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juliaureads 's review for:
Atomic Anna
by Rachel Barenbaum
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Life is about choices, and no matter which ones you make, I love you. Don’t ever apologize for going one way or another, just know you can always change. You’re living proof of that, aren’t you?”
Look at this little, underrated sci-fi/historical fiction novel finding its way into my TBR pile at the end of the year!
Atomic Anna was a great read. I loved every minute, even if it won’t end up on any best of lists. First of all, we have the compelling historical fiction pillars - Anna Berkova is a scientist at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. We find out later that she secretly sent her best friend and daughter to America, where they live in Philadelphia as Russian Jewish immigrants and all that entails.
These alone could have made for a compelling, pretty standard historical fiction novel, especially since we join Anna on the night of the Chernobyl disaster.
But Barenbaum takes us in a completely different direction and asks us - what if we could prevent disaster?
The shockwave of the explosion sends Anna forward in time - to the night of her daughter Molly’s death, on a mountaintop in 1992. In her dying breath, Molly pleads with Anna to go back in time and save Raisa - Molly’s daughter and Anna’s granddaughter. What follows is a series of misadventures and attempts by Anna to guide Molly toward a different fate - and to prevent the Chernobyl disaster in the process.
Look. We all know enough about time travel stories to know that things do not exactly go as planned, and our main characters learn about how our choices can change the course of history.
If you are skeptical about the time travel aspect, I urge you to still give this a try. This reads like a multigenerational saga of extraordinary women trying to save their family. I loved the political climate - the inherent fear in the scientific community in the USSR as well as the view into Molly’s childhood as a Russian Jew during the height of the red scare in the United States. There were enough historical elements to keep this speculative fiction story grounded.
Look at this little, underrated sci-fi/historical fiction novel finding its way into my TBR pile at the end of the year!
Atomic Anna was a great read. I loved every minute, even if it won’t end up on any best of lists. First of all, we have the compelling historical fiction pillars - Anna Berkova is a scientist at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. We find out later that she secretly sent her best friend and daughter to America, where they live in Philadelphia as Russian Jewish immigrants and all that entails.
These alone could have made for a compelling, pretty standard historical fiction novel, especially since we join Anna on the night of the Chernobyl disaster.
But Barenbaum takes us in a completely different direction and asks us - what if we could prevent disaster?
The shockwave of the explosion sends Anna forward in time - to the night of her daughter Molly’s death, on a mountaintop in 1992. In her dying breath, Molly pleads with Anna to go back in time and save Raisa - Molly’s daughter and Anna’s granddaughter. What follows is a series of misadventures and attempts by Anna to guide Molly toward a different fate - and to prevent the Chernobyl disaster in the process.
Look. We all know enough about time travel stories to know that things do not exactly go as planned, and our main characters learn about how our choices can change the course of history.
If you are skeptical about the time travel aspect, I urge you to still give this a try. This reads like a multigenerational saga of extraordinary women trying to save their family. I loved the political climate - the inherent fear in the scientific community in the USSR as well as the view into Molly’s childhood as a Russian Jew during the height of the red scare in the United States. There were enough historical elements to keep this speculative fiction story grounded.