Deathless

A fairy tale. I don't like the genre. It feels like a children's book written for adults. It tells a story from the point of view of a imaginative teenage girl, who sees the world throw her sisters getting married while she is left behind, and every husband is actually a bird who turned into a man in before her eyes. But she is the only one that knows that. The book is full of things like that, in a very child like prose.

Read 0:47 / 11:21 7%

This was a slow read for me though I really enjoyed the story. Some bits were a little confusing or just hard to follow as I'm not familiar with Russian folklore or culture. It's hard to believe this was written by an American; it really reads like a translation from a Russian classic.
I ended up skimming sections towards the end just because it started to feel drawn out, it could have been shortened on the descriptive language and its many side-plots, but you could get really immersed in the story easily. If you're used to reading classic novels like Tolstoy, this would probably be cake walk, but I'm used to lighter fare. Overall, a difficult but worthwile read.

It took me almost two months to read this book. I read other books meanwhile, while this waited on Kindle. Part of that is because that tends to happen with eBooks, part of that is because Deathless was a very heavy book. It's beautiful, unusual, well-written - but very, very heavy. I can see why some people really love this book.

Holy shit. “Feel all the feels” you say? Well, right you were, internet!

My full review can be found at SFF Book Review

I don't think I can muster up enough strength and coherence to write a short review here. The only reason I could see for anybody not liking this book is if they don't like good books. Or fairy tales. Or wonderful characters, the real world interwoven with mythology, symbols all over the place, so many quote-worthy sentences that could make you weep... Just read it, okay?

I don't even know what to say about this book. It's gorgeous and dark and terrible in the way of true fairy tales. It gave me nightmares. Also in the way of fairy tales (or dreams), it makes no sense – characters' motives are unclear and they exist in a world where ordinary words and actions are suffused with unknown dangers (and, occasionally, unexpected luck). But, since it is a fairy tale, I don't believe that is a criticism. In the end, everyone did the best they could to find happiness within the story that had to be played out... a sense of losing oneself to an archetype, to a pattern, to the requirements of a life. (Writing this, I'm wondering if knowing the Russian mythology it's based on would give me more of a framework for understanding the story. It does seem to have something in common with Wicked, or Grendel, or “Snow, Glass, Apples”... a sense of being on the wrong end of a predetermined series of events.)I never comprehended Marya, and it frustrated me. Her character kept shifting and there was never enough insight into her inner thoughts to make me feel like I knew her.It's a sad book, even a heartbreaking book sometimes; a world where love is about power and pain, where everyone is at war (and the war is going badly; the war is always going badly), where your friends always die, where death seeks to reach out and claim you at every moment. A world where the story will play out, whether you will or no. But there is a sweetness in it, too.On the whole, I am not entirely sure I understood it, and I do know I liked [b:Palimpsest 3973532 Palimpsest Catherynne M. Valente http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320532857s/3973532.jpg 4019291] better.