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Mother Doll
A kaleidoscopic novel about the shadow of trauma in Russian history that follows four generations of mothers and daughters
Zhenia is pregnant, her marriage is languishing, and Vera, her Russian grandmother and favorite person in the world, is dying. Enter Paul, a famous psychic medium who’s been approached by Irina, mother of Vera and great-grandmother of Zhenia. Irina is an interdimensional being who lives in a cloud of ancestral grief. She hopes Paul will be a willing conduit for her epic story of doomed revolt and nation-rending heartbreak, and that through him Zhenia will be her confessor and grant her absolution for her greatest shame: abandoning her daughter in a Soviet orphanage for children of spies.
But does either woman have what the other needs to understand the predicament they’re in? Or will the very legacy of trauma that they carry be what damns them both forever?
Accompanied by a chorus of fellow Russians also stuck in the cloud of grief, Irina decides to forge ahead. She speaks of the unspeakable, answers forbidden questions, and excavates repressed memories. And Zhenia decides to join her on the journey. Ferociously funny and deeply moving, Mother Doll is, ultimately, a bold and irrepressible depiction of generational trauma and the shifting expectations of womanhood and motherhood.
Zhenia is pregnant, her marriage is languishing, and Vera, her Russian grandmother and favorite person in the world, is dying. Enter Paul, a famous psychic medium who’s been approached by Irina, mother of Vera and great-grandmother of Zhenia. Irina is an interdimensional being who lives in a cloud of ancestral grief. She hopes Paul will be a willing conduit for her epic story of doomed revolt and nation-rending heartbreak, and that through him Zhenia will be her confessor and grant her absolution for her greatest shame: abandoning her daughter in a Soviet orphanage for children of spies.
But does either woman have what the other needs to understand the predicament they’re in? Or will the very legacy of trauma that they carry be what damns them both forever?
Accompanied by a chorus of fellow Russians also stuck in the cloud of grief, Irina decides to forge ahead. She speaks of the unspeakable, answers forbidden questions, and excavates repressed memories. And Zhenia decides to join her on the journey. Ferociously funny and deeply moving, Mother Doll is, ultimately, a bold and irrepressible depiction of generational trauma and the shifting expectations of womanhood and motherhood.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2024
160 people are currently reading
7467 people want to read
About the author
Katya Apekina
4 books253 followersKatya Apekina has had stories published in The Iowa Review, Santa Monica Review, West Branch, Joyland, PANK and elsewhere, and has appeared on the Notable List of Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013. She translated poetry and prose for Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008), which was short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. She co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film New Orleans, Mon Amour, which premiered at SXSW in 2008. Born in Moscow, she currently lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
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June 11, 2025I’m amazed at how differently Apekina has told this story vs the way she told her last novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish. I like the first one better. I'm amazed at how much goodwill this novel lost with me by the end of the first sentence. here it is.
It was ironic that Zhenia and Ben would come home from spending time with people who had kids and be so giddy with relief and self-righteousness over their decision not to have any that it would make them want to fuck.
I'm put off by the crude language, I'm put off more by the puzzle of it, there is nothing "ironic" about a couple who doesn't want kids, coming home from a visit to friends with kids, wanting to do exactly the thing you can't do with kids around. So this got off to a very bad start with me and it took a while to get back on track and it never quite made it. I'm trying to talk myself into not caring about the f-word chosen where it isn't needed for some clear reason--to introduce a certain quality in a character via their crude language, for instance--but for me when the word is used casually it's just so ... pedestrian. predictable. boring. non-creative. I care. I care.
It was ironic that Zhenia and Ben would come home from spending time with people who had kids and be so giddy with relief and self-righteousness over their decision not to have any that it would make them want to fuck.
I'm put off by the crude language, I'm put off more by the puzzle of it, there is nothing "ironic" about a couple who doesn't want kids, coming home from a visit to friends with kids, wanting to do exactly the thing you can't do with kids around. So this got off to a very bad start with me and it took a while to get back on track and it never quite made it. I'm trying to talk myself into not caring about the f-word chosen where it isn't needed for some clear reason--to introduce a certain quality in a character via their crude language, for instance--but for me when the word is used casually it's just so ... pedestrian. predictable. boring. non-creative. I care. I care.
April 25, 2025
Apekina's debut novel The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, was one of my top reads for 2019 (...and was just as good a second time around in a reread last year), and I was eagerly awaiting a follow-up - now that it's finally here (or almost - it won't be published till March 2024, but through the generosity of Netgalley and Overlook/Abrams, I was granted access to an ARC - with my heartfelt thanks!) ... it was definitely worth the wait.
