Scan barcode
A review by mcacev
The Wise and the Wicked by Rebecca Podos
3.0
The Wise and the Wicked is a stand-alone magical realism (fabulism?) written by Rebecca Podos. It follows the Chernyavskys, a family of witches who have moved from Russia to America and now live in Maine. Over the generations they have lost most of their powers, except for one: they can foretell the day they are about to die.
I was interested in reading this from the moment I found out this book was about a Russian family and would revolve around Russian mythology and fairy tales. I am starved for some Slavic rep in books, and I’ll take what I can get, even if Russia is the furthest it possibly can be from where I’m from.
So it should be no surprise to you that I had some mixed feelings on this book. It does in fact revolve around a Russian family, and I was honestly impressed with how much of the culture Podos had managed to interject into the book. However, I did have some issues with the representation that we’ll talk about later.
Let’s start with the positives: this book relies heavily on fairy tales and oral retellings of family tales. A big theme of the book is storytelling; how much of certain tales is true, what stories are chosen to be preserved and passed down, different views on the same event, etc. As any book that deals in Russian Folklore, this too contains Vassa in the Night which is probably the most overused and famous Russian tale in existence.
The issue I had with the Russian rep, was that a lot of it felt very superficial and hollow. For example, there are a lot of Russian words used for anything from clothes, to food, to terms of endearment. It makes sense that the younger generations wouldn’t be fluent or even really speak the language, and know only the few words they have heard over and over. However, the way the language was incorporated, and especially the way the characters acted and sounded did not feel Russian.
I don’t know if Podos is Russian in heritage; my guess is no, because based on how she writes these characters, it’s as if she read a very thorough wikipedia article on Russian Americans and called it a day. Don’t get me wrong; she has done her due diligence to use the language, and incorporate traditional foods and clothing, but it all felt very flat. These characters don’t sound like any Russian, or even Russian-American I’ve ever met; they just feel false, like characters dressing up for Halloween. It’s so hard for me to explain what exactly caused this disconnect, but I could just tell it was someone who didn’t know the culture or the people, playing dress up; John Wick felt more Russian than this and he’s a) played by a Hawaiian man who can barely pronounce the language, b) supposed to be Georgian.
This wasn’t a deal breaker for me, but it did significantly diminish my enjoyment. The authenticity of the story just wasn’t there, and as such all the platitudes about family and blood felt hollow. Even reading the stories and fairytales felt hollow, like Podos doesn’t really understand why Russian folklore is as grim and gruesome, or where any of these ideas about secrecy, mimicry, family sticking together come from.
One thing this book does excel at is atmosphere. There were many sections that were downright creepy, and I got the same sense of unease and for lack of a better word, magic, as I did reading The Raven Cycle. Anything that had to do with the girls snooping around Polina’s house, the fates of the Chernyavsky women, and even some of the scenes in the Dov house were quite heavy and unsettling. It has the same half-eery, half-humorous tone as the The Raven Cycle , and the lead Ruby, especially reminded me of Blue.
The plot itself was interesting, if a bit predictable. I think, because I have read The Raven Cycle, I already saw where things were going and could predict a lot of the plot points. There was a character with an untimely death, another character with a vision of the future that didn’t match their present state, a family member with ambiguous motivations, a character who is part of a magical family with seemingly no magic, a mysterious boy, etc. None of these are necessarily bad; they were mostly just elements that I had seen already and that made me somewhat disappointed in the story. I was also confused at the end; there are open endings, and then there are endings that are clearly setting up for a sequel. The book is listed as a standalone, so I’m really not sure what happened here; so many things are left unexplained or unresolved, and it doesn’t feel like the story ended; it just simply stopped.
The characters were the part of the book that made me want to read to the end; they were what made this into a 3 instead of a 2 star. Let’s start with the Chernyavskys. Polina was the matriarch, and I really liked her. She was the only character that felt Russian; her bluntness, her clear love for her family expressed in food and tough choices. I sort of liked the explanation we get towards the end about what happened to her, but what I really didn’t like was how wasted the potential of the powers were. This is a SPOILER so if you haven’t read the book, skip the next paragraph.
