“You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.”

I fell in love again.

I'm going to have to say that Catherynne M. Valente completely deserves the 'buy on name alone' status I've placed on her books.

“That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.

I finished Deathless in one sitting the other day and I was stunned by the beauty and complexity of the story she weaved around Marya Morevna, one of the most amazing heroines I've read about in so long (she writes great women, by the way).

Deathless is set in 20th century Russia and it is history and mythology and folklore mixed together almost seamlessly. The way she writes the foreign setting makes it far away enough to make you realise that it's a whole new culture to what we've been exposed to without making it seem weirdly "exotic" and fetishised (a really big problem for me right now with any writer exploring a different culture).

The book moves in a spiral rather than in a linear way and that adds to the story. After all it's only fitting as these characters are caught in bouts of repetition in real life with every tale spun out of them to add to folklore. This is referred to several times in the book and in different ways.

“You will always go into that tent. You will see her scar and wonder where she got it. You will always be amazed at how one woman can have so much black hair. You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.”

An interesting aspect of the book is that it explores themes of domination and submission as well as sadomasochism.

“Oh, I will be cruel to you, Marya Morevna. It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be. But you understand, don’t you? You are clever enough. I am a demanding creature. I am selfish and cruel and extremely unreasonable. But I am your servant. When you starve I will feed you; when you are sick I will tend you. I crawl at your feet; for before your love, your kisses, I am debased. For you alone I will be weak.”

 Also polyamory, which went very well. I've barely seen any representation of polyamorous relationships in mainstream books so this pleased me loads.

“I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.”

 I can't say much beyond: Read it. It's a good book, better than average by far, an excellent read and it isn't too long at around 300 pages.

If you want a coherent review that is intelligently written, here you go.