Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Two more books by Eugene Yelchin, the author of Breaking Stalin's Nose.

Arcady's Goal by by Eugene Yelchin.

Quick synopsis: Because his parents were "enemies of the state", Arcady has spent his whole life since he was a baby in a "children's home", where Soviet Russia keeps criminal children until they are old enough to be shot (12-13 years old).

Brief opinion: I had a harder time with this book than I did with Breaking Stalin's Nose. It was very realistic and believable, but that's what made it unenjoyable.

Plot: Arcady has lived in homes run by the secret police since he was a newborn baby. His parents were put to death as "enemies of the state", so newborn Arcady is just as guilty as them. He just isn't yet old enough to be shot.

One day an inspector (Ivan Ivanych) comes to check the conditions the kids are being kept in (which is never any kind of inspection at all, the director of these houses just give the inspectors meals and a drink). He decides to adopt Arcady.

Unsurprisingly Arcady is unable to trust Ivan Ivanych and they don't form any kind of connection, despite Ivan Ivanych doing everything he can for the boy. The story ends with Arcady opening up a bit and the two starting to form the very start of a bond.

Writing/editing: Both were good, though unlike Breaking Stalin's Nose, I spotted a couple editing issues in this one.

Turns out the artwork is by Yelchin himself. Unfortunately it didn't work for me in this book any more than it had in Nose.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: This book wasn't very enjoyable to read because Arcady was a really unpleasant kid. That was completely understandable! He is a boy who never got a single minute of love his whole life, was never held by his parents even as a bay! He never brushed his teeth even once, he never learned to read, ate nothing but a bit of bread most days. So it makes complete sense how he acted... I just didn't enjoy spending my reading time with him.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ - 3.5 stars/okay. I wish the story had focused on Ivan Ivanych instead of on Arcady, the adult's story was so much more interesting to me (his wife was killed by the state, one of Ivan Ivanych's former co workers was the one who reported her, and the two men still saw each other sometimes).

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DNF #39: The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin. This seemed like a really good story (stories from Yelchin's own childhood as he grew up in Cold War Russia), but a technical issue kept me from being able to read it. Because images were interwoven with the text, the font size was fixed. And size 5 or 6! Way too tiny for me to be able to read and it wasn't adjustable at all.