{"id":482,"date":"2007-12-08T20:01:18","date_gmt":"2007-12-09T03:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/482"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:37:12","slug":"the-secret-history-of-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/482","title":{"rendered":"The Secret History of Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Secret History of Moscow<\/em> (2007) Ekaterina Sedia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>I both enjoyed this book and found it frustrating.<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, which drew heavily upon Russian folklore. However, at times the writing bothered me. Some of the descriptive prose was phrased in ways that took me a moment to parse, and in the moment threw me out of the story.<\/p>\n

But mostly I really enjoyed the story. I’m a huge fan of folklore, and I loved seeing characters from Russian mythology and folklore appear: Rusalka, Father Frost, Koschey the Deathless. (Now I want to go back and read my books on Russian folk and fairy tales.)<\/p>\n

Galina, Yakov, and Fyodor are residents of Moscow, each unhappy with their lives in their own way. All three are drawn together when they discover that all over Moscow people are disappearing–and are being turned into birds: jackdaws, crows, owls. Their search for the missing people leads them to discover the underground–a world that exists beneath–or perhaps parallel–to the modern world, and where those who are lost or no longer accepted, be they gods or mere humans, can go.<\/p>\n

Initially, I found the end of the story dissatisfying–it didn’t seem quite fair. But after thinking about things for awhile, I decided that the ending was both appropriate and satisfying, but it did take some getting used to.<\/p>\n

If you are a fan of folk and fairy tales, then you will definitely want to read The Secret History of Moscow<\/span>. Although it has its weaknesses, the story within the covers more than makes up for them.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secret History of Moscow (2007) Ekaterina Sedia I both enjoyed this book and found it frustrating. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, which drew heavily upon Russian folklore. However, at times the writing bothered me. Some of the descriptive prose was phrased in ways that took me a moment to parse, and in the moment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,6,291,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-folk-fairy-tales","category-paper","category-supernatural"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-7M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":945,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/945","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":0},"title":"The Stepsister Scheme","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stepsister Scheme (2009) Jim C. Hines As you may or may not know, I love folk tales and fairy tales. I also love things derived from folk and fairy tales, which is why I love Fables, and Sandman, and Hellboy. Authors who work myth and characters from folklore into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/Stepsister-Scheme.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2425,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2425","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":1},"title":"The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom And Wit in the Wild West","author":"Michelle","date":"June 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom And Wit in the Wild West (2006) Steve Sheinkin I completely and totally got this one a whim, because I love folklore, which is what much of this is based upon. Imagine the Wild West. Now imagine a Rabbi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Folk & Fairy Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Folk & Fairy Tales","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/folk-fairy-tales"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/rabbi-harvey.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4292,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4292","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":2},"title":"Basho and the River Stones","author":"Michelle","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Basho and the River Stones (2004) Tim Myers and Oki S. Han Somehow, I got it into my mind that this was a completely different kind of book. This is a children's book, and I have the kindle version, so keep that in mind because it affects how I feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Folk & Fairy Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Folk & Fairy Tales","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/folk-fairy-tales"},"img":{"alt_text":"basho-and-the-river-stones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/basho-and-the-river-stones-233x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2366,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2366","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":3},"title":"Folk Tales from the Russian","author":"Michelle","date":"May 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Folk Tales from the Russian (1903) Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal I love folk tales. I have two shelves of them, and discovered when I got my Kindle there are lots of collections available out there FOR FREE. Free, of course, means the books are from the public domain, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/folk-tales-from-russian.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/148","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":4},"title":"Fables Vol 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers","author":"Michelle","date":"October 22, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Fables Vol 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers (2003) Bill Willingham I'm reading this series slowly (or at least attempting to), because it's not completed, and Book Six is not scheduled to come out until January 2006. I really like the Fables series, and March of the Wooden Soldiers is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphic Novels"","block_context":{"text":"Graphic Novels","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/graphic-novels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/10\/Fables-March-Wooden-Soldiers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5326,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5326","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":5},"title":"Wickedly Dangerous","author":"Michelle","date":"July 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Wickedly Dangerous (2014) Deborah Blake It's no secret that I love folk and fairy tales, and since I first read about her hut on chicken legs, I have loved Baba Yaga. She's a witch who is sometimes wicked, but sometimes not. Nobody insulted her house. Not even in the old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wickedly-Dangerous","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Wickedly-Dangerous.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}