We find out that the Chernyavsky power is to take Time from one person and either give it to someone else or to themselves. That’s how Polina had been able to live that long; she had stolen Galena’s time, as well as the Volkov man who owned the house she inherited. This was fascinating because this is exactly the kind of dark magic that Russian folklore is all about; it’s in incredibly powerful gift, but it comes at the cost of other living things. Imagine if we knew this from the start of the book, or earlier and we had more time and more characters dealing with the knowledge that they can buy themselves more Time, but they’d have to kill for it, and that they really were the monsters in the woods.
Dahlia and Ginger were fine as Ruby’s two big sisters; I preferred Dhalia to Ginger, but they each get a few scenes to shine. They acted like sisters (the whole barging in on you while in the bathroom or in your room bit sounded very familiar), and they were nice foils to Ruby.
Evalina was Ruby’s mother and she was literally just Neeve from The Raven Cycle.
Then we have Dov and Talia, the Volkovs. I absolutely loved the way Podos handled Dov. He is a trans character and both in the way she told us his backstory, and in the way she presented him as a character, it was great. It helped a lot that Dov himself was a really likable character, and I enjoyed his back and forth with Ruby. They both have very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, which worked well both for the tone of the book and their personalities.
Talia was less fleshed out, but I liked that we get glimpses into what it was like growing up as the heir, the perfect daughter who’s good at everything.
Then we have my favorite character who was Cece. She was so sweet and so good, and I really loved her. The scene where she tells Ruby her Time broke my heart.
Ruby was annoying, but I really loved her. She was very much an unlikable main character; she is moody, she is unmotivated and apathetic, she’s snappy, basically a teenager. Like Blue, she seems to only care about 3 people in total, which personally grated on me, but it was very consistent with her character. Her obsession with science and finding answers, and especially with Carl Sagan was really endearing and I really liked it.
Overall this was an ok book. It had the potential to be more, but it just fell short for me. I think if you like slow, atmospheric reads, or the The Raven Cycle, you will probably enjoy it; just be aware that the ending, leaves a lot to be desired.
I was interested in reading this from the moment I found out this book was about a Russian family and would revolve around Russian mythology and fairy tales. I am starved for some Slavic rep in books, and I’ll take what I can get, even if Russia is the furthest it possibly can be from where I’m from.
So it should be no surprise to you that I had some mixed feelings on this book. It does in fact revolve around a Russian family, and I was honestly impressed with how much of the culture Podos had managed to interject into the book. However, I did have some issues with the representation that we’ll talk about later.
Let’s start with the positives: this book relies heavily on fairy tales and oral retellings of family tales. A big theme of the book is storytelling; how much of certain tales is true, what stories are chosen to be preserved and passed down, different views on the same event, etc. As any book that deals in Russian Folklore, this too contains Vassa in the Night which is probably the most overused and famous Russian tale in existence.
The issue I had with the Russian rep, was that a lot of it felt very superficial and hollow. For example, there are a lot of Russian words used for anything from clothes, to food, to terms of endearment. It makes sense that the younger generations wouldn’t be fluent or even really speak the language, and know only the few words they have heard over and over. However, the way the language was incorporated, and especially the way the characters acted and sounded did not feel Russian.
I don’t know if Podos is Russian in heritage; my guess is no, because based on how she writes these characters, it’s as if she read a very thorough wikipedia article on Russian Americans and called it a day. Don’t get me wrong; she has done her due diligence to use the language, and incorporate traditional foods and clothing, but it all felt very flat. These characters don’t sound like any Russian, or even Russian-American I’ve ever met; they just feel false, like characters dressing up for Halloween. It’s so hard for me to explain what exactly caused this disconnect, but I could just tell it was someone who didn’t know the culture or the people, playing dress up; John Wick felt more Russian than this and he’s a) played by a Hawaiian man who can barely pronounce the language, b) supposed to be Georgian.
