I found this book very hard to get into and for me, the characters seemed a lot younger than what they were supposed to be. The Jewish phrases through me quite a bit too and there was no explanation for them or the words used which pulled me from the story quite frequently. The story doesn't really kick off until the girls' parents are forced to leave and the secret of their heritage is revealed. One is a swan and the other a bear. I found this a little hard to believe, but kept reading anyway. The story is told from both Liba and Laya's points of view which I don't mind, but there just didn't seem to be enough realism in the book. Both girls were too innocent for the ages they were supposed to be and at times the storyline was a little difficult to follow especially Laya's chapters which were written in verse. I couldn't understand why this was.

The religious tensions were done really well but without explanation of the different words and stuff it was difficult to understand.

There were numerous occasions when I wanted to give up on this book but I read to the end. Some readers are going to love this book and I think young adults, in particular, will find it great. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mix of folklore, history, and Young Adult elements that brings its readers in a fairytale-like atmosphere in which two Jewish sisters learn what it means to become adults in a time of hate and ignorance. Laya and Liba are two young girls in the town of Dubossary. Very different one from the other, they are like the night to the sun, and not just in looks but also regarding their characters. While Liba is dark-haired, studious, thoughtful, and timid, Laya is white blonde, open, apparently superficial, and friendly. While persecutions start to make victims in nearby villages, the two girls parents are forced to leave when a distressing message reaches them. The serious Liba has the task of looking after her sister, but both girls find themselves in the mids of events bigger than themselves.

Strong points of this book for me are:
- interesting rendition of the history and cultural aspects characterising Jewish and non-Jewish people in the East of Europe
- good characterisation of the MCs and description of the world. Even if based on real places the fantasy part lends to a solid balance between the actual and the fantastical world
- nice use of folklore to recount a difficult time in history and to deliver a tale about familial relationships and the passage from childhood to adulthood

The weak points are:
- the author falls too easily in the Young Adult stereotype on the use of love. Naturally, the age of the protagonists, Laya and Liba, calls for some romance but in this case, I feel like she should have balanced this differently and kept it a very light, very secondary element. I am sure that if the book had been classified as Young Adult, I would have entered the story with another mindset, however, since it wasn't that clear that it is a YA I expected less childish bickering and romance
- I have to admit being one of those who was quite put-off by the way in which this novel is written. The story is on both Liba and Laya points of view, and the author well managed this, but the two ways of writing, one normal discourse and the other in verse gave me pose quite often during the reading
- some of the choices taken by the main characters where a bit questionable and, even if needed to support the storyline, I would have liked for them to be based on more stable ground

3.5* rounded up.
I enjoyed this fairly dark fantasy about two sisters. One will be able to transform into a bear, like her father and one into a swan, like her mother. They are a Jewish family but because Mami, converted, they are never quite accepted by the Jews of their village, and live outside the community in the forest.
The girls Parents have to leave the girls behind in the forest, while they go back to Tati's home to visit his dying father. Liba, the older sister (bear) is asked to guard her sister Laya from the swans, who may come back for her. Meanwhile, several strangers are turning up and the pogroms are starting nearby.
There are several different threads to this story, but this doesn't make it too complicated to follow, which can sometimes happen.
In atmosphere, this reminded me of a cross between 'The Bear and the Nightingale' and 'The Gloen and the Djinn' I think readers who enjoyed those books will like this one.

**Many thanks to Netgalleyfor an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review**

A well crafted, atmospheric and enthralling book. I loved the mix of folklore, Jewish culture and historical events.
Everything in this book is special, starting with the wonderful cover.
It's difficult to described as there're so many nuances and so many things involved that keep you reading, when you think you're understanding there's a turn and you keep on turning pages because you want more.
I was sad when it was over because it was a wonderful trip in a very fascinating world.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for this ARC

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mixed retelling having inspiration from many sources, including Goblin Market, East European fairytales, and has a historical setting in being around a time of Jewish persecution in early 20th century. In the town of Dubossary, the main characters live in a town that has both Jewish and non-Jewish people, and while on the surface things are cordial, underneath it is very much divided. Laya and Liba's parents live on the outskirts of town, following a different part of Jewish faith, in a strict upbringing that has Liba devout and Laya rebellious. When their parents leave town to attend to their sick grandfather, Liba is told to protect her sister from their families - for they are not just people; they are shifters whose powers come through their family lines of being bears and swans, enemies of each other.

