Review by frogqueen - The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Story

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

2.75

a woman returns to her native ukraine to reconnect with her roots following russia's invasion of crimea in 2014, uncovering a family mystery that she is determined to solve
for me this book was the literary equivalent of "this song seems like it is much more fun to sing than to listen to"
(so i guess....this book seems like it was much more impactful to write than it was to read)
for a memoir i found it kind of detached- i just didn't get a lot of emotion from the narrator (the author)
between uncovering tiny tidbits about the mystery of nikodim, we get long passages about gardening and bureaucracy that were simply not engaging in the slightest
the last 50 or so pages were the best part of the book- reflecting on all the different people, family or not, that she connected with across her journey, coming to terms with her father's death,
reconnecting with her uncle
i also liked the descriptions of different pieces of ukranian culture- the rushnyky, the easter meal and traditions.

**review of an arc that i received via goodreads giveaways**