A review by jenansbach
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

4.0

This took me awhile to get through because a lot of the specifics on spy tradecraft and Russian protocols were so detailed (and I have little frame of reference). I think had I read it three years ago, I wouldn't have appreciated what Matthews is sharing here--a fictional, inside of view of spies in the CIA and Russia, and there is a lot here that explains current events with Russia. It builds the Russian worldview in detail. Were parts of it predictable? Well, yes. It's a spy novel. It's a trilogy. So you already know someone will die and someone will live for the next book. The recipes at the end of each chapter threw me at first, but by the end, it made perfect sense in how the mindset of a spy colors the world.