The things the book did well were bringing out the heightened tensions between the religions during that period of time, as well as the Jewish customs followed by Leib family. The latter differs from the customs followed by other Jewish families in their town, which is why Liba is very hesitant to pursue a romance with Dovid, even though there is a reciprocal interest. Meanwhile, Liba, who has always looked for adventure, seeks it in a non-Jewish Boy (I keep forgetting his name, so it will be Boy in this review), part of a set of traveling fruit merchants. She falls for him, hard and fast, and there may have been some intoxicating fruits involved, which is why Liba gets really worried when she falls sick, and only wants him. Meanwhile, a couple of non-Jewish residents have been found dead on Jewish properties, adding the metaphorical fuel to the fire, and while they are pointing fingers, the Jewish residents are looking for the bears who they think are the cause of the deaths. Add to that, Liba is trying to protect her sister from lover Boy, her bear family, Laya's swan family, and that is a lot of stress for her to take on suddenly, and she mostly relies on Dovid for strength and reassurance. The plot brings out the awakening sexualities of the teen girls through the comparison with their awakening powers, but also through the head-over-heels kind of romance they both get into. There is also a questioning of faith, of dividing yourself from others because they don't follow the same customs as you, and the power of community and the strength of resilience borne from ancestral stories of valor.

But what ruined my enjoyment of the book was, firstly, the fact that Laya's chapters are in verse and there is no specific reason for it to be so. In fact, I was reading my galley in both the pdf and kindle version, so I could compare how the presence or absence (respectively) of formatting for the verse parts, did not make a lick of difference; the verse parts were just sentences with the enter key pressed every few words. (Yeah, I am not a fan of verse novels, as you can see, but I am an even worse critic of those that don't even make an effort to be poetic) Secondly, while these are young teens and it is obviously very hormonal, I couldn't take the fact that it heavily relies on the romance angle. 50% of the plot is them sighing over passionate kisses, running to or from their respective beaus; Liba's includes some healthy eating, and occasional self doubt, but Laya's is especially infuriating because even when Liba tells her the Boy make anti-Semitic comments, she instead blames her sister and fights with her. Even when her sister comes to rescue her, she is like 'go away you liar'; I should not she had no plans of her own escape at this point, and intoxicated or no, she was a shitty sister. The romance-heavy plot left little consideration for the historical and folklore aspect of this plot, until nearly the last quarter when it actually got into that.

Shortly, a good blend of history, magic, and folklore, but romance-heavy.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Little Brown Book Group, via Netgalley.

I have decided to just give up on this. I am very much not the right kind of reader for this which is odd because I thought I would love this: I adore fairy-talesque stories influenced by Northern European folklore. I like books described as whimsy. I love stories focussing sibling relationships. But what I don't enjoy is YA-Romance; which this seems to mostly be. I could not get on board with the language nor the tone of the story. I don't think I would have picked this up if I had known that every second chapter was written in verse. (And to be perfectly honest, the rhythm of the poems did not work for me whatsoever -if they had a lovely cadence I think I could have adored this.)

The main reason I got interested in this book was that I had read Spinning Silver earlier this summer and it seemed like The Sisters of the Winter Wood had a really similar vibe to it, being set in eastern Europe and with Jewish protagonists as well. I wasn’t wrong, Sisters just turned out to have a bit smaller scale adventure.

The book was told from both Liba and Laya’s point of view in a pretty cool way I hadn’t seen before: Laya’s chapters were written in verse. Since I was reading an eARC it took me a moment to figure out if her chapters were actually like that on purpose or if it was some weird Kindle formatting but yeah, it was on purpose. It really fit her personality and her being a swan and the way her story ended up going in general so I liked it a lot.

