The fourth novel by author Blankman, and a story about an event I have read about in newspapers but never in a book. That makes this book good already, right? The event is the nuclear disaster at the Russian Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in 1986. This real event was the first time a nuclear power plant had suffered such an extreme event, anywhere in the world, and the Russian government covered it up for a period of time. This cover up only made the effects of nuclear material floating in the air worse for the real people who lived near the plant, people like the two main characters of this story.
Oksana and Valentina attended school together but were not friends. Valentina is Jewish, and Oksana has been raised to think all Jews are cheaters, liars and thieves. The explosion of the power plant affects their immediate families, and they end up together, being sent out of their town, to a faraway place where the adults hope the nuclear toxins will not reach them. It becomes a story of survival, family, prejudice and friendship, and of trying to outrun and outwit a very real threat to all of us, then and now.
The Blackbird Girls is written with a bit of coldness to it, much like the part of the world where the story takes place. I couldn't decide if this was on purpose, or because the author was new at this writing business and wasn't sure how else to make the story warmer (I since discovered that she has written three other books). But the basis of the story, the real event of the Chernobyl disaster, written into a historical fiction book, made it worth finishing. Normally I would give the writing and story 3 paws - decent but not great. The added element of taking on this topic where no one else has before (to my knowledge), gives it another paw. 4 paws. An important story to read and know.
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