Apekina's story this time is even more complex, but her prose is still compulsively readable - I read 60% of it just today, as I literally couldn't put it down. The synopsis above tells you all you need to know about what it's about - but you really do get incredibly involved in these characters' lives, tragedies and triumphs. I hope it justifiably catapults the author into the top ranks of bestselling and prize-winning authors - it's just that good.
Apekina's story this time is even more complex, but her prose is still compulsively readable - I read 60% of it just today, as I literally couldn't put it down. The synopsis above tells you all you need to know about what it's about - but you really do get incredibly involved in these characters' lives, tragedies and triumphs. I hope it justifiably catapults the author into the top ranks of bestselling and prize-winning authors - it's just that good.
April 14, 2024
I liked this…
Didn’t love it like ..
The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
The writing still really kept me invested in the story.
Zhenia, is in her 20’s now, who immigrated to Boston from Russia with her mom Marina and grandmother Vera when she was a young child.
She is married to Ben.. she becomes pregnant when neither of them had wanted a child… she then deals with the failing health of grandma Vera who’s mind is leaving her and is the one person Zhenia has been the closest to.
She sees a man who is a medium that says her great grandmother is trying to reach her.
Through Irina (great grandmother) Zhenia finds out about the history of the women in her family while in Russia.
This was a strange and offbeat story but enjoyable!
Didn’t love it like ..
The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
The writing still really kept me invested in the story.
Zhenia, is in her 20’s now, who immigrated to Boston from Russia with her mom Marina and grandmother Vera when she was a young child.
She is married to Ben.. she becomes pregnant when neither of them had wanted a child… she then deals with the failing health of grandma Vera who’s mind is leaving her and is the one person Zhenia has been the closest to.
She sees a man who is a medium that says her great grandmother is trying to reach her.
Through Irina (great grandmother) Zhenia finds out about the history of the women in her family while in Russia.
This was a strange and offbeat story but enjoyable!
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July 11, 2025I read this because I loved Apekina’s first book, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish so much. Admirably, she’s written something completely different from it, though I greatly prefer her first. Both are tragic with comic elements, but Mother Doll relies much more on the latter, a balancing act I found reminiscent of the stories of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.
In the story of the past, a manipulative teacher with her select group of girls reminded me greatly of Muriel Spark’s (another writer of tragic-comedy) Miss Jean Brodie. And then I came upon this phrase that Apekina uses to describe her character: “a woman in her prime." In the story of the present, the medium who's channeling the ghost who's telling the story of the past has to deal with the distraction of different dead voices. Those swirling voices reminded me of George Saunders's (another tragic-comic writer) Lincoln in the Bardo.
At one juncture, I struggled with the storytelling component. Perhaps that’s because I was reading two novels at the same time in which characters tell stories, as opposed to 'living them there and then on the page. I struggled even more with the implications and potential meanings of a love 'triangle,' wondering if a 'community' of two women—both new mothers—are needed to make one man happy. To be fair, it’s just as likely that the women need each other and/or that the two women need both the male and the female to feel fulfilled. The Mother archetype becomes more prominent as the story goes on, though the fulfillment of one’s desire for motherhood doesn’t mean it applies to all… I hope.
In the story of the past, a manipulative teacher with her select group of girls reminded me greatly of Muriel Spark’s (another writer of tragic-comedy) Miss Jean Brodie. And then I came upon this phrase that Apekina uses to describe her character: “a woman in her prime." In the story of the present, the medium who's channeling the ghost who's telling the story of the past has to deal with the distraction of different dead voices. Those swirling voices reminded me of George Saunders's (another tragic-comic writer) Lincoln in the Bardo.
At one juncture, I struggled with the storytelling component. Perhaps that’s because I was reading two novels at the same time in which characters tell stories, as opposed to 'living them there and then on the page. I struggled even more with the implications and potential meanings of a love 'triangle,' wondering if a 'community' of two women—both new mothers—are needed to make one man happy. To be fair, it’s just as likely that the women need each other and/or that the two women need both the male and the female to feel fulfilled. The Mother archetype becomes more prominent as the story goes on, though the fulfillment of one’s desire for motherhood doesn’t mean it applies to all… I hope.
