means, but my biggest take away from Maya and Natasha was that I was not expecting it to be so dark! Durham is a great writer of setting and characters, and I did feel transported to the world of the Vaganova amidst the Cold War. The book is dreary and tense and depressing, even among the brightness of ballerinas and young women growing and crafting their selves and their art. Maya and Natasha are both unlikeable in different ways at different points in the novel, making it hard to know whose side I was on. I did also enjoy the inclusion of the film making of War and Peace in the second half of the novel, and I learned lots of how the Minister of Arts worked there at that time. I think if I knew how serious Maya and Natasha was as a whole, I might have been more prepared, but because of the subject matter and the repetition of feelings or events in the novel, it took me a bit to get through and left me wanting a little more.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional