(4 / 5)
I only need one word to capture the essence of this book: enchanting. I fell captive to its spell while reading (which only took me two days) and when I finished it was with no small struggle that I awakened to reality. This is a fascinating re-telling of a little known Russian fairy tale and is perfect for the winter season. I’ve never known the original fairy tale so I can’t speak to how true it was to it’s source, but I can say that I enjoyed it immensely. Its greatest strength is it’s atmospheric tone and vividly fresh setting. The characters are lovely but sometimes lost in it’s complex prose. It is not a difficult read, and the book is fairly short, but the imagery was written in a beautiful yet strange and sometimes contradicting way. It was lovely and hard to pin down all at once-a interesting read for sure. This novel seems geared toward an adult audience although I cannot specifically say why, only that it has that kind of feel. Any lover of fairy tale re-tellings will not be disappointed in this one.
Language: Low Violence: Medium Adult Content: Medium/Low