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May 6, 2024Having enjoyed The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish (this author’s prior novel), I dove right into this one, and I was not disappointed, although some aspects of this novel were quite a departure from my regular reading. There are two main characters. Zhenia, a young woman who lives in California but was very close to her dying/dead grandmother, and Irina, Zhenia’s long deceased great grandmother, who was active in the Russian Revolution as a young woman in St. Petersburg. BUT this is no ordinary story of a privileged Russian teenaged girl who joins the revolution, a story which has been told in numerous other novels. In Mother Doll, a medium contacts Zhenia to tell her that her great grandmother wishes to talk to her. (Normally I would have said “no, no, no” to reading something that involved talking with dead people, but this author intrigues me, so I continued.) Irina relates her story (through the medium, Paul), and I found the scenes in St. Petersburg to be wonderfully done. While Irina is captivated by revolutionary thinking by a teacher and friends, she commits acts of violence almost for teenage excitement. She is then faced with the many bloody and tragic results of her actions. Over time she abandons and betrays everyone she cares about, and she dies without forgiving herself. Through Paul, it is forgiveness she seeks from Zhenia. Yes, I know, it is really weird – but I got caught up in it. I even liked the cast/chorus of other dead people who commented on Irina.
The other story line involves Zhenia and her modern day life in Los Angeles. She is a more typical character from Apekina (The Deeper….). She is not mentally healthy as is apparent by her destruction of close relationships (her husband, her mother), her depression and her general inability to function well in the world. Irina’s story moves her and (together with her baby) ultimately brings some redemption.
It is hard for me to recommend this novel because it was so incredibly unique and different (for me, at least). Katya Apekina can write, and she can write extremely creatively. Be forewarned: if you can accept some of the premises, you just might find it wonderful reading.
The other story line involves Zhenia and her modern day life in Los Angeles. She is a more typical character from Apekina (The Deeper….). She is not mentally healthy as is apparent by her destruction of close relationships (her husband, her mother), her depression and her general inability to function well in the world. Irina’s story moves her and (together with her baby) ultimately brings some redemption.
It is hard for me to recommend this novel because it was so incredibly unique and different (for me, at least). Katya Apekina can write, and she can write extremely creatively. Be forewarned: if you can accept some of the premises, you just might find it wonderful reading.
April 26, 2024
Having loved The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by this author (it's on my favorites list), I looked forward to checking this one out. This was a very different kind of read, primarily due to the paranormal component that allowed Apekina to explore ancestral influences that often remain hidden in untold stories. That oddity kept me at more of an emotional distance than what I experienced in TDtWtUtF.
Four generations of women come into play in this saga, as well as some Russian history. Zhenia (4th generation) is contacted by Irina (our main mother doll) through a medium, with a story to tell and absolution to seek. As such, the timelines toggle between these two characters and time frames. The contact forces Zhenia to wrestle with what she thinks she knows about her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, which spills over into how she sees her troubled marriage and unexpected pregnancy.
It's hard to describe the tone of this novel, which includes some amusing moments offered by unidentified spirits also caught in the "cloud of grief", but also gets quite serious in conveying history and choices made which lead to loss and trauma. It was very readable and touched on themes I value (loss, grief, trauma, impossible choices, activism, family dynamics), but I did not love the format which Apekina used to tell this story, despite admiring the uniqueness of it and what it tries to convey about how outcomes from choices made can trickle down through generations, even if unseen and unknown.
Given my mixed experience of this one, I think it's fair to say 3.5 rounded up.
Four generations of women come into play in this saga, as well as some Russian history. Zhenia (4th generation) is contacted by Irina (our main mother doll) through a medium, with a story to tell and absolution to seek. As such, the timelines toggle between these two characters and time frames. The contact forces Zhenia to wrestle with what she thinks she knows about her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, which spills over into how she sees her troubled marriage and unexpected pregnancy.
It's hard to describe the tone of this novel, which includes some amusing moments offered by unidentified spirits also caught in the "cloud of grief", but also gets quite serious in conveying history and choices made which lead to loss and trauma. It was very readable and touched on themes I value (loss, grief, trauma, impossible choices, activism, family dynamics), but I did not love the format which Apekina used to tell this story, despite admiring the uniqueness of it and what it tries to convey about how outcomes from choices made can trickle down through generations, even if unseen and unknown.
Given my mixed experience of this one, I think it's fair to say 3.5 rounded up.
