The Yaba Yaga Mask by Kris Spisak - Women’s fiction/historical fiction/folklore
Women’s fiction/historical fiction/folklore
Date Published: May 9, 2023
Publisher: Tantor Media
Narrator: Allyson Voller
Run Time: 10 hours
When their Ukrainian grandmother is lost on a trans-Atlantic Flight, two sisters are swept into a quest across eastern Europe to find the woman who had always told more tales than truths.
From Poland to Slovakia to Hungary and beyond, Larissa and Ira navigate the steps of Ukrainian folk dance, the cliff-side paths of Slovak Paradise National Park, and the stark realities of war, folktales, and feminism, all for the sake of chasing who they're starting to believe is a true Baba Yaga. Understanding their family's roots has never been more clear.
The setting's mythic properties drift like ghosts in the humid air, hinting of the folktales the sisters whisper like codes of bravery. The nesting dolls they discover reveal how each woman becomes stronger when tucked one, within another, within another—forgetting lies and truths to seize upon history, love, and the familial traditions that have shaped them into who they are together.
A Review by Brandy Mulder
The Baba Yaga mask
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hi everyone I’m here with an audio book review this time
around and I listened to this through a new site that I have never used before.
In case anyone is wondering I listened to it through audiobooks.com and the
sound quality was excellent. It does encourage you to use their app but I was
able to listen to it through their website.
This story is about Larissa and Ira and how they go to from
Poland to Slovakia to Hungary to search for their missing grandmother. The
narrator is good and does a decent job of letting you know which character is
speaking and keeps the listener from getting confused. The story jumps back and
forth between the story of the search for their grandmother and their
grandmother’s story of her life during the war and how she survived.
If you like a lot of details in your stories you will like
this one. The author is very good with details and gives a good picture of
different scenes in the book. I will be honest I was more drawn to the story of
their grandmother’s life during the war than the search for her when she goes
missing. Larissa and Ira have their own bit of adventure during their search
but some of it just didn’t draw me in as much as the other side of the story.
There is nothing supernatural in this story but there is a
solid story about family traditions and how they can bind a family and all its
generations together. I recommend this story for older teen and up.
About the Author
Author and professional editor Kris Spisak has been spotlighted in Writer's Digest and The Huffington Post for her work to helping other writers. Her non-fiction books include Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook. Spisak's background and her own family experience in the Ukrainian diaspora add weight to her fiction debut, The Baba Yaga Mask.
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