The Mirrored World: A Novel Audiobook

" I was pleasantly reminded of aspects of my heritage by the way Dean peppered her text with crumbs of detail, metaphor, and emotion meaningful to those of Russian descent. But, I felt that the story wasn't complete at the end of the book. Was this purposeful? Probably. Will people like me crave more completion? Probably! "

" After reading the first chapter of this book, I put it down and said aloud 'I think I'm going to enjoy this'. Indeed I did. The world of 18th Century Russia is brought vividly to life. The story of 'Saint' Xenia is told through the eyes of her cousin, thus enabling the question of saintliness vs. madness to arise. Just where is the line between sainthood and lunatic? The history was fascinating and I loved disappeaing into the other time and place presented in this book. "

" I thought this book was just OK. The characters are deep and interesting, and the context is well-drawn. But I just couldn't get into the story all that much. It was OK, it just wasn't anything special. "

" Dark, unsettling story set in 18th century Russia. Characters were well developed, I enjoyed the perspective of the story. "

" The premise of this book is very interesting--the political, social and religious milieu that created the Holy Fool Xenia in 18th century Russia, a time period of extreme crisis spanning the 7 Years War, the death of Elizabeth, the coup of Catherine II and the formation of the elaborate court culture in St. Petersburg. However, by being told from the first-person narration of Xenia's rather conventional cousin (although Dasha married an Italian eunuch musician who promptly died, and then rushed through the last 30 years of her life adopting stray people Xenia literally left on her doorstep), the story is curiously flat. I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. "

" Well written but not a particular favorite of mine. Set in 18th century Russia, it is the story of a young woman who goes mad when her husband dies. Subsequently she devotes her life to helping the poor and destitute of St. Petersburg. Her life is told in conjunction with that of her cousin. I didn't realize when reading the book that it was the fictional account of the life of St. Xenia of Russia. "

" A simple and lovely story imagining the story of Saint Xenia. I recommend it. "

" It wasn't like her others. The pages didn't flow. But a good book. "

" Thought the description of the book was misleading in the fact it said it was all about St. Xenia and her life as a saint of the poor and unfortunate, however the book really focuses on her cousins outlook and her life more than i felt it portrayed Xenia. "

" This was a solid, entertaining read about a woman in Russia and her life. I enjoyed it. "

" I found this a hard to get into book. I did not feel a "bond" with Xenia, or any charter in the book. "

" Good book, strange ending. not as good as her first book. "

" This was the first book that I have read by this author and I have to say that I did not like this book at all. It was just extremely boring and the plot was bad. I would classify this book as a short story versus a book. "