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A review by maises
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
“Life is not like that.”
I’ve been sitting on doing a proper review for this one for a good couple weeks. Even now, it’s still a bit difficult to really know what I want to say about all of it in particular.
I’ve been sitting on doing a proper review for this one for a good couple weeks. Even now, it’s still a bit difficult to really know what I want to say about all of it in particular.
I love a good folktale, and I love love love a good retelling, so thank you to Valente for cobbling this together so thoughtfully and beautifully. I know the obvious go-to for many to gush about is the depth of Koschei and Marya relationship, but at risk of sounding so predictable, Ivan the Fool stole the show for me. This novel was one of the first I’ve read where writing a character as a symbol was as strong as writing a character as a character; Ivan, start to finish, was a path more than a person. Albeit, still a good person, and real enough that you could hate him as much as you like him. He doubted and he made mistakes and he was the human Marya loved because of it. I think my two most emotional moments were his first meeting with Marya and his last monologue before death - the dummy fated-to-be-tragic guy with only love and love on his brain!
Thematically, having this folktale set during WWII was pretty fitting. I am not familiar at all with the original Russian myth, but having it correlate breath to breath with war felt succinct. The dialogue and the occasional monologues didn’t feel out of place because it fit well with the idea that this is a story being told, which has been told before. It made a lot of things more impactful to me.
Thematically, having this folktale set during WWII was pretty fitting. I am not familiar at all with the original Russian myth, but having it correlate breath to breath with war felt succinct. The dialogue and the occasional monologues didn’t feel out of place because it fit well with the idea that this is a story being told, which has been told before. It made a lot of things more impactful to me.
Koschei having less actual power than Marya on a psychological level was so fascinating. Sometimes he made me mad and sometimes he did something just right, but in the end I have to like the god who let himself be chained inside a basement for the human he loved. If I were more eloquent I could expand on that. And Marya herself ensured this story stay so solid. Her growth over time was spectacular and she never lost the empathy and care she had from the start, although she was tougher than those two men combined by the end. I think a lot of the reason this worked so well was her stubbornness in reason but also in kindness, something the book even begins with using a prologue-that-is-really-an-epilogue.
One thing about this novel that will stick with me is the idea that life and hardship go hand in hand, but avoiding it and its realities helps no one. You have to embrace it and love through all of it, even if there’s only death at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is still worth traveling through.
One thing about this novel that will stick with me is the idea that life and hardship go hand in hand, but avoiding it and its realities helps no one. You have to embrace it and love through all of it, even if there’s only death at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is still worth traveling through.