avkam's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A retelling that doesn’t feel unoriginal.
liacooper's review against another edition
4.0
I'm going to have to dwell w/ this book for a few days to process it.
bookly_reads's review against another edition
2.0
are the straights okay
(I'm being flippant, and my star ratings are about how I feel when I'm reading a book, and not necessarily a reflection of how skilled I think an author is, how good the prose, how layered and well-executed the ideas. There's a lot going on in this book but I was too distracted worrying for the straights. I'd honestly just rather read a history book for the things I enjoyed about Deathless, because the rest reminded me too much of Fifty Shades of Gray.)
(I'm being flippant, and my star ratings are about how I feel when I'm reading a book, and not necessarily a reflection of how skilled I think an author is, how good the prose, how layered and well-executed the ideas. There's a lot going on in this book but I was too distracted worrying for the straights. I'd honestly just rather read a history book for the things I enjoyed about Deathless, because the rest reminded me too much of Fifty Shades of Gray.)
emmacatereads's review against another edition
5.0
To be honest, I don't remember the first time I read this book. I don't remember the second, or the third. This could be my fourth reread, or my tenth, it doesn't matter. This book ignities the same cold fire in me today as it did the first time I turned the final page.
This book will steal the breath from your lungs and the heart from your body. Even sitting by the fire in my parents’ house, I could feel the freezing wind of Leningrad chill my bones. This is a fairy-tale that feels achingly true, in a way that writers covet all their lives but can never quite capture. Valente pulls directly from the history of the Russian Revolution to hammer out the outline of the story, and fills it up with well-known slavic folktales. But the gleaming lines of silver, gold, and blood that mend the gaps between, like Japanese Kintsugi pottery, are all Cat Valente's own.
No description of the story I try to give will do it justice. Its skeleton describes the life of Marya Morevna, a young girl with one eye tuned to the magic under the skin of the world, who is swept away by the mythical Koschei the Deathless to be his bride. But the soul of this book is much, much more. It is about the cyclical nature of time, death, and stories: how life can be lush and beautiful in one moment and cold and brutal in the next. It is about marriage as romance, as a contract, as a shackle, as all of those things at once. It is about yearning to return to a world that is gone, and the bittersweet agony of the punishing, ever-forward march of progress. "Let it never have happened" pleads Marya. "Let me be young again, and the story just starting.".
But the truth is, as Deathless so gently, so creully reminds us: there is not going back. There is no changing the past, there is no forgiveness, and no resurrection. There is only life in all its madness, beauty, and ugliness. My favorite quote comes from the sly witch Baba Yaga, on the second to last page of the book, which I think captures the essence of the book: “You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief....But what does it matter? You still have to go to work in the morning. You still have to live.”
This book will steal the breath from your lungs and the heart from your body. Even sitting by the fire in my parents’ house, I could feel the freezing wind of Leningrad chill my bones. This is a fairy-tale that feels achingly true, in a way that writers covet all their lives but can never quite capture. Valente pulls directly from the history of the Russian Revolution to hammer out the outline of the story, and fills it up with well-known slavic folktales. But the gleaming lines of silver, gold, and blood that mend the gaps between, like Japanese Kintsugi pottery, are all Cat Valente's own.
No description of the story I try to give will do it justice. Its skeleton describes the life of Marya Morevna, a young girl with one eye tuned to the magic under the skin of the world, who is swept away by the mythical Koschei the Deathless to be his bride. But the soul of this book is much, much more. It is about the cyclical nature of time, death, and stories: how life can be lush and beautiful in one moment and cold and brutal in the next. It is about marriage as romance, as a contract, as a shackle, as all of those things at once. It is about yearning to return to a world that is gone, and the bittersweet agony of the punishing, ever-forward march of progress. "Let it never have happened" pleads Marya. "Let me be young again, and the story just starting.".
But the truth is, as Deathless so gently, so creully reminds us: there is not going back. There is no changing the past, there is no forgiveness, and no resurrection. There is only life in all its madness, beauty, and ugliness. My favorite quote comes from the sly witch Baba Yaga, on the second to last page of the book, which I think captures the essence of the book: “You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief....But what does it matter? You still have to go to work in the morning. You still have to live.”
midnightsivy's review against another edition
4.0
It was beautiful and tragic and I almost feel bad for giving it a 4 but it's because few things flew over my head since I've yet to get familiar with Russian history and folktales.
So, it's on me.
*mini spoiler*
.
.
(the chaining of Koschei was hot ngl)
So, it's on me.
*mini spoiler*
.
.
(the chaining of Koschei was hot ngl)
mossfloor's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
flaviathebibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I’d been wanting to read Catherine M. Valente’s Deathless ever since I first heard about it a few years ago. And I’m so happy that I was finally able to get to it! I don’t know the original fairytale/s that Deathless is maybe based off of, but I do know that Valente wrote it beautifully. That was one of the two expectations I had for this book, and she did not disappoint.
My other expectation was that Deathless would remind me of the stories that my grandparents told as a child. Deathless is based on Slavic fairytales, and Romanian is a romantic language, but Romania and Russia are close enough for the stories and storytelling to be very similar.
