ALA Booklist (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Chernyavasky women have a sort of a gift: during their teenage years, each of them has a premonition of her own death. Ruby's foretold death a car on the way to her eighteenth-birthday party surprisingly gives her a rather fatalistic attitude. But when her formidable great aunt Polina dies and Ruby learns she somehow lived much longer than her foreseen demise, she carries a glimmer of hope. With her cousin Cece, Ruby noses around in the family history, searching through books of Russian folktales and prodding her relatives for information, and none are more helpful (perhaps suspiciously so) than her recently returned, long-absent mother. In Ruby's distinctive narrative, Podos explores how family histories get twisted over time and how ancestral trauma, particularly among immigrant families, resonates among younger generations in surprising ways. Though it gets off to a somewhat sluggish start, this story ostensibly about magic, witches, and family rivalries packs unexpected depth, which is only enhanced by a compelling cast of nicely multifaceted characters and two refreshingly matter-of-fact queer romances.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Upon adolescence, the women in Ruby Chernyavsky's matrilineal Russian American family have the power to see their own deaths. One of Ruby's older sisters gave her "the talk" when she was eleven, their mother having left when the girls were younger. Now Ruby is nearly seventeen, and Mom is back--but can she be trusted? A sense of menace runs throughout Podos's eerie, folklore-inflected tale, and her characters are well drawn.

Kirkus Reviews

Sixteen-year-old Ruby Chernyavsky must decide whether to use her ancestors' magical past to lengthen her uncertain future.Ruby is proud to come from a long line of magical women. But as far as she can tell, the only power her family has left is the ability to see their Time: a flash of what they will be doing just before they die. Since age 13, Ruby has known that her life will be short, which, coupled with her mother's disappearance, plunged her into depression. Then Ruby's Great-Aunt Polina passes away long after her Time predicted, offering hope that her family's powers may allow her to extend her life. Ruby is determined to do whatever her great-aunt did—until she realizes that lengthening her own life comes at a price. Podos (Like Water, 2017, etc.) uses the simple premise of foreseeing one's own death to weave a fast-paced, nuanced study of good and evil. The book's main characters are white, two protagonists are queer, and one is trans. Ruby's character development is fascinating, although certain aspects of her personality—such as her obsession with science and her tendency to drink heavily—flicker in and out rather than driving the plot. Although the ending provides a satisfying conclusion to Ruby's story, it also leaves many strands unresolved which readers will anticipate exploring in the sequel.A page-turning mixture of magic, suspense, and queer romance that keeps readers enthralled. (Speculative fiction. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Like all the women in the Chernyavsky family, 16-year-old Ruby knows when she-ll die, and she knows her death date is immovable. Descended from a long line of female -healers, seers of fate, and sources of great wisdom- who were -hunted for their abilities,- Ruby-s ancestors fled Russia. In America two generations later, Ruby-s sisters use their remaining gifts to help -desperate- women under their great-aunt Polina-s guidance. Before Ruby can join them, Polina dies-long after the date her vision had predicted. Polina-s longevity spurs Ruby, who is destined to die in just over a year, and her cousin Cece, to cheat death. Fate, they learn, can be altered, but not without significant, potentially devastating sacrifice. A resonant contemporary fantasy rooted in the very real tension of familial legacy, identity (two of the novel-s central characters are queer and another is trans), and choice, this novel by Podos (The Mystery of Hollow Places) leaves much unanswered, and readers will hope for a similarly rich continuation. Ages 14-up. Agent: Lana Popovic, Chalberg & Sussma. (May)