BLOG TOUR: Castle of Concrete by Katia Raina @katiaraina1 @tlcbooktours #castleofconcrete

Castle of Concrete is a truly enlightening young adult historical fiction novel about a fifteen year-old Jewish girl being reunited with her mother in Moscow during the early 1990s as the Soviet Union is set to fall. With beautiful writing and a story that covers an historical event I didn’t know much about, I think so many people—whether YA readers or adult—will love this book and learn from it as I did.

About the Book

Moscow, 1990. Fifteen year-old Sonya Solovay is reunited with her mother after eleven years apart. Sonya had been send to hide in Siberia at a time when it was difficult to be Jewish in the Soviet Union. Now reunited with a mother she only knows from memories, Sonya finds herself in a time of confusion. She sees herself as a typical Soviet citizen: a shy, obedient, barely-there girl, uncertain of who she is in this time of change.

But when Sonya starts school, she wants to break out as someone different, someone who will finally be noticed. Arriving to her first day of school in a lowcut pink top and a denim mini skirt, Sonya immediately catches the attention of mysterious bad-boy Ruslan. He wants to know everything about Sonya—her secrets, her stories, her ideas. Sonya feels shiny and desired—the perfect Russian girl. Sonya doesn’t truly understand her heritage, born to a Russian father and a Jewish mother.

Sonya and Ruslan spend time at a construction site that she calls her concrete “castle”. In that private castle, Sonya falls in love with the muddy-eyes Ruslan. But there are things about Ruslan that confuse Sonya—his desire to keep her secret from his family, his occasional use of anti-Semitic slurs, the demonstrations he skips school to go to.

Sonya doesn’t fully understand her Jewish heritage, but she understands enough to keep it quiet. She befriends a shy Jewish boy named Misha and borrows a book from him where she learns more about her heritage. As for being Jewish in a country where the Republics are supposed to be “sisters” and the People brothers,” what does one’s nationality have to do with anything?

As Sonya falls for Ruslan, her mother becomes fascinated by America and all of the promise that it has. It is a place where differences are celebrated instead of persecuted. A place where they won’t need to hide. But the question is whether they will make it there?

Reflection

This story is about so much more than the love triangle between Sonya, Ruslan, and Aizerman. It is also about religious freedom, politics, and the social implication of living in a country in a time of change. When I looked into it more, I found Sonya’s struggle to understand herself so interesting. Banished and growing up away from everything, Sonya is newly returned to Moscow.

Russian heritage is passed down from the father, while Jewish heritage is passed down from the mother. Sonya is born to both a Russian father and a Jewish mother, which makes her truly a member of both cultures. Sonya also doesn’t fully understand her Jewish heritage, having been raised away from her mother. She knows enough to know being called it is a dirty word. But Sonya doesn’t carry many of the features of her Jewish heritage, looking more traditionally Russian.

Ruslan is obviously a person who carries anti-Semitic views. And yet, even with him I wasn’t totally certain that he understood those views or whether he would actually endorse them. Though I didn’t like him, there is something there in his story with Sonya. It isn’t as simple as it should be to decide what I thought about it.

The ending really felt like it needed more, but also sort of worked in not having all of the answers. I would love to learn more about Sonya and what happens next to her. This was the story of a very formative and transformative year in her life. She’s so young and just coming into the person that she may be.

About the Author

When she was a child, Katia Raina played at construction sites and believed in magic mirrors. She emigrated from Russia at the age of almost sixteen. A former journalist and currently a middle school English teacher in Washington, D.C., she has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives with her family just outside of D.C., and still believes in magic.

Find out more about Katia at her website, and connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Thank you to TLC book tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Links to purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound