I’m still upset that they glossed over a huge character thing that makes the happy ending much less happy than it should be, but I find myself fond of the book as a whole. (It probably helped that I switched from audiobook to ebook so I could skim over the repetition). Why should I care about these pointless, selfish women? When was something going to happen? When something did finally happen, the book became surprisingly lovely. Even the characters I sympathized with became annoying when they kept thinking about the pettiest little things over and over and over. The first 75% of the book drove me mad with its extremely repetitive writing style that incessantly harped upon the minute details of these four petty women and their petty little annoyances. Which meant that when I didn’t love it, I was much angrier than I would have been otherwise. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (Italy): A gentle classic about four women finding new joy in life when they take a vacation in an Italian castle? It’s so much my kind of book that it’s ridiculous. I almost wish Sepetys would write non-fiction-she clearly has the connections and resources to do so, and who needs fiction when the reality is so interesting? I’m keeping the book on-hand a while longer so I can investigate the bibliography further.

The most interesting part of the book was the author’s notes explaining her research process. The characters are rather basic, and do almost nothing except talk and think about how terrible life is under Communism, but the paranoia of a world where everyone could be an enemy keeps the tension high. It’s exactly like a YA dystopian novel except that it chillingly, and shockingly recently (the main character would be only fifty years old today) actually happened. The downfall of the USSR is a special historical interest of mine, so I was bound to love this book. Like all Sepetys’ books, the history itself is so fascinating that the story and characters almost don’t matter. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Romania): Historical fiction about the 1989 Romanian revolution against the country’s Communist dictator.

El cuarto reich palomo pdf