This wasn’t a deal breaker for me, but it did significantly diminish my enjoyment. The authenticity of the story just wasn’t there, and as such all the platitudes about family and blood felt hollow. Even reading the stories and fairytales felt hollow, like Podos doesn’t really understand why Russian folklore is as grim and gruesome, or where any of these ideas about secrecy, mimicry, family sticking together come from.
One thing this book does excel at is atmosphere. There were many sections that were downright creepy, and I got the same sense of unease and for lack of a better word, magic, as I did reading The Raven Cycle. Anything that had to do with the girls snooping around Polina’s house, the fates of the Chernyavsky women, and even some of the scenes in the Dov house were quite heavy and unsettling. It has the same half-eery, half-humorous tone as the The Raven Cycle , and the lead Ruby, especially reminded me of Blue.
The plot itself was interesting, if a bit predictable. I think, because I have read The Raven Cycle, I already saw where things were going and could predict a lot of the plot points. There was a character with an untimely death, another character with a vision of the future that didn’t match their present state, a family member with ambiguous motivations, a character who is part of a magical family with seemingly no magic, a mysterious boy, etc. None of these are necessarily bad; they were mostly just elements that I had seen already and that made me somewhat disappointed in the story. I was also confused at the end; there are open endings, and then there are endings that are clearly setting up for a sequel. The book is listed as a standalone, so I’m really not sure what happened here; so many things are left unexplained or unresolved, and it doesn’t feel like the story ended; it just simply stopped.
The characters were the part of the book that made me want to read to the end; they were what made this into a 3 instead of a 2 star. Let’s start with the Chernyavskys. Polina was the matriarch, and I really liked her. She was the only character that felt Russian; her bluntness, her clear love for her family expressed in food and tough choices. I sort of liked the explanation we get towards the end about what happened to her, but what I really didn’t like was how wasted the potential of the powers were. This is a SPOILER so if you haven’t read the book, skip the next paragraph.
We find out that the Chernyavsky power is to take Time from one person and either give it to someone else or to themselves. That’s how Polina had been able to live that long; she had stolen Galena’s time, as well as the Volkov man who owned the house she inherited. This was fascinating because this is exactly the kind of dark magic that Russian folklore is all about; it’s in incredibly powerful gift, but it comes at the cost of other living things. Imagine if we knew this from the start of the book, or earlier and we had more time and more characters dealing with the knowledge that they can buy themselves more Time, but they’d have to kill for it, and that they really were the monsters in the woods.
Dahlia and Ginger were fine as Ruby’s two big sisters; I preferred Dhalia to Ginger, but they each get a few scenes to shine. They acted like sisters (the whole barging in on you while in the bathroom or in your room bit sounded very familiar), and they were nice foils to Ruby.
Evalina was Ruby’s mother and she was literally just Neeve from The Raven Cycle.
Then we have Dov and Talia, the Volkovs. I absolutely loved the way Podos handled Dov. He is a trans character and both in the way she told us his backstory, and in the way she presented him as a character, it was great. It helped a lot that Dov himself was a really likable character, and I enjoyed his back and forth with Ruby. They both have very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, which worked well both for the tone of the book and their personalities.
Talia was less fleshed out, but I liked that we get glimpses into what it was like growing up as the heir, the perfect daughter who’s good at everything.
Then we have my favorite character who was Cece. She was so sweet and so good, and I really loved her. The scene where she tells Ruby her Time broke my heart.
Ruby was annoying, but I really loved her. She was very much an unlikable main character; she is moody, she is unmotivated and apathetic, she’s snappy, basically a teenager. Like Blue, she seems to only care about 3 people in total, which personally grated on me, but it was very consistent with her character. Her obsession with science and finding answers, and especially with Carl Sagan was really endearing and I really liked it.
Overall this was an ok book. It had the potential to be more, but it just fell short for me. I think if you like slow, atmospheric reads, or the The Raven Cycle, you will probably enjoy it; just be aware that the ending, leaves a lot to be desired.