I name Catherynne Valente an honorary Slav. She has a Slavic soul, somehow; otherwise how could she have written this book?! This is a book about love. And life. Death. War. Loss. Hope. Despair. "Life is like that." I grew up with these characters - in so many folk tales, in so many movies. The story is always the same. The evil Koschei the Deathless and Baba-Yaga, the kidnapped Marya Morevna (or Yelena, or Vasilisa), the brave Ivan who rescues her... These stories have been told countless ti...

"Her heart was so cold that she could hold ice in her mouth and it would never melt."This is so hard to rate, for this was a stunning and breathtaking novel. Full and rich of poetic language that leaves you sitting and thinking and forgetting about everything that is around you. It reads like a fairytale. Actually, it is the retelling of an old Russian fairytale, but Valente worked a lot of her own magic to make this precious book such a gemstone.And by the way, this cover and the title result i...

One of the strangest, hardest, most magical books I've ever read.

I suppose I should open this review with a disclaimer: this book has a 4.6 star average rating among my friends and a 4.16 rating overall, so clearly I'm an outlier here. Many of the critiques that I've read have focused on cultural appropriation, which is an issue I can't speak to, so on that subject: Katya's review and Liz's review.My problems with the book predominantly lie elsewhere, but there is one aspect about this book as an adaptation that I want to address before moving on. In curiosit...

“Death, keep off, I am your enemy, and you will not deny me.” Deathless is one of those books that consumes you at every moment, where it is in every one of your thoughts, and once you read the last word on the last page you say to yourself . . . I think I just read the best book of my life. I can see the crash from here. The hangover to end all hangovers. That is how powerful this book is. Five stars will never be enough for this story. Deathless is the retelling of the Russian/S

This book is beautifully written but try as I might, I probably couldn't tell you what it's about. It feels like a series of stories, some eerie and some not, twisted up into Russian history where it's hard to tell what's real and what's not. The characters don't even feel like characters, just part of a set and not people that I got to know. But again, the writing is breathtaking and I feel small pieces of this story will stick with me.

Deathless is a hauntingly beautiful novel that will stay with you forever!Life is often full of beauty and joy. But life can also be cruel and painful at times. So it is only natural that the Czar of Life embodies both the wonderful and the terrible aspects of life. As a young girl, Marya Morevna captured the attention of the Czar of Life, the entity she's heard referred to in hushed whispers as Koschei the Deathless. And when Marya became a young woman, Koschei in turn captured her heart. After...

I could have sworn I'd reviewed this book. I could have sworn I'd at least added it to my 'read' shelf! Either I'm crazy or Goodreads ate the review; either case is entirely possible.Either way, I'm glad that I hadn't reviewed this book right after I'd read it, because the review would have been a very different one. I'd had some time to dwell on the writing, the story, and Valente as a writer, and have come to some conclusions that I didn't immediately see when I'd first read the book.Conclusio...

Re-Read 7/13//18:Valente is always worth re-reading IMHO. And other than making a few grand sweeping comments about birds and husbands, I have nothing to add to this marvelous piece of literature. The land of the dead versus the land of life in Russia. Mythology versus societal upheaval. Love, love, love, and none of it innocent. Just like Russia. ;)Original Review:Breathtaking, quintessential Valente, making what might be a fairy tale into a gorgeously Russian love story between one unlucky gir...

After re-reading:I re-read this novel, not because I liked it but because I wanted to recall the details to be able to point out what I couldn't stand. Funnily enough, this time around the problem of cultural appropriation wasn't as much in the foreground as it was when I read this novel for the first time. I noticed other issues instead, and believe me, there are plenty for the book is not executed well. My main problem with it still was the use of the Russian folklore in a manner I personally

Rating: 4.25* of five 2 JUNE 2021 KINDLE EDITION ON SALE FOR $2.99The Publisher Says: Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the gre...

“The future belongs to the dead, and the makers of the dead.”It is a problem when you read a love story and you don’t like the story, the love disgusts you, and you cannot stand the heroine. If also the context or historical setting is unacceptable, only language itself is left to save the book. Most often: it is not enough.The beginning is promising: little Marya Morevna, daughter of twelve mothers, spends the war in communist Leningrad dreaming of a magic husband. In “Deathless” Ms Valente mov...

If a novelist wrote a true story about how things really happened, no one would believe him, and he might even be punished for spreading propaganda. But if he wrote a book full of lies about things that could never really happen, with only a few true things hidden in it, well, he would be hailed as a hero of the People, given a seat at a writers’ cafe, served wine and ukha, and not have to pay for any of it. Catherynne M. Valente, indeed, has written about things that really happened

You know I'm all about that "girl falls for the sexy villain" vibe

4 1/2 starsUndoubtedly this is one of the most brilliant things I’ve read this year. I’m coming to realize that that statement will probably apply to just about every Catherynne Valente I read. One of the major reasons that I didn’t review this upon finishing it was that I just had no idea how I was going to possibly say anything coherent about something so over the top amazing. HOW? How do I explain that this is one of the most seamless, meaningful unions of fantasy and reality that I’ve ever r...

Deathless isthe silence at four a.m.a warm day at the ocean, salt crusting like dried tears on my facea glass vodka kept in the freezer, poured over a compote of cucumber in the middle of summer***********************************************Refreshing, magical, thoughtful, agonizing; Valente has re-written a Russian fairy tale into a complex love story. It begins:“In a city by the sea which was once called St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, then Leningrad, then, much later, St. Petersburg again, th...

First read: 5⭐️ — 1/10/2020 - 2/10/2020Second read: 5⭐️ — 1/4/2022 - 4/4/2022"Oh, I will be cruel to you, Marya Morevna. It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be. But you understand, don’t you? You are clever enough. I am a demanding creature. I am selfish and cruel and extremely unreasonable. But I am your servant. When you starve I will feed you; when you are sick I will tend you. I crawl at your feet; for before your love, your kisses, I am debased. For you alone I will be weak."Deathless...

"And how long would she have to wait now for some other scrap of the naked world?"Not an easy book, but a mesmerizing one for sure.RTC

Magic in books often comes in a certain flavour. It has wonder, and awe, and power. It is sometimes threatening, it is sometimes homey, it is sometimes awe-inspiring. I'm not sure I've ever run into magic quite like this before, though. Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

“Oh, I will be cruel to you, Marya Morevna. It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be. But you understand, don’t you? You are clever enough. I am a demanding creature. I am selfish and cruel and extremely unreasonable. But I am your servant. When you starve I will feed you; when you are sick I will tend you. I crawl at your feet; for before your love, your kisses, I am debased. For you alone I will be weak.” …is that…is that Alarkling!? Unfortunately, it is not. Fortunately, it’s another