July 29, 2024
Inspired by the true histories of the aristocratic Sheremetev and Golitsyn families in early 20th-century Russia, the tedious sophomore novel from Gilmore (The Witch and the Tsar) follows Countess Irina Goliteva and her younger sister Countess Lili Goliteva as they struggle to survive after their family has been impoverished by WWI and declared enemies of the people following the Russian Revolution. When the Soviet government requisitions their house, forcing the family into the attic, the remaining Golitevas grow desperate. Irina and Lili sell off the family treasures and risk the attention of the secret police by taking jobs with the American Relief Administration, which has come to help with the famine of August 1921. Meanwhile, their aunt Marie, the Goldteva matriarch and Irina and Lili’s adoptive mother, decides to use the family treasures to hold elaborate dinners and grand balls—not just for Irina, Lili, and the few other surviving family members but all the dead ones who have come back as ghosts. The fantastical Russian setting may appeal to Gilmore’s die-hard fans, but the plot moves at a glacial pace with little intrigue and fewer genuine scares to sustain it. This disappoints. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar.
