Reviews

The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch

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yerawizardlexi's review against another edition

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4.0

Honestly more like 3.5 stars. Lots of characters to remember, like any good Russian story.

burghbooksandbrews's review against another edition

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5.0

Historical fiction used to be one of my favorite genres, but I have kind of fallen off of it recently. This book reminded me of why I love it and why there is almost nothing better than a great historical fiction novel. Soviet history has always been an interest of mine (I basically majored in Russian history in college), so a story that follows the rise of the Soviet Union to the fall is always going to be of interest to me.

This was a sweeping, multi-generational tale, and I was so drawn into the characters of Tonya and Valentin in the past and their love story (offset by a lot of tragedy) as well as Raisa in 1991 who is trying to find her family’s story in a country she left behind years before. This book has a little bit of everything I love - history, a compelling love story, and a mystery at the center. There is a lot of heartbreak in this story (as one would expect in a story about some of the Soviet Union’s toughest times - the Stalinist purges, the labor camps, and the siege of Leningrad).

Despite all of that, this book also has a lot of hope and is about finding the people you love in life and clinging to them for as long as you can. It is also about forging your own identity in the midst of crises and coming to terms with your family’s history, even the dark parts. The tenacity of the main characters in this book are truly inspiring, and I can’t wait to read more by this author in the future!

scsarah's review

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I couldn't distinguish the characters and didn't find myself interested in their story right now.

mtzbookworm64's review against another edition

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5.0

What a riveting story of three generations of Russian women during Russia’s history between the 1917 revolution & the last days of the Soviet Union. Present day Rosie has to piece together her family.

bluepuppybites's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

laurennmiller's review

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3.25

It took a lot of focus to follow this one, between the leaps back and forth in time, all the different versions of these long Russian names and nicknames (Alexey Alexeyevich = Alexey Ivanov, Rosemary = Rosie = Raisa = Raisochka), plus people changing their names. There were also the random fairy tales interspersed along with straight up errors (it said at one point that Valentin got married in 1915, which I noticed because it made no sense based on what I knew about the story so far, and continued to make no sense because he was with Tonya in 1915 and married Viktoria in 1917). ANYWAY. A lot of plot complexity, but not much character development and overall I found the whole story more confusing than enjoyable.