Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Book Review: Castle of Concrete

A fair warning, the rest of this week are book reviews and they are ALL VERY GOOD, so just get your credit card out because these are worthy of your purchase. Also, Christmas is coming. (And I feel like a jerk saying it but #facts.)

Castle of Concrete - Katia Raina

In 1990-1991, when the history of Russia and the entire Soviet Union is being revisited and the rules are changing, a fifteen-year-old Jewish girl, Sonya Solovay, reunites with her dissident mother after twelve years of hiding out in Siberia--her life's dream realized. Still, she sees herself as a typical Soviet citizen: a shy, quiet, obedient, barely-there girl, dissolving into the past, her country's and her own. Determined to break into her new existence, Sonya tries out a shining new persona, but most of her efforts backfire. One mysterious boy notices her, wants to hear her stories, makes her feel like she is the shiniest part of his world. Everything else might as well fade away--her distant and hungry-for-gossip classmates, the equally shy Jewish friend who doesn't always seem to understand her, the growing tension with her fiercely Jewish Mama, the rumors of an impending communist coup. More and more, Sonya spends time with her "rescuer" at a construction site she calls "castle." So what if he uses an occasional anti-Semitic slur?

In the shadow of a crane, among metal pipes and concrete blocks, she finds it easy, falling, falling in love with a muddy-eyed boy she knows so little about. As for being Jewish in a country where the Republics are supposed to be "sisters" and the People brothers," what does one's nationality have to do with anything?

All the while, Sonya's mama is falling in love also: she is falling in love with shiny America, a land where where being different seems to be celebrated, and not everyone is so very Russian and snow-white. The place sounds amazing, but so far away. Will Sonya ever find her way there?

I'm going to tell you right now this is maybe one of the best YA novels I've read this year. Not even kidding. I'm not even a fan of books with a setting in places I'm not familiar with/don't know much about, and this one is set in a Soviet Union that no longer exists, and while that was a big part of the story, there was so much more happening that it wasn't really a focus for me.

What really pulled me is how despite being the early 90's, this book is so timely. Sure, we're not dealing with the Soviet Union and the dramatic shift the change was, but a lot of the themes and moving pieces in this book are current to 2019 United States. We have Sonya, who isn't sure where she belongs, what world to identify with: Russian or Jewish. She's both and this is a time where choices need to be made, further complicated by choosing between two boys. One is.... a bad boy of sorts but his problem is that he's basically an anti-Semite and the other guy is really good and sweet and I think we all understand that that's kind of.... boring.We watch a young girl struggle with that choice, so that's the romance element.

I did not read it as a romance though, I was reading it for the historical value and comparing it to today but even knowing that- that ending. That ending got me. I don't know if it's because I have a teenage daughter who has big feelings like Sonya, or if it was just way past my bedtime, but I cried at the end of this and I finished torn on whether I want a sequel or if the ending should just be what it is and that's it, it's up to us to think of the rest. I think because everything under the sun gets a sequel, I want this one to stay as it is.

Overall? I'm giving this one a solid 4 stars. My only critiques are it kind of lags a bit in some parts, and I had a hard time keeping track of characters (which is a personal issue so probably wouldn't be an issue for a normal functioning brain). I really liked Sonya's character even though she makes terrible choices, I just kept rooting for her because she's a regular teenage girl, flawed an all but trying to do the right thing.

I highly suggest this one if you have a kiddo really into YA literature, but this would be a good addition to a school and/or classroom library!

I received an ARC of Castle of Concrete and a big thank you to TLC Book Tours and Young Europe books, as well as Katia Raina for my copy. This post does contain affiliate links and when you shop from them I make a couple of cents and that helps keep this blog moving, and you pay nothing extra. 

Happy reading! 

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