This book was just fun. I enjoyed all the political intrigue; I enjoyed the romance; I even enjoyed the action scenes. I really enjoy political intrigue/court drama kind of stories but so many of those are historical fiction or set in some semblance of the real world which ends up just making me depressed because there's a "truth is stranger than fiction" element to those narratives. But put it in a fictional world and I'm all about it. I'm excited to read the next two in the series; I'm confident I'll enjoy those just as much.

If you are the kind of person who needs a really likable and well-developed main character in order to get attached to a story this is probably not the novel for you. While the characters are interesting the main course of the book is definitely the plot. Older switches between points of view mid-chapter and even mid-paragraph so she's really taking you on a ride of omniscient narration. I didn't mind this (obviously) but I know for some people it can be distracting and a turn-off. So, fair warning.

--Spoilers Below--

One of the things I liked the most was the natural disaster plot. This reminded me a lot of the politicization of Hurricane Katrina, especially, but also the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean (Maria, Irma, etc.) versus the response to hurricanes Sandy and Harvey. All of these hurricanes were similar in impact and intensity but depending on where they hit drastically altered how people thought about the hurricane and responded to it. Similarly, when the earthquake hits Japan immediately all the campaigns latch on to this idea as a chance to bolster their own positions instead of actually thinking about the impact of such an event. This seems very true to live for me and I liked the sort of subtle and calm meditation on the rhetoric of natural disasters.

Someone explain to me how that ending makes sense... Ugh.

This books is fine, fun, easy. A few good moments but generally sticks to status quo despite potential for something more interesting. Nothing terribly offensive, just simple.

This book was incredible and brilliant and heart-wrenching but also weirdly uplifting at the end? I'm very bad at book reviews just read the book.

I know a lot of people who were reading this with me abandoned it but I liked this book. Not an all time favorite but it was a soothing book in some way.

Based on reviews I feel like most people don't like this book but I really enjoyed it. Ultimately doesn't fit into the parameters off my dissertation but maybe I'll teach it at some point. I would need more knowledge of 20th century Russian/USSR/Soviet history though.