The integration of Russian folklore in an American novel is quite interesting. I was fascinated but utterly lost having zero Russian folklore background. I wish the author did a better job on the world building in this regard. It also didn't help that the glossary is placed at the end of the book in the digital version, bc this would've been helpful to know going in. I can't tell if it's a result of my confusion or tiredness but every time I picked up this book I immediately got sleepy. Take that piece of info for what it's worth. 

The story is slow which surprises me further that the explanation of folklore was lacking. If the exposition is going to take up half the book, then I should be able to understand the world completely.

Around the halfway point, the plot picks up and I started to get into it. And it's pretty good up until the end. The ending was quite anti climactic and once again it started to put me to sleep. Overall there's maybe only 35-40% of the entire story that was actually riveting. Although this is trilogy, the ending tied up very nicely so I don't feel compelled to continue reading on. That's not to say that I'm completely deterred. The second book takes place in a much shorter timespan as opposed to this one where it really goes into the main character's family lineage before she was even born, so perhaps it won't be as slow. Regardless it's important to note that the ending, although anticlimactic, allows me space to end here instead of forcing myself to continue with the trilogy.