Review: The Sisters of the Winter Wood

The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.75 Stars?

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is the debut novel of literary agent Rena Rossner. In a YA story that melds themes of The Goblin Market by Rosetti with elements of Russian and Jewish folkore, Rossner captures the relationship between two sisters, Liba and Laya, their adolescent longing for love and romance, cobbled with a family secret that involves magical transformation of shapshifters. The historical fantasy itself is set against the backdrop of all too real danger- the era of the pogroms that took place at the turn of the 20th Century in Moldova. Written in a style of alternating prose and prose poem chapters, reflecting the differing natures of Liba and Laya, this is a story that evolves at a slow and lyrical pace.

I have a complex set of feelings about this novel. Unlike some other reviewers I'm not bothered at all by the alternating chapters with prose and poetry as I thought it simply reflected the animal natures of the two sisters, bear and swan. I actually enjoyed the alternating chapters and felt Laya's lightness of commentary suited the character. What I had a harder time with is the romance aspect of the story, especially with pogroms used as a backdrop for the romantic/historical fantasy. Pogroms were real, deadly, and terrifying. I have trouble seeing them as backdrop and view them more as a foreground topic and not for a romance fantasy. And even the associations of a Jewish bear and a goyim swan, since it seems to implicitly reinforce a bias, just bothered me. People are likely to think swans beautiful and bears to be bad, aggressive and fearsome. And yes, I know that Rossner is Jewish and living in Israel, but the choice to potentially reinforce a negative association frustrated me. (Also, "flying away" to safety in America seems particularly poignant at our present juncture in US history. Those were the days... All I can think of is that a few decades after the events of Moldova, Anne Frank's family was refused immigration to the USA.) So basically I had an uncomfortable set of feelings about some of this novel, though I greatly admire its recasting of the Goblin Market tableau onto a Central European folklore setting. Liba's body image issues were also of interest and I think that I'd consider this a body-positive YA book in that Liba's intended one loves and is attracted to her just as she is, a zaftig young woman, as her father says. I know that some may still quibble with Liba's negativity on the issue but sadly, that's probably another smattering of realism in the midst of fantasy.

I look forward to seeing where Rossner goes next with her work.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Redhook Books, along with a paper ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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