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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When we think of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, it's with the kind of excitement that we viewed the fall of the Berlin Wall a few years earlier--wow, those Soviets must be itching to be free, to travel, to not have to stand in line to buy anything, to have more options! In Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry's excellent novel "The Orchard," we see a different response. Primarily a book about friendships, they are friendships forged during a period that Soviets saw as frightening rather than thrilling.
Anya and Milka have been friends almost from birth. Milka's father died when she was a child, and after her mother remarries she spends most of her time at Anya's with her friend's scientist parents and grandmother who survived the Blockade of Leningrad during WWII. The family has a dacha only 30 minutes from their Moscow suburb, and the girls spend lazy summers in a rustic place with an apple orchard. They grow into teens who love Freddie Mercury and the Soviet rockers of the time. They get boyfriends whose named Trifonov and Lopatin, whose personalities shadow those of characters with similar names in their favorite play, Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard."
This is a beautifully written book that will embrace you from the first page and take you on a journey of love and longing. These kids are like teenagers everywhere but the swirl of change around them makes them like teens from nowhere else. Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry is an exciting new voice and I look forward to her next novel.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for digital access to this remarkable book.
Anya and Milka have been friends almost from birth. Milka's father died when she was a child, and after her mother remarries she spends most of her time at Anya's with her friend's scientist parents and grandmother who survived the Blockade of Leningrad during WWII. The family has a dacha only 30 minutes from their Moscow suburb, and the girls spend lazy summers in a rustic place with an apple orchard. They grow into teens who love Freddie Mercury and the Soviet rockers of the time. They get boyfriends whose named Trifonov and Lopatin, whose personalities shadow those of characters with similar names in their favorite play, Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard."
This is a beautifully written book that will embrace you from the first page and take you on a journey of love and longing. These kids are like teenagers everywhere but the swirl of change around them makes them like teens from nowhere else. Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry is an exciting new voice and I look forward to her next novel.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for digital access to this remarkable book.
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Maybe I just don't know enough about Soviet history but this fell very flat for me. It would have saved itself if the characters were in any way likeable. All in all, it was one hell of a slog to the finish line.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Abortion
Moderate: Incest
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In this riveting and heart-wrenching novel about two young women growing up in the Soviet Union, we find every element of the traditional Russian novel turned to new purposes and deftly created amid the turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s. There is a ferocity in Gorcheva-Newberry's language that drives the book even as it lingers on details and relaxed, timeless moments. For anyone who has read books about the USSR from thrillers or non-fiction, this novel will broaden their concept of this period, and how everyday life was lived.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes