Book Review: The Mirrored World by Debra Dean

September 13, 2012

About:
The Mirrored World by Debra Dean is a fictional account of the life of St. Xenia. The novel takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia during the 18th Century.

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book—use the Raf­fle­copter form at the end of the post to enter.

  • 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harper
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061231452

Book Review The Mirrored World by Debra Dean

My rating for The Mirrored World – 2

Buy this book in paper or electronic format

More Books by Debra Dean

Thoughts:
The Mirrored World by Debra Dean (Facebook) is has an interesting premise – the life of a Russian saint. This is one of those books where everything is wonderful, but for me the sum of the parts simply didn’t come together to create a whole.

The subject is interesting, the time period fascinating, the writing is lyrical and the novel certainly captures a dreamy state of time and place. However, the book simply failed to capture my interest.

Even though I appreciated the styling, effort and talent that went into the writing, I found myself having a difficult time reading the novel. I never got vested in any of the characters, I simply didn’t care about them at all.

The best thing about the book is the way Ms. Dean sets up her scenery, every time I got my nose out of the book I expected to look out the window and see the bleak streets of St. Petersburg. The hopelessness and sadness of the residents resonates off the pages and into your head.

The real disappoint though was the wasted opportunity for an interesting novel. I don’t feel I learned anything about Xenia since the story is told from the point of view of her cousin. The story is there, but we never learn the motivation behind her actions. Was Xenia crazy? Depressed? Guilty of her life compared to the poor rabbles outside her door?
We never find out.

Ms. Dean is certainly a wonderful writer, she can string words and sentences together for a compelling narrative. Even though this book didn’t work for me, I am looking forward to read more of her works in the future.

Synopsis:
Xenia was born to a lower nobility class in Russia, she falls in life with a soldier and a singer in the Imperial choir named Andrei. Even though their marriage is a happy one, the couple’s life is difficult due to the ridiculous demands by the court they are serving.

Xenia’s dreadful visions come true and she descends into depression and goes through a profound transformation. She starts giving away all her earthly possessions until one day she simply disappears.

Buy this book in paper or electronic format

More Books by Debra Dean

Give­away

  • Give­away ends: Sep­tem­ber 20, 2012

  • US/Canada Ship­ping Addresses Only

  • No PO Boxes

  • Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked

Congratulations: Name as email

TLC Book Tour forThe Mirrored World by Debra Dean:

Zohar – Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours
BOOK BLOGGERS – Have you read The Mirrored World? If so link up your review below:

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9 Comments

  • GraceSeptember 13, 2012 at 9:16 am

    I appreciated how much research Debra Dean put into writing this book. It’s little things, like the timing of when tea became such an integral part of Russian culture, that really stood out to me.

  • Julie RupertSeptember 13, 2012 at 2:21 pm
  • Carol WongSeptember 13, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    I guess that I am a “cover person”. I thought the cover was so pretty. I liked the first few pages of the book but not the rest. I could connect with any of the characters either. I was very disappointed.

  • VesperSeptember 13, 2012 at 2:53 pm

    meikleblog at gmail dot com

  • HarveeSeptember 14, 2012 at 8:50 am

    Would love to read this one!

    harvee44@yahoo.com

  • nanSeptember 14, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    thanks for the giveaway

    nanze55 at hotmail dot com

  • Heather J. @ TLC Book ToursSeptember 14, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    I’m sorry to see that this one wasn’t quite the perfect fit for you but thanks for sharing your thoughts for the tour.

  • VivianSeptember 16, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    Can’t wait to read!

  • Anita YanceySeptember 17, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    I would love to read the book. Thanks for having the giveaway.

    ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net

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