Book #5: Dreaming Anastasia

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite historical topic?

Answer: The Romanovs and the Bolshevik Revolution

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite thing about that particular topic?

Answer: Anastasia Romanov and the theory that she survived her family being massacred.

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite price for books?

Answer: Free

It should come as no surprise, then, that I had a minor freak-out when I ran across Dreaming Anastasia, a young adult novel by Joy Preble, for freeeee on Kindle a couple weeks ago. (Now it's around $7.00. This is why I check the Top 100 Free Kindle books every other day.)

In Dreaming Anastasia, in the present day, a typical seventeen-year-old named Anne is just going about her average teenage life when she realizes that she's being stalked by this dark, odd dude named Ethan. Then she starts having strange dreams about Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov being trapped in some hut with a witch. Odd, since Anastasia and her entire family were killed in 1918. Then, even weirder stuff starts happening -- glowing extremities, freaky weather, getting chased by guys with weapons... Eventually, Anne learns that Ethan has come to her so they can help save Anastasia Romanov from a witch popular in Russian folklore. The book shifts between being narrated by Anne, Ethan, and Anastasia herself, who is writing in a journal from captivity.

The Romanovs have always appealed to me... Probably because, although flawed in several ways, they are such a beautiful family and their story is so tragic. For those of you not familiar with their story, it will be my pleasure to give it to you simply and briefly: Czar Nicholas II, of the Romanov dynasty, was the ruler of Russia for a while. He had a lovely wife Alexandra, four daughters (Olga, Maria, Tatiana, and Anastasia) as well as a young son (Alexi) who had hemophilia. Alexi was sick a lot, and a crazy lunatic named Gregory Rasputin managed to weasel his way in to having some degree of power with the royal family because he claimed he had powers that could heal Alexi. Things went rather sour, and eventually Nicholas II was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the early 1900s. The family was held captive for a while by the Bolsheviks, and eventually they were taken into a basement and killed. Their bodies were burned and buried. Upon excavating the bodies, they never found the remains of Anastasia. So, there are a lot of rumors that she somehow survived or was rescued and lived the rest of her life with a secret identity. There have been a few people who have claimed to be Anastasia, most famously, Anna Anderson, who was later revealed to be lying thanks to DNA.

So. Joy Preble takes this story to a whole new level by adding a few twists... Some family drama, some paranormal activity, some Russian fairy tales. I'm down with it. I'm down with anything Romanov-related. Preble is a high school English teacher (!!!! awesome), and this is her first novel.

I really, really enjoyed this, although I think I can admit that it's definitely not something everyone would enjoy. (I think the intended audience would enjoy it, since it's a young adult book, but I wouldn't recommend it to serious history buffs or probably anyone Russian.) I am definitely biased since I love the topic so much, but everything else about the book was great, too. I really liked Anne most of the time (although she was a little too "Bella Swan"-esque sometimes), and Preble has a very sarcastic tone sometimes that I really enjoyed. Anne's family background and her best friend Tess were great aspects of the story, too. Switching narrators kept things interesting, especially since Ethan and Anne both occasionally pick up on things that the other doesn't.

I would advise history experts or Russian enthusiasts from reading this book because I will admit the historical parts are very basic. The references to Russian culture are pretty obviously American-minded (I mean, what do we know about Russia other than Tolstoy and Fabrege eggs?), and sometimes Anastasia's "journal" entries just sound like a textbook excerpt about the Romanovs -- but! I don't have a problem with that as much as some fancy-pants folks on Amazon apparently do because it. is. a. young. adult. book. It's OK if it's not mind-blowingly enlightening as far as Romanov history is concerned. I'm just glad someone wrote an interesting, entertaining book about Anastasia Romanov so that some teenager somewhere might remember who she is one day, because they probably aren't going to remember it from history class.

...Which brings me to my next point -- My favorite part of the whole book is probably this quote from Anne:

"Normally, world history is not a subject that makes me do back handsprings. Not that I don't like knowing about that stuff. I actually do. But Coach Wicker -- who pretends to teach the class when he's not too busy figuring out football plays on the computer -- is the most singularly boring person I've ever met."

Or maybe it was this (also Anne):

"Why the administration would allow someone to teach honors world history who mispronounces Bogota and can't find Tierra del Fuego on a map because he thinks it's in Peru is a mystery to me."

I will avoid going into further detail there, but let me just say that I totally get those quotes. And I have a feeling Preble being a teacher has a lot to do with why she gets those quotes. I wish her the utmost success and I hope she writes more soon.

Anyway, this book is well worth the $7 it now costs on Kindle, and I would suggest you give it a read. I would also remind you to peruse the free Kindle books quite often, as I have found many a gem.

4/5 stars

Read from February 17, 2011 to February 19, 2001

--C