Liba’s chapters were just normal and also usually longer than Laya’s because of that, so a lot of the plot progression seemed to happen during those. She’s the more serious big sister trying to take care of Laya and figure out what’s happening in their village so it made sense for her to get a bit more of a spotlight. Her being the responsible one in the story was kinda interesting for me actually because usually I kinda ignore the characters’ ages in YA books and forget how young they are, but in this one I found myself totally agreeing with Dovid’s mom who actually told Liba that a seventeen-year-old shouldn’t need to deal with as much responsibility as her parents left her with. I liked Dovid’s mom a lot for that.

The major role of religion in the book surprised me a little bit, because even though I knew from the description that Liba and Laya were Jewish, I still expected the fantasy side of the book to be the more major element, but it’s actually kind of the other way around. Author’s notes reveal that many of the events in the book are actually based on real events that happened to Jewish people in history, in the very same village where Liba and Laya live in the book (Dubossary), which I found really interesting. The book is basically about bad things happening in a peaceful community and Jewish people getting wrongly blamed for it and trying to save the situation before things escalate to something horrible. With a bit of magic.

The magical fairy tale side is honestly pretty lowkey in the beginning, and for a long time it felt like the girls were more interested in kissing boys than anything else and most of the struggle with transforming into animals seems to be that would be awkward to accidentally bite your boyfriend’s face off, but once the real plot starts moving and the magic really happening it’s actually pretty beautiful. The whole backstory of how people who can turn into bears or swans came to be was really interesting: you basically become what you need to be.

One more thing before I end this long ramble: the characters use a lot of words and phrases in their own language(s) which I liked a lot because it added authenticity to it and I could kind of hear in my head how they would speak. I think there’s translations for phrases at the end of the book but I didn’t really feel like I needed that, because most of the time it was easy enough to guess from context what the words meant or the same thing was in English right after.

For some reason trying to type up proper thoughts about this book was really hard, but I hope I’ve made some sense. Just know that it’s a beautiful book and I feel like there’s a lot of little details especially for Jewish readers to appreciate. I’d also definitely recommend this to fans of Spinning Silver because even though The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a very different story it has that same magical wintery feel to it.

An enchanting, magical tale with family at its heart. I enjoyed the beautiful story but for me it was a little heavy on religion, and I wasn't a huge fan of the way Laya's parts of the book were written in verse. A great book for those who are particularly interested in the Jewish faith and its folklore.

The Sister Of The Winter Wood was a unusual and yet a fascinating and extremely atmospheric read indeed.

For a debut novel, Rena Rossner really impressed me with her light touch, creative folklore and nicely fleshed out characters. The mythology behind the folklore is wonderful and gives the story a real, solid basis from which the real magic springs.

This glorious and outlandish tale is told from the dual perspectives of two Jewish sisters, in a time where Jews were horribly persecuted which gives the story a really firm base in reality, that compliments the more fantastical side of the sisters tale. One sister, Liba, tells her side of the using regular format storytelling while the other, Laya, use a more whimsical free-flowing poetic style of story telling which is interesting but Laya's parts didn't exactly work for me. I do think that this was more to do with the basic formatting of the ARC and I really believe will come across much better in the finished book when it's presented properly. Each of the sisters isn't quite what they first appear to be but it's too spoilerish to say more on that and it's these facts that lead off into the fantasy and folklore side of the story. Each want to live their own lives but have simple family expectations put upon them by their parents, both are fighting their own fight for a certain kind of freedom for themselves.

At the end of the day though, this is a dramatic and effective folklore tale in a similar vein toe Naomi Novak's Uprooted (probably her Spinning Silver too, although I haven't read it yet so don't know for sure). It's written in a beautiful style and the atmosphere just flows off of the pages in superb style... it's a simply remarkable tale and worth recommending, I will be re-reading a finished copy of the book at some point to see if it can recover the deducted star take away by Laya's storytelling, to see if I'm right about it being down to the formatting or not.

