Cheryl's Reviews > Winter Garden

If I could, I would give the first half of this book 1 star, from about the middle until the final chapter 5 stars, and the final chapter 3 stars - - - so I guess that, all in all, the 3 star rating is probably the most accurate.

This is the second Kristin Hannah book I have read where I have actively DISLIKED the main characters throughout the first half of the book (the other was "True Colors"). Nina and Meredith are the daughters, Anya is the mother - - -and as someone said in an earlier review, I had the greatest urge to smack all three of them. Frankly, I deal with enough anger in my daily life to desire having those same feelings when I read. And, on top of it all, the first half of the book becomes nothing more than a major repetition of the same ugly qualities that made me angry with the women to begin with.

Now - - that being said - - -the second half of the book, particularly Hannah's retelling of the siege of Leningrad, is fabulous. Unlike other non-fiction accounts of this horrible period of Russian history, this was no detached, emotionless telling of the hundreds of thousands who literally starved to death. Hannah uses the characters of Vera, Sasha and their children to bring that horror and pain to life, and to illuminate the reasons for the cold reserve adopted by the mother toward Nina and Meredith. This section is marvelous.

But then we ramble on toward the final chapter. I once again agreed with an earlier reviewer; the years of neglect and cold silence would take me a LOT longer than a single cruise to eradicate, and the final tie-in with the fairy tale story was far too neat and tidy to be believable.

Hannah's writing seems almost schizophrenic to me - - at times, it seems that she's content with writing the lighter chick lit that started her career on its path to the top. At other times, she seems to want to delve into the darker side of people's anger, insecurities, and general psyche. In between these two extremes, she weaves an absolutely fascinating story that nestles somewhere in the middle of the novel. If you don't mind and you have the time and patience to slosh through the rest of the book, there is something very worthwhile here.