Kostova writes the travelogue parts of the book beautifully but her character writing and plot needs work. It's clear she put a lot of work into the research of the history but my god it's as if she wanted to write a lore book rather than a novel with a plot. 

She takes a turn towards the end of the book from subtle anti-communism to full on laying it thick. She has a character compare Stalin to Hitler (lol?) then, in case you didn't understand her the first time around, literally makes one of the good guy main characters say that the cartoonishly villainous character Ranov (who wouldn't look out of place in a parody of a communist bureaucrat man) looks like a Young Stalin. Just in case us readers didn't realise Ranov is one of the bad guys. 

So much happens in this book but also nothing happens at all. Characters write ridiculously detailed letters and diary entries, complete in novel format, ending on cliffhangers and relating with photographic memory every single thing other characters had previously said to them. 

I'll just end off with reminding everyone of why Kostova's comparison of Hitler and Stalin is ridiculous (quoting Domenico Losurdo): 

"To place Russian communism and Nazi-fascism on the same moral place, in the measure that both are totalitarian, is superficial at best; fascism at worst. Anyone who insists on this comparison could very well be considered a democrat, but deep in their heart a fascist is already there, and naturally they will only fight fascism in a superficial and hypocritical way, while they save all their hatred for communism."