Dauntless: Side-effects of The Bronze Horseman

Have you ever seen a book that seems to have a gazillion pages and does not want to end? And god forbid, someone you like recommends it to you. Horrified, you shamefully turn away, trying to ignore the fact that you can't begin to imagine reading the goliath of a book that is larger than your head!

No! I'm not cracking.

However, every once in a blue moon you find that one book that sounds so compelling, so extraordinary that you don't care what the cover looks like, let alone the 10 billion pages that it is composed of. In fact, you crave more and don't understand how that 10 billion could be insufficient. 

I've had a few of these in my reading life span and they are golden. Recently, I stumbled on another, The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. I had seen it around before but didn't know what it was about until I wrote a post talking about how I wished to read books set in other places, preferably Russia. Low and behold, an amazing commentator recommended this one and I was done for. Thank you!

I like to think of myself as a moderate paced reader, but a dedicated reader. I'm not too fast, I tend to slow down when I'm really into a book, and that helps me absorb all the details. This also decreases the chances of me forgetting the story. I will forget my favourite biology unit the day after the test but my favourite book, I remember everything. Well maybe not everything, but you know what I mean!

I finished this one in a week. Screw homework, who needs sleep and food? What's that? The characters are starving; do you have no humanity?! I don't know if I'll ever be able to review The Bronze Horseman, even though I've officially plowed through the second book, which took me 2 days and I'm now slowly making my way through the final book, The Summer Gardens as I don't want it to end.

The Bronze Horseman, is not a young adult novel, but it in no way alienates young adults from reading it. The protagonist, Tatiana Metanova is 17 when the book starts but she grows as the series continues and so does the reader. Her pains, sufferings, love and friendship will make you laugh, cry and cheer for joy.

This book has aged me, it has made me dauntless. I no longer fear the size of a book. I remember being like this before, when I first jacked up the courage to read Harry Potter in the 6th grade; I never noticed the length. Same goes to the Gemma Doyle Trilogy back in the 9th grade. Now I'm in grade 12, on the verge of a new stage in my life and I'm happy to say that I have reached another milestone in my reading adventures.

Thank you, Paullina Simons and thank you books of gargantuan capacity for excellence. You are awesome.

-Mari