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February 1, 2024Ok I was really looking forward to this but didn’t LOVE IT 😭 I still think it’s interesting and doing cool things with grief and trauma and the collective experience of cultural atrocities but they retelling of the FULL ON historical aspects of the great grandmothers experience was sleepy. Needed a lil edit but some striking writing in here
September 3, 2024
This novel flits all over the place. Some of its landing spots are interesting--especially Irina's story of throwing bombs in the Russian Revolution--but there are too many spots, too briefly touched on, and many of them too boring.
Worst of all, the supposed focal point of the story--Irina's great-granddaughter, Zhenia-- is another annoying millennial who can't be bothered to get to her job or even throw away the takeout-food containers that clutter her filthy apartment while she wallows in self-pity and occasional masturbation or sex.
(Will editors please, please put a hold on these millennial navel-gazing books, such as "The Wren, the Wren"?)
The best part: Irina tells her story first through a pudgy, middle-aged, gay medium (who hires Zhenia to translate from Irina's Russian) and then by somehow sliding into Zhenia's body. Accompanying Irina, the author invents a charming bardo between life and death inhabited by a kvetchy Greek chorus.
The ridiculous opening premise: Zhenia and her husband, Ben, had firmly agreed never to have children. When Zhenia accidentally becomes pregnant, she immediately decides to continue the pregnancy--without telling Ben. Then, when she finally reveals the big news, she is miffed that he doesn't happily acquiesce.
The book would have been a lot better simply letting Irina be Irina. Dump Zhenia.
Worst of all, the supposed focal point of the story--Irina's great-granddaughter, Zhenia-- is another annoying millennial who can't be bothered to get to her job or even throw away the takeout-food containers that clutter her filthy apartment while she wallows in self-pity and occasional masturbation or sex.
(Will editors please, please put a hold on these millennial navel-gazing books, such as "The Wren, the Wren"?)
The best part: Irina tells her story first through a pudgy, middle-aged, gay medium (who hires Zhenia to translate from Irina's Russian) and then by somehow sliding into Zhenia's body. Accompanying Irina, the author invents a charming bardo between life and death inhabited by a kvetchy Greek chorus.
The ridiculous opening premise: Zhenia and her husband, Ben, had firmly agreed never to have children. When Zhenia accidentally becomes pregnant, she immediately decides to continue the pregnancy--without telling Ben. Then, when she finally reveals the big news, she is miffed that he doesn't happily acquiesce.
The book would have been a lot better simply letting Irina be Irina. Dump Zhenia.
October 28, 2023
omfg. I need everyone to read this hilarious, prismatic, unforgettable, wholly original book immediately!!
March 28, 2024
I wanted to like this book! It started off strong, but ultimately fell apart. Two timelines, and the past is told through a medium as he connects with the great granddaughter of a revolutionary in Russia in the early 1900's. It was an interesting way to narrate the story. However, I was way more interested in the Russian timeline, and I didn't like the modern character at all. The medium storyline just kind of fell apart and the ending was too abrupt. I do like endings to be more wrapped up, but this was way too abrupt. Thanks to Netgalley for my review copy in return for my honest review.
July 16, 2025
I think the dual pov ruined this book for me 😭 I still love u Katya Apekina
March 28, 2024
Baffling that the person who wrote The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish also wrote this
April 30, 2025
Ich wollte das Buch sehr gerne lieben, mir ist es aber schwer gefallen, reinzukommen und dabei zu bleiben (vielleicht auch, weil mir der historische Kontext zu wenig bekannt ist). Die Themen sind trotzdem super interessant - Familientrauma, Identität, Mutterschaft. Also don‘t judge this book by my review.
February 8, 2024
Zhenia is pregnant and her favorite person in the world - her grandmother is dying. One day, Zhenia receives a phone call from Paul - a medium claiming that she's never met, claiming that her great grandmother (Zhenia's grandmother's mother) has contacted Paul and wishes to speak with Zhenia. Irina, is a being that lives in an interdimensional realm where fellow ancestral Russians are trapped in a cloud of their grief. In communicating through Paul and Zhenia translating her story of being a revolutionary and overall her life, Irina hopes that she can let go and be forgiven for her biggest regret in life: leaving behind Zhenia's grandmother, her daughter Vera at a Soviet orphanage and leaving on her own to America.
