The Summary

As different as sisters can be, Meredith and Nina Whitson are. One pursued a dream and toured the world to become a well-known photojournalist, while the other stayed at home to raise her children and look after the family's apple orchard. Meredith and Nina are reunited with their frigid, condescending mother, Anya, who still does not provide solace to her children when their adored father becomes ill. The Russian fairy story Anya occasionally shared with the girls at night was the only thing they had in common as kids.

Their father makes a promise to the women in his life on his deathbed: the fairy tale would be read one final time, and all the way through. Thus begins an unexpected trip into the reality of Anya's existence in Leningrad, which was devastated by war, more than 50 years ago. Meredith and Nina will finally hear their mother's unique, horrifying narrative, which alternates between the past and the present. What they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will upend the entire structure of their family and alter their perception of who they are.

My Review

I'll start by admitting that I occasionally fell asleep while reading this book.

There are some genuinely fascinating portions to this story of two sisters and their Russian immigrant mother. Even though I was aware of the historical aspect, there were times when I had to put it on hold since I couldn't stand to read too many tales set in 1940s Leningrad at once.

As I read on, I found myself unable to put the book down and compelled to finish it. At first, I wasn't sure of it. I only read the book grudgingly because I wanted to learn what had made the mother have to live as an ice princess for so long.

This novel does occasionally feel like two different stories because of the divergent time periods in the two narratives, one taking place in the early 2000s and the other in the 1920s–1940s. The transitions from past to present became easier as the book progressed, but occasionally they did cause me to lose focus on the story I was now reading.

Even though I had concerns with it, I did like how this book told a story that clearly established the characters and their objectives. I didn't understand how well the explanation had built the reality of these people until the second part of the book, even though it did mean that the plot suffered a little.

Overall, I didn't find the book to be very useful. The characters all felt lifeless since none of them had any psychological depth or nuance. I had really high hopes for this book, thus I was very disappointed.

A well-written story that exposed a terrible time in history that I was unaware even existed, I ultimately found this book to be somewhat entertaining.

My ratings score:

★★★★★ Fantastic! Made me go through a lot of emotions & the entire book is incredibly beautifully done! 

★★★★ Memorable! Despite its shortcomings, this book was incredible and taught us a lot. 

★★★ Good work! Nothing particularly remarkable, but still nice.

★★ Meh... Mediocre with great room for improvement.

★ Extremely Poor.