Well that was heartbreaking.

A blend of fairy tale and history, Gingerbread is a story that blurs the lines between the two, the deeper and deeper you read the fuzzier that line becomes until eventually you can't see it anymore. I find this style of story telling magical but it is too raw to call it whimsical, too deep for that. It's meant to make you think, to make you feel and perhaps to teach us readers something.

Gingerbread is a story about love and grief, life and death, lost and found, and about the promises we make and the lengths we will go to to keep them. All set within the boughs of a snow capped forest and the town at its borders.

I could type forever and still not accurately convey my thoughts about this book, I have more feelings than thought about it at this stage; a sort of hovering questioning and reflectiveness. It has definitely stirred in me a desire to learn more about modern history, ever I've been a student of myth and ancient history but I know little of Joseph Stalin and the events this story refers too, I'd like to know more.

One thing I would advise though, do not binge this book. It's best enjoyed slowly, preferably on long cold winter's nights in front of hot fires. Put it down for periods of time, let it marinate and then come back and read a little more.