I was assigned this book for school; my Ma hadn't read it, just bought it offline. It went with our last year's study of Russia, and the Romanov family. Granted, of course, we learned plenty and read books on the time line, learned about Russia, saw the anger and the mobs during that bad time, etc.
But no book brought to life just how tragic and serious that time of history was like this fictional novel. Not for me.
I was never interested much in the history of Russia. I'd started reading the Last Tsar, and found that obviously the history was absolutely awful. An entire royal family being murdered in the same room, with their servants and their dog, too; I couldn't imagine that graphic, that horrific kind of thing.
This book is from the fiction perspective of the 'kitchen boy'- he lives with the Romanov family while they're 'under lock down' (basically, that's what happened). Honestly, I can't give much of this story away because it's just... so stunning and astonishingly told.
The story leads you on. Not slowly, nor so fast you lose track of what's happening. I loved how it was told, the style of writing. It wasn't some far-fetched, extravagant tale- no. It was told in a serious, startling tone. That time of history was crucial- and it was told as such. It wasn't on a whim; the story and the perspective it was told from was all very keen.
I was never bored. I was dragged in so fast, by the writing, by the story: I was gaping. At how significant it all was. How it all happened in history. Whether I was grounded by the actual history, or the fictional bits that slid so perfectly in alignment with the truth (the history)....
It seriously all fell into place. Into perspective. Into line. Whether I was staring in utter surprise, or covering my mouth because 'Dang. Dang.': it was all real. Real, cruel, hard, smooth and then jagged, hope and no hope....
The only thing that bummed me with this book, was the fact there seemed to be no hope. If there was, it was crushed and found as a lie. I didn't particularity like that- with the kitchen boy's end... I feel that he didn't have to end like that. With no hope. Perhaps the author (and the world) found what ended and how the boy's thoughts were in his final time more 'realistic' or something... But I don't. As the story is told, yes, the narrator did some very, very bad things. But I was forced to think as I read: would God forgive him? If the man asked for forgiveness for what he had done, would Yeshua have forgiven him? I do not know if the author was a Christian or such; but that ending, that part, I found wrong. Hope, faith, it IS there. We are not lost cases. Not with God.
God was in no part of this book, so I didn't quite expect for hope to be found in the story: but I wish it had. I think that if faith in God had been a part of the narrators heart: it would have been different for him. Because he did not, I felt deeply sorry for him. It was that gripping and moving of a book, in a way; though I wrestled in distaste because no hope was present, I still saw the character's utter lost self. It showed me what we really are without God, when we face our sins and past alone. Without mercy, without His Love.
This book is still one of the best I think I've read. It was a fascinating, heart wrenching story. The history itself has lessons to teach, and to see it written out in such a story really made it all the more vivid.
This book is not a 'clean' novel: it is about a very dark, horrific time in history. It portrays the history as such. Because of this, this book is graphic, and bad cussing is used once in the book (at least, super bad cussing.).... While some of the facts of this book may be unsettling for others, it was not that bad to me, and the book seemed very honest to me... I got the insights of just how bad it was.