Ksenia AnskeBesprekingen

This is an excellent book for older children who have outgrown Goosebumps but aren't quite ready for Stephen King. Relationships are complicated and everything isn't tied up with a bow at the end. But, it does have a very satisfactory ending

Witty, funny, serious, motivational, and at times irreverent. Ksenia Anske gives the reader a peek into her creative mind. Writing and creating is rarely easy, but the guide can be trusted to lead the novice through the creative process.

Created from the author’s Tweets this is a book that can be picked up and randomly read.

The Badlings by Ksenia Anskeis a young adult horror/fantasy story. Anske was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to the US in 1998. She is the author of dark fantasy short fiction and 7 novels, and the winner of Amtrak Residency Program 2015. I was lucky enough to meet the author at the Dallas stop in her Amtrak Residency.

Back in the early 1970s when Saturday Morning cartoons were still a thing, there was a live action show called Lidsville by Sid and Marty Kroft. The storyline is about a boy, Mark, who falls into a magicians hat and ends up in a land of living hats. A very weird show for kids from the creators of H.R. Pufnstuf (It's rumored that the H.R. stood for Hand Rolled if that offers a hint). I nearly forgot about that show until I started The Badlings.

Belladonna wants to be a scientist much against her mother's wishes for her daughter to follow in her footsteps as a opera singer. Belladonna prefers Bells as a nickname and keeps an analytical mind. She and her three male friends Rusty, Grand, and Peacock find themselves pulled into an adventure. After meeting at the duck pond, Bells finds a book half buried, digs it up, and flings it at some nearby duck as stress relief from an argument with her mother. However, like Mark in Lidsville, Bells and her friends find themselves pulled into a world they could never imagine. Well, actually, they could imagine because it's a world of books they started but did not finish.

Anske writes intriguing fantasy and horror fiction. The stories, for the most part, seem to be for the young adult crowd with teen characters. These stories, however, can also be enjoyed by adults. Although there is an air horror in portions of the story, it is not something that is graphic or intense but a good old-fashioned scare. For those, parents and others, worried about language or adult situations, there are none. A well told and well thought out story for fans of fantasy of all ages.

I deeply disturbing look at neglect, abuse, and a fifteen-year-old girl in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Unable to speak since the age of two Irin sees people in the world as the animals that they are. It is difficult to see if she is coping or fallen into madness. Life is hard and abusive -- pregnancy, homelessness, and unemployed. It is a dark journey and a blurring of reality. Not the usual lighter fantasy by Ksenia Anske, but something very well worth reading.

Rosehead is a work of fantasy fiction by Ksenia Anske. I first heard of Anske through Twitter and ended up reading and reviewing the first book in the Suicide Sirens series. Last week I was fortunate enough to meet her at the Dallas Amtrak station. Anske is currently finishing up her Amtrak Writers Residency and had a short layover in my city. The few minute meeting confirmed that she is very much like her video posts, smart, quick thinking, genuinely a very nice person, and a very good writer. She was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States in 1999.

Most of my reading is non-fiction and very occasionally I will drift into a fantasy. I do like Russian fiction and that was probably the reason I became interested in Anske's writing. There seems to be something a bit different from American and English Literature a bit of magic, so to speak. Although Anske now lives in America, she has kept some of that magic in her work. I picked up Rosehead two weeks ago as something different to fit between books on Xiaoping and America's use of drones in war and enjoyed the break.

The tone is set from the opening line:

Lilith Bloom had a particular feeling that the rose garden wanted to eat her.

This story is set in Germany and although some very weird things happen, they are taken in stride. There are some surprise but not the crippling shock you would expect, this is a fantasy novel, after all. Lilith, the main character, also has her trusted pet a whippet -- Panther Bloom Junior. Panther is more than just a loyal dog. He can talk. A talking dog shouldn't be a big deal, after all, Bulgakov had a talking cat who shot pistols and played chess in his novel. There is also a much more serious underlying story about prescription drugs and our nation's youth.

This novel turned out different than I expected and all in good ways. Lilith is almost thirteen, but this is not a young adult book for teenage girls as I first suspected. Also, this novel being fantasy leaves quite a bit outside the willing suspension of disbelief. It is not a novel that you fall into and believe it is happening around you. It is more like a scary story your grandmother would tell you. You knew it was a story, but you were intrigued by every word. Rosehead is that type of story.

I really enjoyed the story and the build up to an exciting finish. The characters are all very well developed as are the relationships between the characters. There are the typical mother-daughter friction and father protecting "daddy's girl." Relationships between Lilith and the other characters develop in a believable manner. Lilith's relationship with her grandfather and his estate are the centerpiece of the book. There are a few reoccurring themes in the book some are obvious and other's the reader will have to discover.

Over the years, I have read plenty of independent fiction. Most are adequate, several have been simply terrible, and very few have been great. Rosehead falls into that last category. Anske is a great storyteller and it shows in her work. I found Anske's novel to be a refreshing change in the current fantasy offerings. An outstand piece of independent fiction. Read Anske's books or the roses will eat you...

I received this book free from Amazon in an author promotion. That was probably a year or so ago. It "talked" to the author on Twitter mostly asking about her bicycle. I have followed her on Google plus and saw excerpts from her book readings and signings. She is a bit quirky, showing up for readings and signings dressed as a ballerina. Anske reminds me a bit of Carol Kane in Scrooged, hopefully without the slapping and the quick kick. She is from Russia and moved to the US in 1998 and learned English after immigrating. This is impossible to tell by her writing. There is no hint of an "accent" or any clumsiness with the language.