This book was a huge disappointment for me. I really love this genre and this won my heart by the mention of Uprooted and Bear and the Nightingale. These two books were also mentioning/telling other cultures, using cultural references as background; Uprooted Polish and Bear and Nightingale Russian. So a Jewish tale sounded so promising, as I thought it'll be interesting to read. But Sisters of the Winterwood isn't using Jewish culture. It's overwhelmed by the religion and the endless terms. Religious terms, (if they are really, as I have no idea what all that words mean, apart from Bat Mitzvah never heard any of them) are so many that I lost my concentration.

I don't think it's possible for anyone not knowing Judaism to keep up with this book. There are too many Hebrew(?) words, and I had no idea what they meant. The proof didn't have any footnotes or explanations. I kept reading up to the point I felt like I am completely detached from the book. Sadly, this isn't for me.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is Rena Rossner's fantasy debut novel and it is inspired by Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market, jewish folklore and history. It talks about the love and bond between two sisters with fantasy elements.
After finishing it, I had mixed feelings. I liked the setting and the jewish folklore, the characters were okay, even if not very remarkable, while what I didn't enjoy was the romance. It was a little bit too rushed and without a solid basis. Plus, some scenes and chapters were too long for my liking.
All in all, it wasn't a bad book but nothing extraordinary either.

— DISCLAIMER: I received a eARC of this novel via NetGalley – thank you to both Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity! All opinions expressed in this review are my own. —

I really enjoyed this book. Although the story dragged at times, it was very well written (and I love me some beautiful prose), and much deeper than I had expected. The tale revolves around the two sisters coming to terms with who they are and how their world works. While this is a fantasy novel, it does address many of the social issues prevailing throughout Europe for centuries. Not only does it feed off the idea of intrusive foreigners, but it looks at the strained relationships between Jews and Christians, and how these might have evolved or been influenced, as well as the interactions between different societies. This is one of the stories of which I believe that they are important to be told. While this year has been great at producing diverse reads (for example, the fabulous short story collection All Out or the badass black heroine of Dread Nation), this seems to hit close to home. Perhaps this is because I grew up learning history from German textbooks, where the Holocaust is central, it seems that this is a topic I've thought about for most of my life. But at the same time, relationships between different social or religious groups are also a very current topic. I do hope that this book will be able to inspire more tolerance in young minds.

Full review available under: https://libridraconis.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/the-sisters-of-the-winter-wood-rena-rossner/

This novel is a retelling of The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti and has many other Russia myths woven in.

The novel follows the story of two sisters who live with their parents at the edge of a town along the Moldova and Ukraine border. Who are isolated from their town due to the fact that their mother is a Jewish covert, despite this they have lived in relative peace until one day a relative of their father turns up at their door asking their father to go back to his home town as his father is dying. Their mother and father decide to leave the sisters at home due to the dangers that those of the Jewish faith face when traveling. However, before they leave their mother tells them a family secret that will change their lives forever and makes them promise to protect each other from the dangers lurking in the woods.

The story follows two POVs one for each of the sisters. The first is Liba who is 17, very devoted to her religion and reserved. The second is Laya who is 15, she is much more carefree than her sister and more open. Both of these POVs are written in different formats, Liba’s is in standard format while Laya’s is in alternative verse. I really loved how each of these formats fit with each sister’s personality. Liba’s is more in depth and detailed, whereas Laya’s is more flowy and dreamlike. I also feel like I connected with each sister in different ways. Like Liba I’m more reserved and feel like I’m always on the outside looking in and like Laya I’ve always wanted to fly away.

This book also follows the each of the girls sexual awakening as now that the girls parents are away they are both able to explore love and lust in their own way. Liba with a fellow Jew from her town who she doesn’t believe that her father would approve of and Laya with one of the new boys who have turned up in town selling fruit. I love how this theme of the book really helps each girl to learn the true meaning of unconditional love.

This is such an atmospheric book and the writing in this is so beautiful and lyrical and really makes you feel like you are there when reading it.