I had a lot of hopes for this book! I first read its description and a review in Library Journal, and I immediately thought it sounded like something I would be interested in. While I understand what the author was trying to do - because trust me I understand Russian/Soviet guilt - it felt like it was executed in a very confusing way. While the aspect of Irina communicating to Zhenia through Paul the medium was very interesting, this layer of Irina being in this weird "in between" space of life and death was at times difficult to follow. As well as that, it felt like most of the book was just Irina talking and Zhenia "transcribing," with not much reflection or input from Zhenia. It was almost like she didn't care? Which I understand to a certain extent her contention with her Great Grandmother, but this wasn't even reflected on very much, because she easily agreed to transcribe her story.
The author also spent a lot of time setting up the "before" part of Irina's story in being a revolutionary before the actual Russian Revolution, but doesn't do much in making us forgive Irina for leaving Vera behind. It's clear that Vera was terrible to her own child (Zhenia's mother), a side effect of being abandoned at an orphanage, but I didn't feel like Irina was very regretful in leaving her behind. So it makes me wonder and think what the moral of the story is here. While I was excited for the historical aspects of the story as it's such a fascinating time in history, Irina's storytelling and portions were just difficult to get through. Although Zhenia was an unlikeable character in general who kind of does all of the wrong things, I found her scenes more compelling or interesting to read. It would have been interesting to get more of Zhenia's self-reflection of her Great Grandmother's story, rather this pretty much be a book all about Irina.
Thank you to Netgalley and The Overlook Press for an early edition of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review!
I had a lot of hopes for this book! I first read its description and a review in Library Journal, and I immediately thought it sounded like something I would be interested in. While I understand what the author was trying to do - because trust me I understand Russian/Soviet guilt - it felt like it was executed in a very confusing way. While the aspect of Irina communicating to Zhenia through Paul the medium was very interesting, this layer of Irina being in this weird "in between" space of life and death was at times difficult to follow. As well as that, it felt like most of the book was just Irina talking and Zhenia "transcribing," with not much reflection or input from Zhenia. It was almost like she didn't care? Which I understand to a certain extent her contention with her Great Grandmother, but this wasn't even reflected on very much, because she easily agreed to transcribe her story.
The author also spent a lot of time setting up the "before" part of Irina's story in being a revolutionary before the actual Russian Revolution, but doesn't do much in making us forgive Irina for leaving Vera behind. It's clear that Vera was terrible to her own child (Zhenia's mother), a side effect of being abandoned at an orphanage, but I didn't feel like Irina was very regretful in leaving her behind. So it makes me wonder and think what the moral of the story is here. While I was excited for the historical aspects of the story as it's such a fascinating time in history, Irina's storytelling and portions were just difficult to get through. Although Zhenia was an unlikeable character in general who kind of does all of the wrong things, I found her scenes more compelling or interesting to read. It would have been interesting to get more of Zhenia's self-reflection of her Great Grandmother's story, rather this pretty much be a book all about Irina.
Thank you to Netgalley and The Overlook Press for an early edition of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review!
Want to read
July 12, 2025Tram and I are doing a buddy read of this (let's hope I like it)
May 11, 2025
I love this book so much, I have zero notes. This was a 10/10 reading experience for me and I never wanted to put it down.
March 6, 2024
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
“𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚, 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛.”
I’m a fan of Katya Apekina, I devoured The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, from the title to the entire story and am delighted that her latest is a completely different tale. Mother Doll is an interesting read that is hard for me to categorize. Historical fiction, paranormal, family trauma, revolutions, abandonment, unwanted pregnancy, flailing relationships, dead that cannot move on- there is a lot to sink into. Zhenia’s beloved grandmother Vera is dying, losing cognitive ability, a fact she cannot face, when she receives a strange voicemail from a man named Paul Zelmont. Returning his call, he tells her he is a psychic medium and has been speaking to her dead maternal great-grandmother, Russian spy Irina Petronova. He informs her that Irina must tell her life story to them, naturally he doesn’t speak Russian he will need Zhenia to translate it, the memoirs can then be published, Irina’s legacy. Believing it’s a scam, Zhenia is stunned when he mentions her own pregnancy, which not many people know about. Why would Irina want to enlist her from beyond the grave, she abandoned her little girl, Vera, at a Russian orphanage so long ago sailing off to America and building a whole new family. Obviously a cold, cruel, self-serving monster of a woman. Not that she believes this madness, but who cares if she led a fascinating life when she gave up the one person Zhenia loves more than herself? Humoring him, she writes down what he channels, and is told that she is the closest thing to Vera herself, an absolute truth. Irina’s story unfolds, beginning with her spot at finishing school in Petrograd secured by her father before his death, their financial ruin, forcing her to live at her wealthy aunt’s house, in the servants quarters as she finishes out her schooling. Her job, to help her cousin Hannah get accepted into Petrograd society, closed off to them “on account of their being Jewish”. Her German teacher Fräulein Agata takes her under her wing, once a governess for a prominent family, she is popular with the students for her youth and wild, romantic ideas. Her connections are the catalyst for what befalls Irina and her cousin Hannah, during the Russian Revolution. It is also the birth of generational trauma and conflict. Zhenia resents her great-grandmother, she doesn’t want to open her heart to her, however magical this event is.
