Actual Rating: 4.5 stars Though I knew little about Russian folklore when I started Deathless, Valente entranced me with her novel between her beautiful prose, the characters, and her modern retelling the folklore that takes place in Leninist/Stalinist Russia (which I loved that I understood after learning about Russian history this year). I loved the fact that Koschei and Marya Morevna were complex characters that the readers felt bittersweet but hopeful for them too. The writing was poetic and the reader can really appreciate how Valente repeats certain phrases and scenes to complete the thought. The writing reminds me a bit of Laini Taylor but at the same time not at all because our heroine hopes for magic and love, and the magic interwoven into the story is inspiring. This is such a crap review, so I'm just going to leave you with this quote to make up for it. “I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya Morevna; I have looked for your face in the patterns of the ice. In the dark, I have pored over the loss of you like pale gold.”