Trigger Warnings for antisemitism, unhealthy thoughts around eating and body image, abuse, death and past slavery and rape.

Overall, this book had me hooked from the first line and while this is definitely a hit or miss kind of book, I’m so glad to say that it was a complete hit with me. I gave this 5 out of 5 stars.

On another note, if you pick up the book make sure you read the authors note as it heart-breaking and really helps you to understand the authors reasons and inspirations for writing the novel.

[this review will be posted on my blog, acquadimore.wordpress.com, on 09/22/2018]

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a historical fantasy novel following a Jewish Ukrainian family. The two main characters are Liba and her younger sister Laya, and this is a story of self-discovery that almost reads like a dark fairytale, partly inspired by Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and by many Russian and Ukrainian folktales.

Sadly, I couldn't get into this book at all. Half of it, Laya's PoV, is written in verse. I usually don't agree with those who say that modern poetry is just prose randomly broken up, but... this totally felt like prose randomly broken up. I don't understand why it was even told that way - there was nothing poetic about it, it just felt stilted.
Not that the writing in Liba's PoV was much better. All the dialogue felt really forced to me, and I can't figure out if the way the writing always kept me at arm's length from the characters was intentional or not.

If it hadn't been for the writing, I'm sure I would have liked this, maybe even loved it. The dark, mysterious atmosphere was there, there were a lot of food mentions and descriptions (worldbuilding done through food is my favorite kind of worldbuilding), and this blend of fairytales, coming-of-age themes and history could have been a very good adult/YA crossover.
Unfortunately, I just couldn't finish it.

Classic fantasy writing from a very capable author. The story centres around Aranthur who travels from his farm to study at the academy in the big city. He is a likeable character who is not very worldly wise and is basically thrown in out of his depth. He knows little of the world and is confounded by people from all stratas of life. From the drug addled, nobility and even the Emperor. Somehow he even gets involved in politics which brings to his attention a conspiracy and a mysterious character known as the Master..
The characters are varied and well written. The world building and action scenarios are also very well done. Interested to read more.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an E-book ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I first saw this book at YALC and thought it sounded pretty intriguing, so when I had the opportunity to request an ARC of it, I was very happy to be approved. First of all, I really have to take a moment to gawp at the cover, because it is just so stunning. The design is very intricate, and reminds me a little of The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert and the upcoming King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. The more you stare at it, the more is revealed.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a lushly descriptive fantasy novel with a gorgeous and rich fairy-tale undercurrent. There were clearly a lot of influences that went into the crafting of this book, and I loved trying to figure them out as I went. One of my favourite influences in this book is Christina Rossetti’s poem The Goblin Market. Rossner expertly weaves in lines from the poem, as well as nodding towards it in many other tiny allusions. It’s really quite masterful. There’s also lots of Russian folk tale influences worked into it, which I couldn’t always pick out, but definitely appreciated. I really liked how Laya’s chapters were written in a kind of poetry form. It read nicely and I thought it added a lot to her character and what we knew about her. It was a little risk technique-wise that paid off.

Initially, the book was a little hard to get into. The story centres around two Jewish sisters who are ostracised from their village because their mother converted rather than being born Jewish. There were a lot of terms and phrases I was unfamiliar with, which made it difficult to read at the start, but there is a glossary at the end which should make it a lot easier for people buying physical copies of the book. As much as my unfamiliarity with these words made it hard for me to read this book at my usual pace, I did appreciate how much culture was packed into this novel. I loved seeing all the religious terms and names for all the different foods that appeared in The Sisters of the Winter Woods. It really brought the story to life. I’d also advise readers to continue at the end of the novel to the author’s notes, as there’s some fascinating bits of history about Rossner and her own life that will likely impact on how people interpret the book. Most importantly, I think the book did a really great job of highlighting issues of antisemitism and the dangers of violence and prejudice in society. For me, the true horrific moments in this book were not down to the supernatural elements of the plot, but what the humans were capable of doing and believing.

