Can I give this book more than five stars? Please?

Whitney Milam recommended this book in one of her videos, and I just generally liked the premise from it. Then I read Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and fell in love with her prose, so I was excited to read a book that was written for adults. And the last reason I was incredibly excited for this book, I'm currently taking a course called Russian Fairytales and this book is basically everything I have learned from this course. So needless to say, I knew I was going to fall in love with this book before I even opened it up.

Russian fairytales are fantastic. While it does share quite a bit in common with Grimm's stories as well as general fairytale structure, Russian fairytales have a voice of their own. Every hero is named Ivan (or he is unnamed) and his princess is Elena the Fair (Yelena the Bright in Deathless, although Elena and Yelena is essentially the same name) or Vasilisa the Beautiful. Baba Yaga or Koschei the Deathless or a dragon antagonize or heros. The villains are defeated, Ivan becomes the tsar and the narrator shows up in the last line to tell you he was there, at the wedding, and he drank beer; it ran down his beard and did not go into this mouth. Although I've only known Russian fairytales for two months, this background really added an extra level of enjoyment to this tale. Especially the Russian spirits like the domovoie, leshy, and rusulka, because they don't show up in tales but I still had to learn about them and memorize their functions.

Valente wrote this story so well. She said her inspiration came from the tale of Marya Morevna and she questioned why Koschei the Deathless was chained in her basement. Which come to think of it is a very good question. Valente made this story flow like a fairytale. She effortlessly worked in the trebling effect without making it sound repetitive. Time flowed so easily, and it did not feel like years were passing, even though they were. But this is not a story for children. There is a hunger deep within Marya Morevna, for sex, love, a world she feels was stolen from her as a child. A girl who grew up expecting life to be a fairytale, and eventually learned that it was not her destiny. Then there's how this story is set against the rise of the Communist party in Russia and World War II including the horrific siege of Leningrad. It was terrifying and sad and just utterly perfect.

Is there anything I didn't like? Russian names. Because I don't know how to pronounce them (well the ones more complicated than Ivan and Marya) and Russians like to call people by three different nicknames without letting you know (see: Crime and Punishment)

Because I already knew I loved Valente, I marked this book up with lines that just sounded beautiful.

"She was filled like a wineskin with the rich sight of her handsome young man in his handsome black uniform, and kiss him very chastely on the cheeks."

"[Tatania] wrote sophisticated letters home to her sisters, in which her verbs danced in square patterns and her datives were laid out like table settings for feasting."

"Zvonya, I live to scare poor girls! Their tears smell like the freshest, warmest cakes with cherry jam smeared all round them."

"He'll burn you down like wax if you let him. You'll think it's love, while he dines on your heart. And maybe it will be. But he's so hungry he'll eat you all in one sitting, and you'll be in his belly, and what will you do then? Hear me say it, because I know. I ate all of my husbands. First I ate their love, then their will, then their despair, and then I made pies out of their bodies--and those bodies were so dear to me! But marriage is war, and you do what you must to survive--because only one of you will."

"Cosmetics are an extension of the will. Why do you think all men paint themselves when they go to fight? When I paint my eyes to match my soup, it is not because I have nothing better to do than worry over trifles. It says I belong here, and you will not deny me. When I streak my lips red as foxgloves, I say, Come here, male. I am your mate and you will not deny. When i pinch my cheeks and dust them with mother-of-pearl, I say, Death keep off, I am your enemy, and you will not deny me."
(Lebedva's whole speech to Marya was amazing. Gave me chills)

"Tell a girl something is secret and nothing will stop her from ferreting it out."

"It's not so bad my darling. Being dead. It's like being alive, only colder. Things taste less. They feel less. You forget, little by little, who you were. There isn't much love, but there is a lot of vodka and reminiscing. It's rather like a university reunion."

"You hardly knew Koschei. Abduction is a wonderful ice breaker."

"...because he did love her, even if it was beef-love: stupid and tough and overcooked."

"And I drink it down with the rest of them and it runs into my mustache instead of my mouth, but my soul is drunk and sated."


Well I wrote a lot in this review. Bottom line? Read the book.