MOTHER DOLL by Katya Apekina

I’m not sure if this book has zero plot or two plots.  If it’s two plots, neither is to my liking.  One involves Zhenia, a young rudderless woman, and the other involves her great-grandmother, Irina, who is deceased.  Irina tells her story to Zhenia via a medium, and no one seems to question how ludicrous this is.  Also, the author does not clearly delineate the two stories, except that Zhenia’s is third-person and Irina’s is first-person.  I had to remind myself constantly that the “I” was Irina.  Basically, Irina is trying to atone for leaving her daughter Vera, Zhenia’s beloved grandmother, in a Russian orphanage.  Neither Zhenia’s nor Irina’s story, nor Vera’s for that matter, held my interest.  By far the most unusual story is that of Paul, the medium, but he doesn’t get nearly as much coverage as the women.  Zhenia’s mother Marina, a biologist, seems the most grounded, but she gets short shrift as well, and human interaction is not her strong suit.  I think Irina’s history as a Russian revolutionary definitely has the potential to keep the reader engaged, but it just fell flat for me, and her betrayal of a beloved teacher left me scratching my head.  Rasputin’s cameo grabbed my attention during his brief appearance in the novel, but it wasn’t nearly enough to salvage it for me, and I would have appreciated a little more background regarding this period in Russian history.