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A review by vermidian
The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
3.0
There are things about this book that I thought were great and there were things about this book that I really found grating, so I'm going for 3 stars as a middle rating for this one.
Going into this, I'm not Jewish. My exposure to Jewish culture has been fairly limited due to the Protestant Christian environment that I was raised in. That said, I have made it a point to expose myself to other cultures through reading and media where I can, so I didn't go into this book completely blind. There are things I could relate to despite that culture difference as well: Liba's not feeling beautiful enough, Laya's frustration with religion. I related to the characters mostly outside of the Jewish culture, but it was a massive part of the book that is so, so important to it and cannot be ignored. I have been exposed to western European cultures as well, so some of the folklore was familiar to me in that.
The choice to have one sister, Liba the bear, write in prose while the other sister, Laya the swan, wrote in verse was so cleverly and beautifully done. While I didn't always feel Laya's parts always read like poetry, there were parts that were so lovely. It was a beautiful comparison of the two sisters.
But man, I wanted to physically smack the sisters at times. Each did their own dumb things, some of which were magic induced, I grant, but man... If either of them had just stuck to their convictions at any of the points before it became dire instead of flinging themselves to the whims of their hearts, this book would have been done in less than 200 pages. AND THE MEN??? Seriously, talk about toxic relationships. Instantly falling in love left and right for no reason. They all need to have a serious discussion about BOUNDARIES. Literally all of them.
This was also listed as Adult fiction, but it absolutely isn't. Between the middle school vocabulary and the main characters being 17 and 15, this book is absolutely a YA book.
Would I recommend this? Not really. It was a fun read through for the one time, but I wasn't left feeling satisfied at the end of the book. Don't get me wrong. It's a decent read, but it's not one I loved enough that I feel it will be memorable to me down the road.
Going into this, I'm not Jewish. My exposure to Jewish culture has been fairly limited due to the Protestant Christian environment that I was raised in. That said, I have made it a point to expose myself to other cultures through reading and media where I can, so I didn't go into this book completely blind. There are things I could relate to despite that culture difference as well: Liba's not feeling beautiful enough, Laya's frustration with religion. I related to the characters mostly outside of the Jewish culture, but it was a massive part of the book that is so, so important to it and cannot be ignored. I have been exposed to western European cultures as well, so some of the folklore was familiar to me in that.
The choice to have one sister, Liba the bear, write in prose while the other sister, Laya the swan, wrote in verse was so cleverly and beautifully done. While I didn't always feel Laya's parts always read like poetry, there were parts that were so lovely. It was a beautiful comparison of the two sisters.
But man, I wanted to physically smack the sisters at times. Each did their own dumb things, some of which were magic induced, I grant, but man... If either of them had just stuck to their convictions at any of the points before it became dire instead of flinging themselves to the whims of their hearts, this book would have been done in less than 200 pages. AND THE MEN??? Seriously, talk about toxic relationships. Instantly falling in love left and right for no reason. They all need to have a serious discussion about BOUNDARIES. Literally all of them.
This was also listed as Adult fiction, but it absolutely isn't. Between the middle school vocabulary and the main characters being 17 and 15, this book is absolutely a YA book.
Would I recommend this? Not really. It was a fun read through for the one time, but I wasn't left feeling satisfied at the end of the book. Don't get me wrong. It's a decent read, but it's not one I loved enough that I feel it will be memorable to me down the road.