Review: The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

Two of my favourite genres are fantasy fiction and historical fiction, so I was delighted to receive an early copy of The Witch and the Tsar. This story takes the real-life Ivan-the-Terrible and pits him against the legendary Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch!

The story covers a twenty-two-year period starting from 1560. Yaga is the immortal daughter of a goddess and a human; centuries-old, but with the appearance of a young, attractive woman. She lives in Little Hen (a hut on chicken legs) with her owl and wolf in the northern woods, surrounded by the skulls of dead animals, beside the passageway to the Land of the Dead. She mistrusts people, as they mistrust her, but always offers help and healing as  needed.

One day, Anastasia, the tsaritsa and wife of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, requests help with a mysterious illness - it turns out she is being poisoned. Yaga travels with her to Moscow to keep her safe, but Anastasia's enemy is far more powerful than either of them realise...

The Witch and the Tsar is a clever, well-written story that weaves traditional folklore through a violent period of Russia's history. As I'm not familiar with the folklore, I found this part hard to follow at times and would have loved more detail about the different supernatural worlds and 'kingdoms'. There is a lot happening in this book (wars, uprisings, massacres) and it could have been split into two, to do full justice to the story. I was not as interested in the politics and battle scenes as I was in the magic realism of Yaga's world, her spells, rituals and potions, and her relationships with Konstantin and Vasily.

The Witch and the Tsar didn't quite work for me, but I can see that it might appeal to fans of Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy and Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver.

Thank you to Olesya Salnikova Giomore and HarperVoyager for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily. 

Review: The Slaughterman's Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits

I was attracted to this book because of the absolutely stunning cover but the story is darker than it suggests. The Slaughterman's Daughter is a historical adventure, set in the late 19th century in the Pale of Settlement (an area of Imperial Russia including Belarus and parts of Poland) where Jews were forced to live. The publishers have described the story as being a cross between Quentin Tarantino and Fiddler on the Roof, and that pretty much sums it up! If you're looking for a book that is a little bit different, this is the read for you.

In the isolated, godforsaken town of Motal husbands go missing on a regular basis (they've usually run off in search of a better life) but never wives and mothers. So when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home in the middle of the night, the town is aghast. Rumours regarding her disappearance rapidly circulate, some of which even turn out to be true.

The Slaughterman's Daughter is basically Fanny's attempt to find her missing brother-in-law and persuade (force!) him to come home. As she sets off on her road trip, everything that could go wrong does, unwittingly involving all kinds of innocent (and not so innocent) people, until the highest powers become convinced the country is on the brink of revolution. It is a rollicking story that shows how the simplest actions and purest thoughts can quickly lead to disaster.

There is a serious message running through The Slaughterman's Daughter but there is also humour. I loved the titular character of Fanny, who hacks her way through the story in a very Tarantino way! (There is the occasional scene of mild gore.) The other characters are utterly believable and completely engaging; I even found myself sympathising with the the villains. There are multiple points of view and we learn every character's backstory. As fascinating as these tales-within-a-tale were, they did slow down the pace quite a lot. But if take-you-by-the-throat characters, seat-of-your-pants action, and oodles of authentic atmosphere are your thing, you will definitely love this. Personally, I'd love to see it made into a movie...

Thank you to Yaniv Iczkovits and MacLehose Press (Quercus) for  my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

YA fantasy, particularly with fairy tale and folklore references, is my new favourite genre. So that, combined with the beautiful cover, is what drew me to this book.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is set in the village of Dubossary, on the border of Moldova and the Ukraine, in 1903. It combines traditional folk tales and real-life history (the Russian pograms). The author's note at the back of the book explains which scenes really happened, and how she drew on her own family history for inspiration. The story is about two Jewish sisters, Liba and Laya, who live in a village where Jews and non-Jews live quite happily alongside each other, until a band of handsome men arrive in town to sell the most wonderful fruit at the market - and spread dissent. Suddenly everything bad that happens (deaths and disappearances) is blamed upon the Jews. It's hard to explain more, without going into spoiler territory, so I'll go with what it says on the blurb: 'Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realise the old fairy tales are true . . . and could save them all.'

While I did enjoy the story (for me, it's a solid four stars) it is aimed firmly at the YA market, so at times I found it a bit teenage-y. Most of the drama deals with the two girls' discovery of who they really are and the pains of first love. The growing tension in the village, and the mystery of who was responsible for the deaths and disappearances, kept me gripped and I read the book very quickly. I found the historical parts fascinating. I liked the characters and thought the way the author alternated the viewpoint of each sister - Liba spoke in prose, Laya's voice was more like poetry - was clever.

However, the amount of Yiddish and Hebrew words at the start of the book made it hard to get into at first (there is a glossary at the back), and while I like stories that reference classic fairy tales and folk tales, I did feel The Sisters of the Winter Wood borrowed a bit too heavily from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, particularly towards the end. Meaning that if you've read that, you'll have no trouble working out the plot. (The author, in her notes, admits this is deliberate.)

So, while older folk like me might find The Sisters of the Winter Wood lacks crossover appeal, the target audience will love it and probably give it an extra star. 

Thank you to Rena Rossner and Orbit for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.