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sapphirestars's review against another edition
2.0
2012: Liked parts of it. I think the writing was too bombastic and the story while a good idea flighty, didn't make me want to follow even though I WANTED to want to follow. Really emphasized my desire to read Nicholas and Alexandra as this was the book that inspired the author when read at age 11.
2021: I forgot I read this NINE years ago and got it for a dollar---it was not worth the dollar :( The only enjoyable parts are the bits with the royal family which are too few and far between. The best being the tsar and tsarina falling in love and her cutting him a curl at the opera with her little purse scissors. This is one of the most pointless, rambling, flowery books I've ever read and I'll be donating my copy. I shan't read it a third time :P oof!!!
2021: I forgot I read this NINE years ago and got it for a dollar---it was not worth the dollar :( The only enjoyable parts are the bits with the royal family which are too few and far between. The best being the tsar and tsarina falling in love and her cutting him a curl at the opera with her little purse scissors. This is one of the most pointless, rambling, flowery books I've ever read and I'll be donating my copy. I shan't read it a third time :P oof!!!
mamadragonfly's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't love it. I didn't dislike it enough to not finish it, but i don't think i would necessarily recommend it to anyone. I read it in one day, and it kept my attention, but there were a few times where I felt it got to be a little much. And I feel like I just didn't get some of it, particularly the end and the coronation.
heroineinabook's review against another edition
1.0
How a story that begins with the end of the Romanovs, the killing of Rasputin, and told from the viewpoint of a teenager who entices the beloved son could be yawn inducing is perhaps a mystery, but there you go. I made it through 67 pages before giving up as I was neither titillated nor engaged by the content. The characters are flat, the exposition was repetitive, and it felt like someone had whipped through Wikipedia to get descriptions and recarved them into their own words. Harrison has been applauded by her use of language and world building, but as this is my first introduction to her, I saw none of the magic that apparently makes her beloved.
Do not recommend.
Do not recommend.
erincataldi's review against another edition
5.0
LOVED this book!! It was easily the best historical fiction I've read all year. One of the reasons I loved this book so much was the fact that it took place in St. Petersburg and I just visited there over the summer and knew pretty much all the palaces and sites they described. It was like reliving my trip!
The story follows Rasputin's daughter, Masha, as she copes with the brutal death of her father and the overthrow of the Tsar. She and her sister are exiled along with the Tsar's family and in their confinement she becomes close with the Tsar's son, frail Aloysha. To pass the time as they await their fate, Masha weaves beautiful stories for the bedridden tsaravvitch, about the history of her family, her father's past as a healer and the young love of Nikolay and Alexandra (Aloysha's parents and former rulers of Russia).
It's beautiful, sad, and exquisitely written and it will inspire you to check out more about this horribly misunderstood chapter of Russian history. Too often we villify Rasputin as a sorcerer (in Hollywood and in history) but this tale humanizes him and his family and brings to life the distressful last days of the Tsar's family (we all know what happens, but we still power through in this novel hoping that magically history will indeed change itself and save their family).
An absolute must read. You won't regret it!
The story follows Rasputin's daughter, Masha, as she copes with the brutal death of her father and the overthrow of the Tsar. She and her sister are exiled along with the Tsar's family and in their confinement she becomes close with the Tsar's son, frail Aloysha. To pass the time as they await their fate, Masha weaves beautiful stories for the bedridden tsaravvitch, about the history of her family, her father's past as a healer and the young love of Nikolay and Alexandra (Aloysha's parents and former rulers of Russia).
It's beautiful, sad, and exquisitely written and it will inspire you to check out more about this horribly misunderstood chapter of Russian history. Too often we villify Rasputin as a sorcerer (in Hollywood and in history) but this tale humanizes him and his family and brings to life the distressful last days of the Tsar's family (we all know what happens, but we still power through in this novel hoping that magically history will indeed change itself and save their family).
An absolute must read. You won't regret it!
kdurham2's review against another edition
3.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Each story that Masha told Alyosha built the history of their parents and their country and then the end happened where they told of the fall of Alyosha's father and family. I am so thankful that the author added Alyosha's journal to complete the story, so the reader wasn't left wondering about the details that occurred once Masha and Alyosha were separated. I definitely wondered throughout the book what I could note was historically accurate and what was fiction - I love when a book keeps me guessing.
Each story that Masha told Alyosha built the history of their parents and their country and then the end happened where they told of the fall of Alyosha's father and family. I am so thankful that the author added Alyosha's journal to complete the story, so the reader wasn't left wondering about the details that occurred once Masha and Alyosha were separated. I definitely wondered throughout the book what I could note was historically accurate and what was fiction - I love when a book keeps me guessing.
kathleenww's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting novel, and at times, it was very compelling reading. Masha, Grigory Rasputin's older daughter, is ensconced with the Romanov family after her father's hideous death, as they are taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks. She has become acquainted with the family over the years since her father has been very close to the Tsarina and the Romanov's only son, Aloysha, who is afflicted with hemophilia.
While Harrison is a very thoughtful writer with an wonderful prose style, I really felt like there were times in the story that she was really reaching. I understand adolescents will think about sex, and try to experiment. The few paragraphs of the novel addressing that aspect of the friendship with Aloysha and Masha just seemed too anachronistic and not true to life, as well as some of the other similar incidents in the book. I have not read very much about the Romanovs, only in a fictional setting, so I have no real clue as to what the relationship might have been like, although I do trust Harrisons' research and fascination with the Romanovs.