Suicide is one of those things that most people do not think much about, until someone you know takes their own life. It is a subject that then draws you in and at the same time repulses you. In this story Ailen Bright choses to end her life on her sixteenth birthday. She makes her case to the reader, but her and her best friend do spend quite a bit of time getting high so you wonder if this is all stoner talk or something deeper. Ailen is imaginative and this shows in her naming the sirens serving as legs and the faucet of a very large bathtub. Ailen spends many hours in the bathroom because it is the only room in the house with a lock on the door. The sirens become characters in her mind.

From her first unsuccessful attempt at taking her life through her second and successful the story is told in the first person in almost a stream of consciousness. There is fear, confusion, anger, and determination in Ailen's voice. All the thoughts surrounding death, the process, and what happens afterward flow together. There is a busy and cluttered mind as different thoughts move to the front of her consciousness.

The story is good. It is definitely a fantasy, and although I am not a huge fan of fantasy, I followed the story. The story, however, was secondary for me. I was intrigued my Ailen's thoughts and how her brain worked when facing the unknown and the improbable/impossible. Anske has a real talent in this respect.

Subject matter aside, I found I Chose to Die fascinating. It was not what I expected, and perhaps one of the few book I liked for the writing style more than for the story itself. I am sorry I let this one sit on my "To Be Read" pile for so long.

Imagine if [[Roald Dahl]] ([Matilda]) collaborated with [[Lewis Carrol]] ([Alice in Wonderland]) and [[Jasper Fforde]] ([Nursery Crimes]). You might then get something like [The Badlings] by [[Ksenia Anske]]. But probably not.

Ms. Anske writes at a breathtaking pace, catapulting her pre-teen protagonists from adventure to adventure, after sucking them into a book in the first chapter. But this isn't an ordinary book. It's called 'Mad Tome' because the book is crazy. Insane. Psychopathic.

Why it's crazy and what it and the characters inside the book are trying to do about it and to the four young adventurers is for you to find out. Beg, borrow, or steal this book and read it--all the way through. That's VERY important.

Or, you can ignore this review and deprive yourself of reading pleasure.

(aahrggghhh! my original review was accidentally deleted)
I won a free copy of this book as a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Out of all the books I have won this one is one of my top 5 favorites. It's a lovely tale about a girl whose family owns a grand estate with a rose garden. The girl goes to stay at the estate, and while there strange things start happening, all leading back to the roses. They are beautiful, but a bit creepy and more than a little sinister. I really enjoyed this book, and have recommended it to just about everyone I know who enjoys books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and the Lord of the Rings.

This is an excellent book for older children who have outgrown Goosebumps but aren't quite ready for Stephen King. Relationships are complicated and everything isn't tied up with a bow at the end. But, it does have a very satisfactory ending

Of the "extra-sensory perceptions misunderstood as insanity" genre, for which there are two possible endings - 1) protag saves the world while parental figures remain oblivious, or 2) protag saves the world and parental figures are suitably chastened. I won't spoil the ending as to which prevails in this case but the story on the way is full of creeptastic imagery.

My main critiques would be that the bulk of it was too slow/repetitive; and that the copy-editor has apparently never heard of the pluperfect tense and kept substituting/stetting the simple perfect. The other language thing that sometimes made me twitchy was the protag's habit of using long words for the joy of showing off, without necessarily making sure that they're appropriate long words - like when she ends a tirade about her grandfather's evil garden with the damning adjective "innocuous" - but this is more plausibly ascribable to the character herself.

This is fantastic writing and it had me glued to a very slow-moving story. At 25% into the book I see it going into a paranormal story that I don't want to read, so I'm going to abandon it. I like this author, especially based on her Dedication to this book and on her ability to write descriptively and bring me into it. I'm grateful for the insight I got from reading these first chapters.

This title was a fresh and exciting read full of fantastic scenery and colorful characters that get to explore what happens when certain books are left unread. The Badlings is for fans of stories like Coraline by Neil Gaiman & The Thief Of Always by Clive Barker.

Oh. My. Gosh. From the first line (which may be one of the best opening lines I've ever read) I was hooked. I won't tell you what it is, I'll let you read it for yourself :).

Lilith Bloom is the hero of our story, a misunderstood little girl with what her parents assume is an overactive imagination. Of course, we the reader learn early on that her dog does, in fact, talk, and the rose garden is, in fact carnivorous. She must figure out how to save her family before the garden swallows them whole.

This book would be absolutely perfect as a movie. I can already picture an Alice in Wonderland-esque feeling to it, bursting with color and magical creatures that are delightfully horrifying. I fully intend on picking up more work by this author.

I picked this novel up after meeting Ksenia at the Indie Book Fair in downtown Seattle. While I’m not a big fan of horror novels, the premise of Rosehead sounded very unique and fun.

The novel follows Lilith Bloom on her trip to attend the Bloom family reunion being held at her Grandfather’s estate in Berlin. Lilith is not your average 12 y/o girl, even before you consider the fact that she has a talking dog. Her dialogue is witty and sharp, and I loved being in her head.

Despite the fast paced, almost frantic action, there is not a lot of actual plot development until after the 50% percent mark. During the first part of the book, the action goes like so: Lilith visits the garden, learns some minor thing, returns to the house and accuses her Grandfather of murder. Rinse and repeat for six or seven garden visit scenes. I think the entire thing could have been condensed down to one MAYBE two visits to the garden, where she learns the entire set of secrets. As it was, I ended up skimming about 50 pages of material after about her third visit to the garden.

The plot really takes off at the point that Lilith is visited by the psychologist. After this I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished. The ending is a bit predictable and the wrap up chapter is suitably cheesy.

Overall I give it 4 stars, taking off a star for the fact that I judge it to be about 35% longer than it needs to be.