The main drawback of this novel for me was the way the transformations were dealt with. The latter sections of the book were a bit confusing, and I had some difficulty in keeping up with where people were and what was happening. While I loved all the different influences in this book, the moment when all the strands come together is a tad suffocating. It seemed like the ending relied quite heavily on a lot of coincidences and it felt a little bit rushed to the conclusion, rather than it being natural. Additionally, I struggled a bit to connect to the sisters. I liked both their characters, but they just didn’t seem as bright and alive as they could have been. There wasn’t a whole lot of character development outside of their relationship to each other and the love interests in the book, and the secrets their mother imparts on them at the start of the book. I think it might have been a bit of a stronger novel if we got a sense of Liba and Laya’s likes and dislikes, and their plans for the future. Personally, I don’t think I got much of a sense of that.

However, overall I’m giving The Sisters of the Winter Wood a 7/10 stars. I loved the fairy-tale feeling of the novel; there was something very creepy and gothic in the descriptions and atmosphere that the book built up. I thought the merging of all the influences was also very well done, although it fell a little short at the end of the novel and I struggled a bit to connect to the main characters. I’d definitely be interested in reading another book by Rena Rossner, and I might be tempted to buy a physical copy of this book when it is released on 27th September in the UK.

My thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Co for a review copy of the book.

This is a retelling of Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market but also much more, it weaves in folklore, history, myth and magic. This is the story of two sisters Liba, nearly eighteen, and fifteen-year-old Laya who’ve been living with their Tati and Mami in the woods on the outskirts of Dubossary, on the border between Moldova and Ukraine. Their family has never been accepted really in town for their mother is a convert, and their father has had to leave home and his town (Kupel) because he married an ‘outsider’. When word comes that Tati’s father is ill and on his deathbed, Tati and Mami must go to see him but the girls must stay in their house, for they don’t have travel documents and the times are not safe. Before their parents leave, Liba and Laya discover the truth about their parents and themselves, that Tati (and Liba) can ‘shift’ into bears and Laya like Mami can change into a swan. The sisters have only each other to rely on when the mysterious Hovlin brothers come into the village, with their fruit stall temping buyers including Laya, but also spewing venom again Jews. Other things are happening as well which put their lives and those of all the Jews in that part of the world at risk. The girls must also deal with the truths about themselves and how this will affect their dreams, ambitions, love, and even their relationship with each other.

I really enjoyed this book a lot and there were many many aspects I loved about it, though a few things perhaps prevented it from being a five-star read for me. I enjoyed that the story in alternate chapters is told from each sister’s perspective—Liba’s in prose and Laya’s in verse—and thought the author really succeeded in Liba’s chapters coming through as more grounded, sensible, ‘sane’ even reflecting her personality, while Laya’s are lighter, dreamier, some feel almost entirely as though one were in a dream, and the parts describing her falling into the Goblins’ trap are so well done, one can literally see her getting trapped without even realising what’s happening (In some ways Liba and Laya to me were comparable to Elinor and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility—and so Laya did end up annoying me too!). I also enjoyed the strong cultural and folklore elements in the story very much. Liba is strongly attached to her religion, culture, and customs and those elements are woven through the story very well. I loved the use of phrases in Hebrew, Ukrainian, and Yiddish though I only realised there was a glossary when I got to the end (since I wasn’t reading a physical copy). Their cultural background and folklore elements of the sisters’ bear and swan heritage also impacts on their characters, their personalities, things that may attract or repel them.


There was a point in the story where I wasn’t too sure what was happening, where everything was headed—but then I stopped for a bit and looked up Goblin Market online—a poem I wasn’t familiar with—and once I had an idea of that story, the book began to make much more sense. I could then see the different plotlines more clearly, and see better how they were flowing along and interacting with each other.

Then there were also the historical elements of the plot, the pogroms of the early 1900s which led many of the Jewish community in the region to lose their lives, their homes, and all they had. This was a period of history that I didn’t know much about, and I only realised after reading the author’s note at the end that she had used actual events as the base for that part of the plot, and experiences her own family had gone through. And the book’s message in terms of culture, community, and the need to understand and accept difference comes most strongly from this aspect of the plot.

