Incompetently Written Baba Yaga Novel

 I sure could have used some inspiration from reading about a powerful witch who makes life better for Russians during the reign of Ivan the Terrible.  No such luck.

 Yaga, the female protagonist of The Witch and the Tsar , is mythological. She was also so humanized in this novel to the point where I almost forgot the character was mythological.  I decided that this review didn't belong on Flying High Reviews, my blog for strong female protagonists.  This Yaga isn't particularly strong. So that's why it's here on Shomeret: Masked Reviewer. I purchased the book at a local independent bookstore.  (Gasp!  Someone still actually does that! Yes, I am helping to keep this local bookstore in business. I also pass it at least once a week. So I see what's being displayed in the window.) That's really the only positive aspect of my having bought the book.  The store benefited.

                                    

The novel opens in May of 1560.  The style is poetic.  In accordance with Baba Yaga's myth, she lives in a log hut which stands on chicken legs, but she calls herself simply Yaga.  Baba means grandmother, yet Yaga is immortal and appears ageless.  I think that referring to her as grandmother is meant to be reassuring.  Yaga is a healer, but she is reputed to be a witch.  Well, she does have a house that can fly.  Otherwise I can't imagine why she's called a witch.  Based on what happens to her later, she doesn't have much power.

I felt let down.  Russia is suffering under Ivan the Terrible.  There is a bit of implied totalitarianism, but the infrastructure for totalitarianism didn't exist this early.  Gilmore was creating a Soviet Union sort of government and imagining that Ivan the Terrible was as capable of controlling Russians as Vladimir Putin. Nyet. It's just not believable.

So Gilmore doesn't think through her conceptualization of either her protagonist or the era in which she placed her.  You know this may be one of the worst books I've read in some time. I'm giving this a C-.  I'd graded this on Goodreads before I finished this review, and I'm going to need to downgrade it.