The Secret History of Moscow in Into the Forest

Aug 14, 2009 Christine rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-myth-and-fairy, fantasy-urban, diverse-and-women-authors

It does help to have either a knowledge of Russian Fairy Tales or a source to look them up in when reading this book.

That said, this is a good book. Sedia tells the story of Galina who is looking for her missing sister. It is wonderful to read a fairy tale influenced novel where the women actually get along and where sisters like each. Kate Crackernuts is another fairy story where the sisters are friends and not rivals.

Sedia does an excellent job of mixing fantasy and real people. Her idea that ...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Shomeret rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy, my-reviews

I agree with those who expected more of this book. Let me explain what I thought was wrong with it. There's lots of folklore in this book, but it has no depth or vitality. It was like a mythology cartoon. It seemed to me as if the author herself had no real connection with any of it. The way to make it real is to show us a context in which the old Gods and Goddesses had real meaning in people's lives and weren't just folklore. Show us the way people lived with their deities. At one point, Galina ...more

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May 23, 2020 Jaimie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Neil Gaiman never seems to steer me wrong. He has a blurb on the cover of my copy. “A lovely, disconcerting book that does for Moscow what I hope my own Neverwhere may have done to London.”

I don’t know really anything about Russian fairytales, except Baba Yaga—I listened to a podcast about her stories—so as I read along I had to stop and google characters. But I do know that fairytales before their watered down Disney versions were dark and I like dark.

This book is about the place where the forg ...more

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May 23, 2011 Melanti rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, e-book, group-reads, urban-fantasy

I really was expecting to love this book!

It has a premise similar to Neverwhere which I loved.
I'd heard that Moscow itself was a character, and I was really looking forward to that.
It incorporated a lot of Russian/Slavic mythology and folklore, which I generally love as well...
And, I'd heard one of Sedia's other books (House of Discarded Dreams) compared to Catherynne Valente's work - which I adore.

And I did love the premise, the setting, the embedded back histories of the characters, the folkl ...more

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