maartje_volder's Reviews (578)

Not everything is as interesting, I liked his wife's book more. I like the little insights into his life, his feelings. A lot is just plain fact of what we also saw during his first years in the spotlight. It is necessary to have there, as a nice red wire to get through the years, but some of it is just too plain.

You take two fairy tales, mix them with a bit of prejudice and spread it out over 3 families.

I loved this story, the twists and turns, the pace, the hints at familiar things. Naomi Novik her writing style is my cup of tea.

Well that was... something else.

It took me a while to get with the flow of this book. It just caught me off guard a few times so I stumbled through the first few chapters. It is just so absurdly weird an hilarious. Russians put too much vodka in their vodka and produce the strangest literary works.

I didn't really like the start, started to love it in the middle, but the conclusion was a bit of a cliché.

Not sure what I expected, got it for the hype. Wasn't my best move. The book feels too short to get into real detail, but too long for what it wants to tell. Or maybe the whole timeline skipping back and forth threw me off.

Felt like this is just a taste of the possibilities. The pace is a bit slow. It's like holding a chocolate ice cream in the summer, and you have to wait for the other ice creams, but yours starts melting a bit, so you are licking along the sides to avoid disaster but you get a little taste. Yeah, that is this book.