A review by art_books_chemistry
The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.0

I am struggling with my rating on this. I like the concept of the story a lot and enjoyed learning about a pantheon of gods/goddesses that I, for the most part, have never heard of. What I struggled with was the integration of the real history of Russia surrounding Tsar Ivan the Terrible with that mythos. I found the different parts weren't properly intertwined and just hard stopped sometimes between the real life and magical sections. The interludes were also a little confusing on audio at first because I didn't realize when the POV switched. The interludes also time jump without saying so, whereas the chapters are named with dates when they time jump. 
I did guess who the mysterious goddess was a decent amount of time before they revealed it, though my first guess was wrong so good job to the author there, appropriate amount of suspense. I also appreciated the 'balance of the universe' aspect since that's very prevalent in old world or pagan belief systems. But other than that, there seemed to be a lot of filler side action since we rarely have actual battles described and for me, there was a decent amount that I felt could have been cut out without losing the main story or any character development. And while I'm on the latter, there was plenty however there were so many side characters that I think some of the main character development got lost. 
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