The Wolf Princess - Cathryn Constable

Summary

Goodreads: 

Alone in the world, Sophie dreams of being someone special, but she could never have imagined this.

On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train. They are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerises them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past. But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets.

Thoughts

Let's do something new!  We're going to make this review out of lists rather than cohesive paragraphs because I feel like this:

What I didn't like

-       The story is really predictable.  Like really.  I could tell you from the first chapter what was going to happen (more or less).   Which means no (or very few) surprises in the plot, and the same goes for the characters.  I could have forgiven the plot if the characters had something to offer, but they didn't.

-       I didn’t like the friendship between the girls.  Daphne comes off as catty and stuck-up, and Marianne isn't really with the program, and Sophie doesn't fit with the other two either.  It's like the author put the stereotypes together and made them all friends.  They do have their redeeming moments, but friendship, especially female friendship, in books is something I'm especially nitpicky about.

What I did like

-      Russia is a new twist.  I mean, I can't think of any books that set Russia as a dream place and that was refreshing.  The author made it sound so magical and beautiful!  The setting and description of the girls' surroundings was easily my favourite part of the book. 

-     In a lot of ways it reminded me of Anastasia, and I think the parallels are easy enough to draw that it was intentional.  That actually didn't bother me as I have a soft spot for the Disney version of this story and I've always enjoyed stories about Anastasia.  (I actually was secretly expecting Sophie to be Anastasia hahah)

Overall

It’s cute, and maybe younger readers will like it as it's got a sort of Chronicles of Narnia sense of wonder to it (as well as beautiful scenery), but it was too predictable and two-dimensional for my taste.

The People's Act of Love - James Meek

Synopsis

In 1919 Siberia, in the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war, lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed in their midst is a company of Czech soldiers, on the losing side of the recent conflict and desperate to get home. Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost prison. His arrival intrigues many of the locals, including Anna Petrovna, a beautiful young war widow, but when the local shaman is found dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town..."The People's Act of Love" is an epic drama of desire and sacrifice, a grand table for modern times.

Thoughts

This book is extremely complex and very slow moving - so if you want a book to jump right into, this is not the book for you. The novel begins by devoting an entire chapter to each important character, which sets up the entire story, although you don't see it at first. These chapters are surrounded by other chapters moving the plot - often parts that you can not understand as the character has not been set up for you yet. This can be very confusing, but the mystery is enticing enough, although barely, to wade through the next few chapters. Once the story gets rolling, however, the plot moves extremely fast and becomes hard to follow because of the swiftness of events.

This was a well-written, but very dense book, and I feel like the full point of the book went over my head. Only after reading other reviews did I understand that the purpose of this book was to expose all the different types of beliefs people have in regards to love and how they display them. It is an interesting concept, but I am not sure the author executed this meaning the best way - it got caught up so much in a kind of murder mystery that the entire purpose to this story became covered up. The reader gets lost in the many characters ( there are FIVE main characters) and the action is all over the place - the first half of the novel doesn't occur entirely chronologically. There is just so much to process that its very difficult to understand in one read.

Overall

Strange, and interesting. Well written, but a little too confusing and disturbing for what I like.

Recommended for:

Definitely for the heavy reader. People either love or hate this novel - read it if you like philosophy and slow-moving text. I would also recommend this to someone who doesn't mind rereading a novel to fully understand the meaning and who does not mind graphic scenes and shocking actions.