I did not know much about Rasputin's family going into this book, so I am intrigued. I will probably read more about the Romanovs and the Rasputins in the future, since their story is truly a fascinating one, and I felt some disappointment in this novel, it left me feeling like something was missing. I never quite felt I made a real connection with Masha, who tells her story in the novel. I read Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy a few years back, and it just really sang, whereas this novel left me feeling flat and unsatisfied at the end. Not a flop, but somewhat of a disappointment. I think Romanov buffs will want to read it for the different spin on Rasputin it presents. But story wise, it was weak for me, overall. The ending felt rushed and forced, and the story itself didn't flow. I was usually able to put the book down and simply forget about it.
While Harrison is a very thoughtful writer with an wonderful prose style, I really felt like there were times in the story that she was really reaching. I understand adolescents will think about sex, and try to experiment. The few paragraphs of the novel addressing that aspect of the friendship with Aloysha and Masha just seemed too anachronistic and not true to life, as well as some of the other similar incidents in the book. I have not read very much about the Romanovs, only in a fictional setting, so I have no real clue as to what the relationship might have been like, although I do trust Harrisons' research and fascination with the Romanovs.
I did not know much about Rasputin's family going into this book, so I am intrigued. I will probably read more about the Romanovs and the Rasputins in the future, since their story is truly a fascinating one, and I felt some disappointment in this novel, it left me feeling like something was missing. I never quite felt I made a real connection with Masha, who tells her story in the novel. I read Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy a few years back, and it just really sang, whereas this novel left me feeling flat and unsatisfied at the end. Not a flop, but somewhat of a disappointment. I think Romanov buffs will want to read it for the different spin on Rasputin it presents. But story wise, it was weak for me, overall. The ending felt rushed and forced, and the story itself didn't flow. I was usually able to put the book down and simply forget about it.
stevienlcf's review against another edition
4.0
Kathryn Harrison brings a fresh perspective to familiar history by scrupulously and sensuously retelling the end of the Russian monarchy through the eyes of Masha Rasputin, the 18 year old daughter of the peasant mystic healer from Siberia,Grigory Rasputin. After the "mad monk" was brutally murdered amidst rumors of his demonic power over Russia's fate, Masha and her younger sister become wards of Tsar Nikolay and his family. The tsarina believes that Masha can, like her father, preserve the health of her beloved Alyosha, a hemophiliac.
While the royal family and its retainers are under house arrest, Masha invents stories to amuse the ailing Alyosha. They spin stories both real and imagined about the courtship of Nikolay and Alexandra, who were ill-suited for the demands of public life. With a political crisis looming, the pair are hastily married a mere 18 days after Tsar Alexander's death. Immediately after the wedding, it became clear that "the two were doomed to always do wrong no matter how pure their intent." Masha reveals that her father suffered unrelenting grief after the death of his first infant son, and found himself in a monastary where the abbot explained that his life would be entertwined with Russia's rulers, and that he would die a martyr. Despite the fact that he was unwashed and illiterate, Rasputin seduced numerous women and was a proficient healer, eventually bringing him to the attention of Alexandra who had been "bargaining" with God to not take her bleeding son.
When the Tsar and his family are transported to Tobolsk in Siberia, purportedly for their own safety (although the isolation made it impossible for loyal royalists to free them) Masha wanders throughout Europe with with her husband, the "charlatain" Boris. Rasputin had wed Masha to Boris before Rasputin's murder as he foretold that Russia would descend into civil war and he thought that Boris could help Masha escape the country. Several years after the tsar and his family are executed, Masha, who is now performing as a horseback acrobat and a lion tamer in circuses around the world, receives delivery of the journal that Alyosha kept the moths before he and his family were executed.
A tender new perspective on familiar historical events.
While the royal family and its retainers are under house arrest, Masha invents stories to amuse the ailing Alyosha. They spin stories both real and imagined about the courtship of Nikolay and Alexandra, who were ill-suited for the demands of public life. With a political crisis looming, the pair are hastily married a mere 18 days after Tsar Alexander's death. Immediately after the wedding, it became clear that "the two were doomed to always do wrong no matter how pure their intent." Masha reveals that her father suffered unrelenting grief after the death of his first infant son, and found himself in a monastary where the abbot explained that his life would be entertwined with Russia's rulers, and that he would die a martyr. Despite the fact that he was unwashed and illiterate, Rasputin seduced numerous women and was a proficient healer, eventually bringing him to the attention of Alexandra who had been "bargaining" with God to not take her bleeding son.
When the Tsar and his family are transported to Tobolsk in Siberia, purportedly for their own safety (although the isolation made it impossible for loyal royalists to free them) Masha wanders throughout Europe with with her husband, the "charlatain" Boris. Rasputin had wed Masha to Boris before Rasputin's murder as he foretold that Russia would descend into civil war and he thought that Boris could help Masha escape the country. Several years after the tsar and his family are executed, Masha, who is now performing as a horseback acrobat and a lion tamer in circuses around the world, receives delivery of the journal that Alyosha kept the moths before he and his family were executed.
A tender new perspective on familiar historical events.
wimzie's review against another edition
4.0
Harrison's weaving of points in time can take a bit to adjust to. The reader already knows the outcome of the story before they begin, but Harrison lures you in with Masha's honest and observant perspective.