Review: Pieces by Maria Kostaki

Pieces

by Maria Kostaki

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 209

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  When her mother, Anna, abandons her to move abroad with her new husband, Sasha is passed around her three grandparents in Cold War-era Moscow, attending first grade with a Lenin star pinned to her breast. Five years later, Anna and her husband reappear and whisk Sasha off to a better life in Athens, Greece. But they are not the gallant rescuers they first appear to be, and Sasha soon finds herself caught between a violent stepfather and a psychologically abusive mother. In her struggle to survive in her new world, Sasha turns to a world of invisible friends even as she continues to long for something real. At turns haunting and uplifting, Pieces is the story of one girl s survival and self-discovery and her continual search for love in a world where she has been given none."


Kritters Thoughts:  Sasha spends the first few years of her life being raised by her grandparents until her mother has remarried and decides that she wants to raise her herself.  She leaves everything she has known to move in with her half brother, step-father and mother and her life is forever changed.

Sasha was quite an interesting character.  At times, I didn't trust her to provide the whole story and although it was obviously coming from her thoughts and feelings; there were moments where I would have loved someone else's point of view.  

As this book is essentially a letter to her now deceased step-father, it was just very unique and different.  It was not told chronologically which at times was confusing and frustrating.  Without too much of a spoiler - her step-father is shown as a horrible person, but her letters and the way she tells the stories to him do not show the pain that she endured in her childhood - and I hated that.  I wanted to feel more pain and without it, the book and her stories didn't feel honest.

I loved the international feel of the book and hopping from country to country and hearing of the cultures melding, but this love didn't outweigh the character of Sasha and how frustrating she was as a narrator.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Booksparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.