A review by leahbrarian
Gone by Nightfall by Dee Garretson

3.0

I really appreciated the period and location details - it really brought a specificity to the narrative. I will say that things went at an absolutely breakneck pace. This did feel authentic to Charlotte's character as the person juggling a million plates mostly on her own, as well as reflecting the upheaval and rapid changes of the Russian Revolutionary period, but it also didn't leave much time to settle into the story or connect with most of the characters. (At one point Celeste tells Charlotte that she's "like a daughter to her" and I was like, "really??") Even Dmitri was pretty lightly characterized, especially for a love interest. He was nice, somewhat intellectual and/or revolutionary, and showed up whenever Charlotte was in trouble, but I couldn't help but feel that she liked him mostly because he was the only person who seemed to actually look to help her with things. There was a vagueness to their ending, as well as the ending in general (is the family safely reunited? How do they feel about the longterm change of Russian society? Does Miles last long enough to find effective treatment) but I actually didn't mind it. I was more off-put by the way there seemed to be hints that plotlines would flower into something more (Miles and Raisa, the reporter and his whole bit) that never really did. Overall an interesting read from a historical standpoint but hard to fully engage with on a character level.