Lost Souls of Leningrad

My full review is published at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/11/review-lost-souls-of-leningrad-by-suzanne-parry/

Alright, so first of all, this book is beautiful, and very, very bleak much of the time. However, try not to let that scare you off, because the beautifulness and moments of emotional clarity were so good!

There's no sugarcoating the fact that this book is hard to read at times. It's set in Russia in a time when Russia was at war and Leningrad became completely cut off by the Germans, and was unable to receive supplies. There was no electricity, so no heat and no food for an entire winter in frigid Russia, and thousands upon thousands starved in Leningrad. If you can go into reading this one knowing that that's what you're going to encounter, I think you might be better prepared than I was.

I do also have to give a content warning for this one about children and death/trauma. There was a part that snuck up on me that made me have to take a pause.

HOWEVER, through all of that bleakness and the worst possible circumstances, there are these lasting relationships and bits of love and redeeming moments that just turn this book into something you want to read, and they're why this book is getting great ratings.