This book definitely gave me major nostalgia while also being something completely unique, completely different. There was something about...
Read the rest of my review here: https://flaviathebibliophile.com/deathless-catherine-valente-review/
I’d been wanting to read Catherine M. Valente’s Deathless ever since I first heard about it a few years ago. And I’m so happy that I was finally able to get to it! I don’t know the original fairytale/s that Deathless is maybe based off of, but I do know that Valente wrote it beautifully. That was one of the two expectations I had for this book, and she did not disappoint.
My other expectation was that Deathless would remind me of the stories that my grandparents told as a child. Deathless is based on Slavic fairytales, and Romanian is a romantic language, but Romania and Russia are close enough for the stories and storytelling to be very similar.
This book definitely gave me major nostalgia while also being something completely unique, completely different. There was something about...
Read the rest of my review here: https://flaviathebibliophile.com/deathless-catherine-valente-review/
punkrockingnerd's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Mkay, I have some thoughts. First off, I highly recommend reading this review because it goes a lot more in-depth: https://cultcrumbs.com/2021/12/05/deathless-leaves-much-to-be-desired/
First off, this was advertised to me as a "historical fiction." It is not. If you look it up online, it gets categorized as "romance fantasy." It is not. This is a niche book trying to be too much, and unlike Everything Everywhere All At Once, it never comes together in an "A-ha!" moment. This is an adaptation of a fairytale, with some real-world settings thrown into the background. This can work (see: The Hazel Wood), but it requires either a) the characters realize that they're in a story and try to fight fate every step of the way, ala Greek tragedy, or b) the story itself is so interesting and entrancing that the readers don't realize how basic the characters are.
Deathless tries to have the best of both worlds, but it ends up with the worst of both: it has a fascinating setting, but it keeps getting distracted by developing the characters, and the characters get development until a vital plot point needs to happen, then they act it out with robotic obedience.
Not to mention there were a few things that just made me uncomfortable while reading this, particularly the dominating nature of the romances parading as... well, romance. If you want your characters to have the horniness levels of Gomez and Morticia Addams, go nuts, but you need to establish a mutual love and respect. Idk, it may just be me, but if you wanna tie someone up for spicy hour, I'd really prefer if there was a conversation beforehand making sure everyone involved was okay with it. This is a novel, not Fifty Shades of Gray.
Overall, it has great prose and some QUALITY lines that can be used in web weaving posts, but it tries too much, and it never really comes together, so it may not hold up in repeated readings.
First off, this was advertised to me as a "historical fiction." It is not. If you look it up online, it gets categorized as "romance fantasy." It is not. This is a niche book trying to be too much, and unlike Everything Everywhere All At Once, it never comes together in an "A-ha!" moment. This is an adaptation of a fairytale, with some real-world settings thrown into the background. This can work (see: The Hazel Wood), but it requires either a) the characters realize that they're in a story and try to fight fate every step of the way, ala Greek tragedy, or b) the story itself is so interesting and entrancing that the readers don't realize how basic the characters are.
Deathless tries to have the best of both worlds, but it ends up with the worst of both: it has a fascinating setting, but it keeps getting distracted by developing the characters, and the characters get development until a vital plot point needs to happen, then they act it out with robotic obedience.
Not to mention there were a few things that just made me uncomfortable while reading this, particularly the dominating nature of the romances parading as... well, romance. If you want your characters to have the horniness levels of Gomez and Morticia Addams, go nuts, but you need to establish a mutual love and respect. Idk, it may just be me, but if you wanna tie someone up for spicy hour, I'd really prefer if there was a conversation beforehand making sure everyone involved was okay with it. This is a novel, not Fifty Shades of Gray.
Overall, it has great prose and some QUALITY lines that can be used in web weaving posts, but it tries too much, and it never really comes together, so it may not hold up in repeated readings.
anabelsbrother's review against another edition
4.0
pre read: Tumblr has a great influence on me. I saw people pimping this book and it made me want to read it.
post read:
I just
I'm at loss for words rn. What the hell did I just read?
post read:
I just
I'm at loss for words rn. What the hell did I just read?
pravda_iskra's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I should’ve loved this book.
The cover immediately intrigued me, the Black Maria standing out as an immediate Akhmatova reference. I speak Russian, have read the Russian literary canon, and I’ve lived in the post-Soviet space. I loved all the mythology Valente added into the story and the world she created for those mythological creatures.
But Americans can’t write Russians well. We’re still stuck in our Cold War mindset where Russian people can only be conceived and written one specific way. We can only look at their history through our own biases towards it. And this was so glaring and annoying to me that I almost DNF’d.
The cover immediately intrigued me, the Black Maria standing out as an immediate Akhmatova reference. I speak Russian, have read the Russian literary canon, and I’ve lived in the post-Soviet space. I loved all the mythology Valente added into the story and the world she created for those mythological creatures.
But Americans can’t write Russians well. We’re still stuck in our Cold War mindset where Russian people can only be conceived and written one specific way. We can only look at their history through our own biases towards it. And this was so glaring and annoying to me that I almost DNF’d.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse