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A review by lapis
Romanov by Nadine Brandes
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I will confess, Anastasia Romanov is a special interest of mine, has been for like, more than a decade. I'm not getting into why I really got into her, because in retrospect (of last time someone asked), it wasn't the well known Fox movie, it was a game, and no one played the game I'm talking about, and I'd be mortified to recommend it now because I know it hasn't aged well!
This is a fun (well, as fun as the subject can be) tale combining the Romanovs with fantastical magic. It diverges from history around the 50% mark.
There's an afterword explaining the historical differences.
I'm saying it everywhere, but the following is mostly for the tankies:
If you are looking for a critique of Russia / the Russian Revolution / the USSR besides "communism doesn't work!" look elsewhere. This is not the book for that. Honestly probably try a nonfiction book addressing the USSR.
And this probably goes without saying, but if you are looking for a critique of Czar Nicholas II's ruling, look elsewhere. There's mild critique (in the sense very few people historically knew about Alexei's hemophilia and yeah that was probably a bad move) but if you're expecting one of the Romanovs to suddenly go "yeah that 1905 Bloody Sunday was absolutely shameful, we suck" I don't even want to do the math to figure out how old any of the kids would have been, but I'm guessing pretty young. I mean I think you could find a way to do it (coming from one of the soldier's mouths, not the protagonist) but I mean, come on.
This is a fun (well, as fun as the subject can be) tale combining the Romanovs with fantastical magic. It diverges from history around the 50% mark.
There's an afterword explaining the historical differences.
I'm saying it everywhere, but the following is mostly for the tankies:
If you are looking for a critique of Russia / the Russian Revolution / the USSR besides "communism doesn't work!" look elsewhere. This is not the book for that. Honestly probably try a nonfiction book addressing the USSR.
And this probably goes without saying, but if you are looking for a critique of Czar Nicholas II's ruling, look elsewhere. There's mild critique (in the sense very few people historically knew about Alexei's hemophilia and yeah that was probably a bad move) but if you're expecting one of the Romanovs to suddenly go "yeah that 1905 Bloody Sunday was absolutely shameful, we suck" I don't even want to do the math to figure out how old any of the kids would have been, but I'm guessing pretty young. I mean I think you could find a way to do it (coming from one of the soldier's mouths, not the protagonist) but I mean, come on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, and Blood
Moderate: Chronic illness
the Content warnings regard what happened to the Romanovs historically for the most part. It is NOT as indepth gore-wise as we know from History. Also don't worry: The dog lives!