There is a line in the book, “We can make new worlds out of old bricks”, and certainly that is what occurs, as the gaps in her great-grandmother’s past are filled in. How could she have left Vera? Is there a path to forgiveness so Irina’s soul can rest? Is it Zhenia’s to give? This bridge to the dead is not without risks, Paul has never experienced this intense of channeling, it is affecting him and his partner. He is a man possessed. Zhenia’s own life is falling apart, her work as a translator at the hospital is lackluster, she fears for her marriage, her husband Ben doesn’t want to have a child with her, she feels deep down that he doesn’t want her period. She hasn’t always been loyal, faithful nor honest either. Does she really want to hold on to him? The one person she has always turned to, her grandmother, appears to no longer be of this world, one foot in the next, fading away. She isn’t ready to grasp reality but through Irina, she will receive a far more important inheritance than money. What about her pregnancy? Does this child truly carry shards of those who came before? Is that why Irina insists on telling her side posthumously?
A hell of a read, from the Russian revolution to modern day struggles, maybe they are vessels carrying each generation within them and on and on it goes. Yes, read it!
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
ABRAMS
The Overlook Press
“𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚, 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛.”
I’m a fan of Katya Apekina, I devoured The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, from the title to the entire story and am delighted that her latest is a completely different tale. Mother Doll is an interesting read that is hard for me to categorize. Historical fiction, paranormal, family trauma, revolutions, abandonment, unwanted pregnancy, flailing relationships, dead that cannot move on- there is a lot to sink into. Zhenia’s beloved grandmother Vera is dying, losing cognitive ability, a fact she cannot face, when she receives a strange voicemail from a man named Paul Zelmont. Returning his call, he tells her he is a psychic medium and has been speaking to her dead maternal great-grandmother, Russian spy Irina Petronova. He informs her that Irina must tell her life story to them, naturally he doesn’t speak Russian he will need Zhenia to translate it, the memoirs can then be published, Irina’s legacy. Believing it’s a scam, Zhenia is stunned when he mentions her own pregnancy, which not many people know about. Why would Irina want to enlist her from beyond the grave, she abandoned her little girl, Vera, at a Russian orphanage so long ago sailing off to America and building a whole new family. Obviously a cold, cruel, self-serving monster of a woman. Not that she believes this madness, but who cares if she led a fascinating life when she gave up the one person Zhenia loves more than herself? Humoring him, she writes down what he channels, and is told that she is the closest thing to Vera herself, an absolute truth. Irina’s story unfolds, beginning with her spot at finishing school in Petrograd secured by her father before his death, their financial ruin, forcing her to live at her wealthy aunt’s house, in the servants quarters as she finishes out her schooling. Her job, to help her cousin Hannah get accepted into Petrograd society, closed off to them “on account of their being Jewish”. Her German teacher Fräulein Agata takes her under her wing, once a governess for a prominent family, she is popular with the students for her youth and wild, romantic ideas. Her connections are the catalyst for what befalls Irina and her cousin Hannah, during the Russian Revolution. It is also the birth of generational trauma and conflict. Zhenia resents her great-grandmother, she doesn’t want to open her heart to her, however magical this event is.
There is a line in the book, “We can make new worlds out of old bricks”, and certainly that is what occurs, as the gaps in her great-grandmother’s past are filled in. How could she have left Vera? Is there a path to forgiveness so Irina’s soul can rest? Is it Zhenia’s to give? This bridge to the dead is not without risks, Paul has never experienced this intense of channeling, it is affecting him and his partner. He is a man possessed. Zhenia’s own life is falling apart, her work as a translator at the hospital is lackluster, she fears for her marriage, her husband Ben doesn’t want to have a child with her, she feels deep down that he doesn’t want her period. She hasn’t always been loyal, faithful nor honest either. Does she really want to hold on to him? The one person she has always turned to, her grandmother, appears to no longer be of this world, one foot in the next, fading away. She isn’t ready to grasp reality but through Irina, she will receive a far more important inheritance than money. What about her pregnancy? Does this child truly carry shards of those who came before? Is that why Irina insists on telling her side posthumously?
