Blood Red Snow White Review

I received the book for free from Netgalley, this doesn’t change my opinion of this book at all 🙂

1/5

Russia wakes from a long sleep and marches to St Petersburg to claim her birthright. Her awakening will mark the end for the Romanovs, and the dawn of a new era that changed the world. Arthur Ransome, a journalist and writer, was part of it all. He left his family in England and fell in love with Russia and a Russian woman. This is his story. -Goodreads.com

PLEASE keep in mind that these are my opinions! Not everyone will feel the same way about Blood Red Snow White as I did, you might enjoy it so give it a try 😀

I read two of Marcus Sedgwick’s books, Midwinterblood and The Ghosts of Heaven. Both were a little hard to get into, but ended up being really good (in my opinion). I wish I could say the same from Blood Red Snow White….

Maybe my problem was that it’s historical, and for the life of me, I can’t read historical fiction. I LOVE history, LOVE it so much, I just can’t read it for some reason. But…I doubt that was the main issue I had with Blood Red Snow White.

This book came in three parts, each a different ‘story.’ They were short like novellas and were very hard for me to get into. Why? Because each one was about the same main character but told from DIFFERENT points of view. 1st person, 3rd person, 2nd person all in different stories. Why not keep it consistent? In the beginning the point of view switched multiple times, which was very distracting and made me really dislike it. But, then again they were three different stories (though they ALL were about the SAME main character…)

Everything felt all over the place, maybe it was symbolism I didn’t see? So this paragraph will be

SPOILERY

so I can explain what’s going on IN DETAIL. You have been warned. The first story was about a man who married this woman, it turned out she was pretty crazy (from what I understand) so he runs away to Russia, leaving his wife and daughter behind to start a new life and write about Russian fairy tales. Meanwhile the Tsar and Tsarina’s son has a disease that, when he gets a cut, the scar keeps bleeding and won’t stop for a while. They shelter the boy as they try to find a cure. They meet Rasputin (who is a terrible guy) who can help their son. Keep in mind all of this is happening at the same time but this isn’t were it ends. Nope. There’s also a few chapters about a bear which goes to sleep for 12 years, wakes up and is manipulated by two guys, kills these two kids grandpa and runs to town on a rampage. This bear happens to be made of people…Okay…what? How were these connected in anyway? What was the point of this? I DON’T KNOW!

END SPOILER.

So…yeah…I just did not like Blood Red Snow White. It wasn’t my favorite, it was hard to focus and seemed all over the place. The thing that bothered me the most was the changing point of views, that inconsistency bothered me the most. The only good thing I have to say, is that I LOVE the cover.