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A review by mediaevalmuse
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
3.0
I picked up this book after seeing it float around a few lists, and I’m always excited to read novels that incorporate various folklore into their stories. In all, Deathless was a charming read - it had a lot of things in it that I liked, such as folklore and magic and adventures that felt like reading a fairy tale. However, as a longer work, it wasn’t as satisfying as I hoped it would be, and much of it felt disjointed.
Things I Liked
1. Part One: Part One is probably my favorite part of the book because it reads like a fairy tale. The style of writing mimics fairy tale narration, and the magic made me think of Alice in Wonderland. I loved the spin on the domovoi and the birds turning into husbands, as well as the relationship Marya had with the magical world (one of wonder and ultimately of longing).
2. Prose: Valente’s prose is fun. At times, it reads a lot like a book of mythology with that magical detachedness that’s associated with fairy tales. At other times, the prose is much more personal, but still retains a penchant for imaginative metaphor.
3. Magic/Folklore: I loved the strange creatures and odd visuals of the world. Things like a horse that’s also (kind of?) a car. Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle (which is large and has chicken legs). The living skin that coats the walls of Buyan. Weird things that are wholly fantastical yet not entirely your feel-good magic (a la Disney).
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Lack of Fluidity: Valente doesn’t connect the main scenes in her novel together in a way that facilitates reader understanding. For example, there’s a massive jump from part one to part two (as well as a massive jump forward in time), and there’s little to explain the characters’ emotions towards one another. For example, I had a hard time understanding why Koschei took Marya (I had to pick it up as I went) or what Marya’s feelings were towards Koschei (at least at first). If the novel had set up the premise as a series of stories, that would have been okay, but as is, it didn’t work as a single, fluid novel.
2. Ambiguous Female Agency: I loved Marya’s exploratory nature and wonder in part one of the novel when we got the story of the domovoi, but when she’s in Koschei’s realm, things started to get rather ambiguous. Koschei bossed her around a lot, telling her when to speak and punishing her for disobeying him. I couldn’t tell if Marya even wanted to be there or even to be with Koschei in the first place - until we fast forward ten years (somewhat abruptly) and apparently she's embraced everyone and everything as her home. While I understand that characters can be unfamiliar with their settings, I would have liked Marya to have more agency.
3. Koschei: Reading this book and knowing a little bit about the folklore it’s based on made the figure of Koschei look a little like an attempt to woobify a villain. Deathless described Koschei as a handsome man who is just misunderstood and should be pitied - but the novel even points out his tendency to seduce women and cast them off only to enslave them forever. I kept hoping Marya would take him down in some way, but the novel was more interested in spinning the story into a romance/redemption arc. Plus, there was a BDSM sex scene that was oddly constructed - and I wasn’t entirely sure that it was a positive representation.
4. War: There wasn’t enough in the novel to make me invested in the war between Life and Death. Sorry, but there wasn’t. Also, the backdrop of late 20th-century Russia was woefully underutilized until the last 100 pages of the book or so.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Russian folklore and fairy tales, 20th century Russian history, and magical quests. You might also like this book if you liked Naomi Novik's Uprooted.
Things I Liked
1. Part One: Part One is probably my favorite part of the book because it reads like a fairy tale. The style of writing mimics fairy tale narration, and the magic made me think of Alice in Wonderland. I loved the spin on the domovoi and the birds turning into husbands, as well as the relationship Marya had with the magical world (one of wonder and ultimately of longing).
2. Prose: Valente’s prose is fun. At times, it reads a lot like a book of mythology with that magical detachedness that’s associated with fairy tales. At other times, the prose is much more personal, but still retains a penchant for imaginative metaphor.
3. Magic/Folklore: I loved the strange creatures and odd visuals of the world. Things like a horse that’s also (kind of?) a car. Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle (which is large and has chicken legs). The living skin that coats the walls of Buyan. Weird things that are wholly fantastical yet not entirely your feel-good magic (a la Disney).
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Lack of Fluidity: Valente doesn’t connect the main scenes in her novel together in a way that facilitates reader understanding. For example, there’s a massive jump from part one to part two (as well as a massive jump forward in time), and there’s little to explain the characters’ emotions towards one another. For example, I had a hard time understanding why Koschei took Marya (I had to pick it up as I went) or what Marya’s feelings were towards Koschei (at least at first). If the novel had set up the premise as a series of stories, that would have been okay, but as is, it didn’t work as a single, fluid novel.
2. Ambiguous Female Agency: I loved Marya’s exploratory nature and wonder in part one of the novel when we got the story of the domovoi, but when she’s in Koschei’s realm, things started to get rather ambiguous. Koschei bossed her around a lot, telling her when to speak and punishing her for disobeying him. I couldn’t tell if Marya even wanted to be there or even to be with Koschei in the first place - until we fast forward ten years (somewhat abruptly) and apparently she's embraced everyone and everything as her home. While I understand that characters can be unfamiliar with their settings, I would have liked Marya to have more agency.
3. Koschei: Reading this book and knowing a little bit about the folklore it’s based on made the figure of Koschei look a little like an attempt to woobify a villain. Deathless described Koschei as a handsome man who is just misunderstood and should be pitied - but the novel even points out his tendency to seduce women and cast them off only to enslave them forever. I kept hoping Marya would take him down in some way, but the novel was more interested in spinning the story into a romance/redemption arc. Plus, there was a BDSM sex scene that was oddly constructed - and I wasn’t entirely sure that it was a positive representation.
4. War: There wasn’t enough in the novel to make me invested in the war between Life and Death. Sorry, but there wasn’t. Also, the backdrop of late 20th-century Russia was woefully underutilized until the last 100 pages of the book or so.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Russian folklore and fairy tales, 20th century Russian history, and magical quests. You might also like this book if you liked Naomi Novik's Uprooted.