I was recommended this novel by multiple friends given my love of fairy/folk tales from varying cultures, and I was not disappointed. I came to read a fairy tale and while the ending was not unexpected, it was satisfying for me. Steeped in Russian folklore, which I only know a small amount of, I found the characters dancing to the tune of the tale enjoyable, saddening, and fascinating all at once. There's comfort in patterns, and while I wish the characters had shown a bit more of their own agency in struggling against what was happening, I understood why they did it. One of the characters mentions that a story must happen, that you must experience it as well as being told it, and at that point I knew there was no getting out of the pattern for poor Marya.
Let me summarize what I enjoyed most about this story:
1. The descriptions. Simple, easy to understand, and easy to imagine what was happening.
2. The characters. The ones I loved the most were Koschei the Deathless himself and how he was portrayed; Baba Yaga and her attitude; and the house domovoi and HER attitude.
3. The fairy tale repetition. The fours and threes and other numbers that are significant in fairy tales.
I recommend this story strongly to anyone who enjoys fairy tales and the inevitability of them.
- File Size: 478 KB
- Print Length: 353 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (March 29, 2011)
- Publication Date: March 29, 2011
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004H1TQGC
- Text-to-Speech:
Enabled
- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#157,211 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #780 in Mythology (Kindle Store)
- #642 in Fairy Tales (Kindle Store)
- #462 in Folklore (Kindle Store)
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