Skaska, the Magnitude of Sadness - Drina Steinberg

When one night in the Sokol mountains goes wrong, one boy's life must be saved. One woman who holds the title of the most cold-blooded and most dangerous special agent gets a new job. A job that she believes will provide her with easy earnings. The last of the three brothers from the knightly line Radj will try to free himself and his offspring from the age-old curse.

In the land where everything flourishes and gives birth, in the mystical region over which the Mrkodol mountains tower, the secret about Radjevo and the curse of their descendants is hidden. Regardless of all the adversities that beset them, the Radjes survived. Will it survive when the song, sung with immeasurable sadness, is heard through Radjevo? Will it survive then "when the pain becomes infinite, when death erases all meaning of life"? Because "Radj listens to the same story, his own story, from the first night when his mother nurses him. He germinates and grows with her. He breathes, lives and learns how to survive with her, just to pass it on to his heir."

Just when I tought that there is nothing more to tell and that it can't be better, Drina disproves me. Skaska (aka Fairy Tale) is, in my opinion, her best novel so far. It is the most mature and the most complete. Drina has totally matured as a writer, there is an incredible improvement compared to previous works. I'm not saying they're bad, far from it, all the birds in the nest know how much I love Drina and how much I appreciate her writing, but this book is something really magical and special.

It would be an understatement to say that Skaska delighted me, maybe even too little. I am irrevocably in love and there is no escape. In her recognizable, but improved, style without a trace of idleness and boredom, Drina tells us a modern fairy tale.

The book begins as a classical thriller. Odra, the best special agent, bodyguard, hired killer, comes to the home of Vuk Nikolai Radj to be a bodyguard for his son Alexei. And here we come to what delighted me in this "fairy tale". The first part of the book is totally different from what we are used to from Drina. There is no fantasy, no romance, and miraculously, no sex ;) As it seemed at the beginning, I could comfortably characterize Skaska as a family story about a mafia boss or a prominent politician. However, Drina would not be Drina if she wouldn't surprise us. Little by little, she throws us hooks. There are some glances between Vuk and Odra, there is a hint of romance. Alexey slowly but surely penetrates Odra's carefully constructed and guarded armor. Some Irians are also mentioned, but at that moment they could be a rival clan or some terrorist organization that wants to harm Radj's political career. There you can see all the potential of the author's imagination and ability to lull us, until she serves us a complete main course and shock after shock.

The Radj family with a complete team of bodyguards is going to a congress in Singapore. There, at the top of a skyscraper, Odra's true nature is revealed and the reason why she accepted the job as Alexei's bodyguard. As she failed in her plan to take revenge, Vuk captures her. Here Drina teleports us to Radjevo, where we learn the complete history of the Radj family, Odra's connection with the Irians, and another miracle, they are neither mobsters nor terrorists, but heavenly beings, inextricably linked with Radjevo, into which they cannot step. The curse that was cast on Radj's and Odra's families and her peacock sisters makes her and Vuk into archenemies, who love each other unimaginably. In her own style, Drina tells us about their love, their internal and mutual struggles to break away from the curse and be saved. Each of them sticks to their own story, the tale of the origin of depravity and primal enmity. Heavenly forces, witches, and even dragons are involved. And all this just to make our heads ache with the desire to find out as soon as possible who is telling the truth and who is lying. Whose version of the fairy tale is correct?

Events in Radjevo are a real roller coaster ride. There is no moment of respite, because on every page there is a new surprise and a new shock waiting for us. And just when I thought that miraculously there would be no sex in Skaska, Drina denied me again (she likes to prove to me how wrong I am ;) ). The very end of the book is reserved for a hot scene that would make even those who write novels like 50 shades... blush and feel ashamed like naive high school girls. There is no place to think that that scene is there just like that, or just to justify the author's reputation from previous books. No, it has its own meaning and is simply necessary in order to find out who Vuk really is and what kind of secrets he is hiding!

Drina, crazy and phenomenal woman, greatest respect for your imagination, knowledge and progress. I swear to all gods and aliens you beated the game! I'm waiting for the second part as a parting gift before swimming across the ocean ;)

To summarize it all, I am delighted, in love, speechless as Skaska is a phenometastic and complete fantasy novel imbued with Old Slavic mythology and folklore, including references to Serbian folk tales.

If you were not at the Belgrade Book Fair or you somehow forgot to buy Skaska, you can order it at the publisher's website Drina Steinberg Publishing

Happy reading!!! <3