This was also a pretty fast paced book, which kept me reading thoughout, as I wanted to see how everything would resolve (or not) and how things would pan out for the different characters.

I thought the author did a great job of weaving together the different plotlines such that nothing felt like it wasn’t really needed, even the love stories of the sisters (though it felt like at one point in the story, this was the only element focused on) had a purpose. However, reading the book, it still felt as though too much was going on—the real, the fantastic—there is the goblin market plot; the sisters struggling with their identities, their relationships with each other, with their parents, their ‘boyfriends’; the folklore–fairy tale elements; the historical parts of the plot—just an awful lot for two young girls to deal with. It wasn’t that I couldn’t keep track of what was going on—I could; I also liked that all of these plotlines had a resolution, only that it felt like too much.

This was overall a really good read for me and I enjoyed it very much! And I cannot end this review without saying what an absolutely gorgeous cover this one has as well—that was what grabbed my attention in the first place!

Utterly captivating world-building. With a fairy-tale, gothic feeling, this reminded me a lot of The Bear and the Nightingale in its mystical, magical, atmospheric mode of storytelling.

One of the great things about fantasy, at least in my opinion, is that you often end up learning a lot about something in reality through the lens of fantasy fiction. I, shamefully, knew very little about the pogroms and this book not only taught me a little but also inspired me to go and do some more research on the subject. I think that is why books from many different intersectional viewpoints are so important, you can learn a lot and you can discover where the gaps in your understanding may be. 

Conceptually, I enjoyed this story, the Goblin market is one of my favourite stories to bounce off, I love themes of sisterhood (I never had a sister myself so I like to live vicariously through other characters), and also animal transformation which I like to think feeds twelve-year-old Judith's obsession with werewolves. All these things and more have been tied into this book, which reads a lot like a first-person fairytale, with that sense of wonder and awe tinged with fear. The only way I can think to describe it is this: you know those creepy gnarled tree roots that are nonetheless quite cool and beautiful? That's the tone of this story. I know, I know, not particularly specific but that's the feeling it gave me. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get fully on board with this story because I got so frustrated at the characters. It's the bad horror movie problem when stupid people do stupid things, bad things happen to them and you, the watcher or the reader, aren't really inclined to feel bad for them. If it was obvious to one sister that eating the fruit from the suspiciously attractive strangers was a bad thing, why didn't she mention it to the other sister, more importantly, why didn't the other sister also know that? That may be a personal preference thing, me projecting my own knowledge of fairytale tropes onto these characters, but it did make me feel less sympathetic to both of them, and that's quite important in a story such as this. 

I also found myself laughing at a lot of the prose, which is entirely a personal preference thing, so don't take this as criticism, more an observation of the things that amuse me. There are moments in the text where the characters are saying huge dramatic statements and coming to life-changing realisations but, because of the plot, they are always prefaced with something along the lines of "I am a bear" which makes everything feel just a little silly. 

All that being said, I think there are people who are going to fall head over heels in love with this story. It wasn't totally to my taste but it has a lot of ideas that I liked and a lot of people are going to get a huge amount out of it. 

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The sisters of the Winter wood is an beautiful retelling of the classic poem Globin Market by Christina Rossetti. It’s about sisterly love, it’s about growing up and discovering who you are.
Laya and Liba live in the woods of the town of Dubossary, Moldova. Protected by their parents from people who discriminate against Jews and they have also been cast out by their peers. One day their father receives a message that his father, the girls grandfather is dying so he goes with his wife to see him. Leaving the two girls behind. The two girls, who are completely different from each other, go on a quest of discovery of each other and who they are.
I quite enjoyed this magical story of the sisters and when the girls discovered what they were. Only thing when Laya falls in love with Fedir and the chapters referencing this, it got a bit too much for me. This book though entertained me throughout. I will be looking out more from this author.
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown books books for a copy of this book.