Ratings5
Average rating3.4
"On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens, the fragments of a nightmare--something she must write down--floating on the edge of her consciousness. Something followed them from Russia. On another Christmas morning thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric were in Siberia to meet the sweet, dark-haired Rapunzel they desperately wanted. How they laughed at the nurses of Pokrovka Orphanage #2 with their garlic and their superstitions, and ignored their gentle warnings. After all, their fairy princess Tatiana--baby Tatty--was perfect. As the snow falls, enveloping the world in its white silence, Holly senses that something is not right, has not been right in the years since they brought their daughter--now a dangerously beautiful, petulant, sometimes erratic teenager--home. There is something evil inside this house. Inside themselves. How else to explain the accidents, the seemingly random and banal misfortunes. Trixie, the cat. The growth on Eric's hand. Sally the hen, their favorite, how the other chickens turned on her. The housekeeper, that ice, a bad fall. The CDs scratched, every one. But Holly must not think of these things. She and Tatiana are all alone. Eric is stuck on the roads and none of their guests will be able to make it through the snow. With each passing hour, the blizzard rages and Tatiana's mood darkens, her behavior becoming increasingly disturbing and frightening. Until, in every mother's worst nightmare, Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter"--
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e: when i wrote this review i had rated it 3 stars it's been 2 years and I still think about this book a lot and barely remember the parts that have dragged. at some point i changed the rating to 4 stars which reflects my views now better.
At one point of the book I was sure I would drop it. The main character would not stop complaining. About “picky eaters” (which definition includes people with allergies and vegetarians), her teenager not wanting to waste plastic and buying clothes secondhand, modern medicine, vaccines, anything. The book was also very repetitive, it's used to for effect but for the most part the effect was exasperation on my part. It had a strong start, and a strong end, but the middle is way way too long. Overall it's still a shorter book, so I'm glad I stuck with it. The ending was satisfying, and made interesting points about adoption and motherhood.