A hell of a read, from the Russian revolution to modern day struggles, maybe they are vessels carrying each generation within them and on and on it goes. Yes, read it!
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
ABRAMS
The Overlook Press
July 23, 2024
this book was surprising in structure, and stranger than I anticipated - to its benefit.
loved the matryoshka idea for intergenerational trauma ! and it wasn't as heavy-handed as it could have been. there is definitely a русская душа in this book. I enjoyed it, but it kind of dispersed towards the end.
thanks to zena for recommending it and for getting a goodreads :')
loved the matryoshka idea for intergenerational trauma ! and it wasn't as heavy-handed as it could have been. there is definitely a русская душа in this book. I enjoyed it, but it kind of dispersed towards the end.
thanks to zena for recommending it and for getting a goodreads :')
Read
April 4, 2024Loved the premise but found the protagonist pretty insufferable. And all the women’s very straight desires for men’s attention, often played out in self-destructive and/or hurtful ways, were too much for me.
March 31, 2024
didnt love it as much as i thought i would after absolutely loving her first novel. still a very well done book with some interesting ideas about grief and inherited trauma. she is a brilliant talented writer! didnt love the historical retelling sections even though its usually the stuff i cling onto in these types of books, and felt it couldve been done in a more concise/edited (let alone accurate) way. zhenia's storyline by itself i enjoyed a lot more. i was strongly riveted during the first parts and absolutely loving it but feel like it fell a little flat for me at some point in the latter half
April 11, 2024
|| MOTHER DOLL ||
#gifted @mandagroup
✍🏻
Mother Doll manages to be spellbinding, funny, original, innovative, genre bending and all-in-all a wild ride of a novel! Apekina wonderfully weaves grief, intergenerational trauma, mothers and daughters, Russian history, ghosts, womanhood and motherhood into this compulsively readable story. I loved her first book The Deeper The Water The Uglier The Fish, so I was thrilled to see she had a new novel coming out this year. It didn't disappoint! I loved how this was literary, but with magical realism elements and historical too, wow! And these complex, interesting female characters that felt so realistic. Heavy themes exploreed so well. I'm gushing, I know. Apekina's prose are some of my favorites so I hope this book brings more fans to her work.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
#gifted @mandagroup
✍🏻
Mother Doll manages to be spellbinding, funny, original, innovative, genre bending and all-in-all a wild ride of a novel! Apekina wonderfully weaves grief, intergenerational trauma, mothers and daughters, Russian history, ghosts, womanhood and motherhood into this compulsively readable story. I loved her first book The Deeper The Water The Uglier The Fish, so I was thrilled to see she had a new novel coming out this year. It didn't disappoint! I loved how this was literary, but with magical realism elements and historical too, wow! And these complex, interesting female characters that felt so realistic. Heavy themes exploreed so well. I'm gushing, I know. Apekina's prose are some of my favorites so I hope this book brings more fans to her work.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
September 19, 2024
A masterful exploration of intergenerational memory, translation, Soviet history, marriage, intimacy, motherhood, and ghost stuff. I wept at the end! I loved this just as much as The Deeper the Water, the Uglier the Fish, maybe more.
May 18, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ I went from liking this book, to hating it, to loving it. The characters were so unpleasant and unlikeable in the early and middle part of the book, I nearly DNF’d but I’m happy I stuck it out. There was a transition at around the half way point where everything really started to come together - strange but also relatable mother/daughter relationship themes are revealed. The author also explores different kinds of romantic relationships, the afterlife, infidelity and childbearing but isn’t afraid to hit readers with lines that we may not want to admit we relate well too.
I loved The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by this author and will continue to seek out her work.
I loved The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by this author and will continue to seek out her work.
December 13, 2023
A psychic reaches out to Zhenia, telling her that her long-deceased great-grandmother, who she never met, has a story for her. Zhenia, currently pre-grieving her dying grandmother who is her favorite person in the world, dives head first, desperate to learn about the woman who abandoned her grandmother as a child. Maybe the spirit of Irina can get her closer to her grandmother, who is no longer communicative.
