The Wise and the Wicked

Ruby Chernyavsky has been told the stories since she was a child: The women in her family, once possessed of great magical abilities to remake lives and stave off death itself, were forced to flee their Russian home for America in order to escape the fearful men who sought to destroy them. Such has it always been, Ruby’s been told, for powerful women. Today, these stories seem no more real to Ruby than folktales, except for the smallest bit of power left in their blood: when each of them comes of age, she will have a vision of who she will be when she dies—a destiny as inescapable as it is inevitable. Ruby is no exception, and neither is her mother, although she ran from her fate years ago, abandoning Ruby and her sisters. It’s a fool’s errand, because they all know the truth: there is no escaping one’s Time. Until Ruby’s great-aunt Polina passes away, and, for the first time, a Chernyavsky’s death does not match her vision. Suddenly, things Ruby never thought she’d be allowed to hope for—life, love, time—seem possible. But as she and her cousin Cece begin to dig into the family’s history to find out whether they, too, can change their fates, they learn that nothing comes without a cost. Especially not hope.

The Wise and the Wicked by Rebecca Podos - release date May 28, 2019

Any book marketed to me as a "lush, dark, and unforgettable contemporary fantasy" is definitely going on my TBR list.  And when I saw how cute the cover was with its little house in the center I knew I had to have it.  My instincts were right and I loved this book!  It got me out of my small reading slump.

The whole book is based on the premise of a powerful Russian family composed solely of women: the Chernyavskys.  They ran away to America and stopped practicing their powers to be safe from bad men who were hunting them when they lived in the forests of Russia.  Despite the Chernyavsky mindset that only women in the family matter and everyone else in the outside world is, basically, hot garbage, the cast of characters is surprisingly very diverse.  There was a romance (it's YA-duh) but I love how in the beginning Ruby didn't refer to him as anything other than Boy-whose-name-starts-with-D; so funny!

The plot was good- this one did have me coming back for more, reading "just one more chapter" at night, and even sneaking a few pages during breaks in band.

The ending specifically was interesting.  It totally ends on a cliffhanger that should be a set up for a sequel, but it isn't listed as a series on Goodreads.  But, based off something in the actual book (if you've read it already all I'm going to say is "podcast") I have a  sneaking suspicion that there won't be a second one and the ending is "up to you to interpret" which is honestly very clever and ambiguous.  Another thing I liked was how there were multiple stories within the book, separated by italics.  SUPER specific but I also loved the names for Ruby and her sisters, Daliah and   For dislikes (and I'm sure they will fix this in the actual copy when it's really published) there were multiple paragraphs where there were literally no spaces in the entire paragraph. Like, theentireparagraphwaswrittenlikethis.  I'm not really sure how that's possible to do without realizing it?? But whatever they're definitely going to fix that in the real version.  Also, Ruby's a little bit of a klepto, but nobody's perfect, am I right?

4 out of 5!  This was a real cute and fast paced book.  Also, I love how I've read so many Anastasia retellings that I know to immediately recognize Volkov as the "Russian bad-guy last name."  Took me 3 days to read (finally!  Breezed through this one!)

-Taylor

Reviewed on May 1, 2019

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