Like most people, it's so much easier to say what I hate about a book and its characters than to say what I like. This book makes it twice as hard to describe what I like in an appropriate length review. I won't even know where to begin and when to shut up. 
 Oh bless Paullina for creating such a masterpiece with such amazing and intriguing characters. Characters with so much dept and complexity, that I've never seen any character of any story I've ever read. Sweet goodness I can't even describe how I feel after finishing this. Excited is obvious. I can't wait to start book two but how I feel about this book is explicable. The story is so refreshing and unique to me because for one, I've never read about Soviet Union, and two, these freak in characters are not just filling spaces and falling in love with each other. So much more. I feel like I'm going in circles trying to explain. 
 Last attempt then. If I had to compare it to any book I've ever read, I'd day its a cross between Outlander (only because of the way the back stories and the physical setting plays such a big role in the story of the characters and their lives) and I haven't read the Book Thief but I watched the movie and this reminded me if some parts. 
 I tried, no?