Some of the frame story didn't work for me--why does Paul continue the project long after his publisher rejects the proposal? Why does Zhenia continue to write down/translate Irina's story? The logic of Paul's ability is a little dubious. He can physically enter whatever in between space Irina is occupying, as he leaves with a bite mark at one point. Later, when Paul leaves the narrative, Irina's ghost visits Zhenia and enters her. Paul is a narrative necessity to get Irina's spirit to Zhenia, but Apekina doesn't always seem to know what to do with him.
The chorus of spirits surrounding Irina in the afterlife is reminiscent of Saunders' "Lincoln in the Bardo," but not as affective. I don't know that it was needed in this particular narrative.
The most powerful parts of the book detail Irina's childhood in Russia and why she made the ultimate sacrifice in abandoning her daughter. Without such a powerful backstory, the book would have been three stars for me, but the vivid historical details elevate it. The story in the present doesn't hold a candle to Irina's telling of the past.
Some of the frame story didn't work for me--why does Paul continue the project long after his publisher rejects the proposal? Why does Zhenia continue to write down/translate Irina's story? The logic of Paul's ability is a little dubious. He can physically enter whatever in between space Irina is occupying, as he leaves with a bite mark at one point. Later, when Paul leaves the narrative, Irina's ghost visits Zhenia and enters her. Paul is a narrative necessity to get Irina's spirit to Zhenia, but Apekina doesn't always seem to know what to do with him.
The chorus of spirits surrounding Irina in the afterlife is reminiscent of Saunders' "Lincoln in the Bardo," but not as affective. I don't know that it was needed in this particular narrative.
The most powerful parts of the book detail Irina's childhood in Russia and why she made the ultimate sacrifice in abandoning her daughter. Without such a powerful backstory, the book would have been three stars for me, but the vivid historical details elevate it. The story in the present doesn't hold a candle to Irina's telling of the past.
April 2, 2024
incredibly complex, delicious, hilarious interwoven story about generational grief and entanglement, the russian revolution, and personhood altogether. fantastic novel, i could not put it down.
March 7, 2024
A complex, engaging, at times baffling story of ghosts, trauma, and Russia. Zhenia thought her life was going fine until it wasn't and now she's both dreading the death of her grandmother and dealing with a psychic who claims he is channeling the great grandmother who abandoned her daughter, It's a lot and the chorus of voices who chime in occasionally might be a bit confusing at first but then you relax and it all works. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I'd not read Apekina before but I'm impressed by this and will go back for her first novel while hoping for a third.
December 17, 2024
I realized I forgot to review this one here....Apekina is certainly not a bad writer and there was a lot in this that was outright funny as well as some really intense scenes about the revolution. However, the present day storyline w/the MC and her affair w/a doctor where she works just completely missed the mark for me, as did the juxtaposition b/t the present day story and the historical one. It just did not come together for me at all.
July 1, 2024
one of those books that gives me lots of hope for modern fiction. very, very funny up until the end. i feel like a lot of fiction uses retrospective clarity to pass judgment on revolutionary movements and their different fervors, almost to laugh at people for believing in causes so much, with all their soul, and i was so glad Apekina didn't do that, esp when there is so much obvious judgment to be passed around (onto the Bolsheviks, etc etc etc.) there are no lowbrow shots at the naïveté of the young revolutionaries or their cause, which felt so nice.
like a lot of books, i wish the ending had slightly more oomph, especially because the rest of the book had so much momentum. peters out a bit, frustratingly.
loved. will recommend to everyone.
like a lot of books, i wish the ending had slightly more oomph, especially because the rest of the book had so much momentum. peters out a bit, frustratingly.
loved. will recommend to everyone.
March 18, 2024
I don’t know if I could do justice to all the complex themes within Mother Doll if I tried. An absolutely wonderful story about generational ripple effects, re-writing the stories we tell ourselves about our families, and searching for meaning. The author manages to evoke the style, characters, and moral fixations of these novels and successfully transport that distinct Russian sensibility to modern day LA, where a large chunk of the novel is set. She also does a particularly deft job of articulating the mind altering experience of realizing that the grandparents you know & love are the people who emotionally wounded your parents as children.
April 13, 2025
Um yeah. This is what happens when you get a book at 5:45 am. Wild ride from beginning to end and not in a good way, also Zhenia was SUPER annoying. She’s supposed to be like what mid twenties? She was insufferable. The only thing I liked was the idea that our souls are spilt and some parts of us move on while others don’t, and the parts of us left behind inhabit only one dimensional space. Otherwise big thumbs down
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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