ALA Booklist (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

With the Red Army commandeering all the food, the people of the Nazi-besieged Leningrad are barely hanging on. Liza steals food and sells heirlooms on the black market to feed herself, but when her best friend, Aka, suggests "entertaining" the army to get food, Liza wonders if there are other ways. Aka suddenly disappears, and Liza becomes determined to find her, even if it means infiltrating the army's headquarters. During her search, Liza gets entangled with two former classmates: Maksim, who is in the Red Army, and Luka, who lives underground with a suspicious group of people. As food grows more scarce, the people grow desperate. Rumors of cannibalism run rampant, and Liza must hang on to the remnants of morality as she struggles to find Aka and survive the war. Scott's intriguing debut brings to life a horrific time in Russia's history, colored by the gruesome, dark details of the atrocities of war. Throughout, a prevalent theme is reiterated to readers: What happens to morality and humanity when civilization breaks down? A provoking read.

Horn Book (Fri Jan 13 00:00:00 CST 2023)

In the summer of 1942, Leningrad is about to enter its second year under siege with all supply routes in and out of the city blocked by Nazi forces. Liza has learned from her mother to do whatever it takes to survive -- even, now that Mama has died, hiding her death from authorities so as to keep using her precious ration cards. When Liza's best friend, Aka, suggests trading "entertainment" for food from the secret police, Liza knows it's a mistake. Then Aka disappears, and Liza will do anything to find her. Relatively short, fast-paced chapters drive the novel as Liza scrambles to survive and hunts for her friend. In a city rife with desperation, questions of morality exist alongside matters of survival as she confronts the ugly truths of the war and must decide what she is willing to give up, both for information about Aka and for food. With a body already ravaged by starvation, Liza becomes an unreliable narrator as she tries to cut through the fog of hunger and fatigue. Much of this suspenseful story is mired in the daily brutality of the siege as Liza tries to find her own moral compass and cling to hope where she can. An author's note gives historical background and connects Scott's interest in the subject to her childhood in the former USSR. Emma Carbone

Kirkus Reviews

A first-person fictional account of starvation during the siege of Leningrad.Seventeen-year-old Liza buries her mother in secret so that she can still use her ration cards. Not that it matters much: Nearly a year after fascists surrounded the city, there's simply no food to be had-the daily allotment is 125 grams of bread, much of that made of sawdust. Liza's best friend, Aka, tells her about the Mansion, a place where the secret police give girls food in exchange for sexual favors. When Aka goes missing, Liza searches for her and for the Mansion, where she's sure she will find her. Along the way, she encounters two young men she knew before the war- Maksim, a member of the secret police, and Luka, a musician who lives in the tunnels beneath the city that are rumored to be inhabited by bands of cannibals. Liza's an unrepentant thief, desperate to survive, but there are lines she won't cross-or are there? Scott's Vilnius childhood behind the Iron Curtain adds authenticity to this story; the unrelenting misery and stomach-churning denouement make it an emotionally difficult read. The setting is fully depicted, but the characters never quite come to life, especially Luka and Maksim, who seem more or less interchangeable, and Aka's father, who is a cardboard villain.A vivid setting and nail-biting events are let down by characterization that lacks heart. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)

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

Scott’s high-stakes debut, set in summer 1942 during the siege of Leningrad, follows strong-willed 17-year-old Liza, desperate to survive amid food scarcity. Starvation is considered “the deadliest of soldiers” in Leningrad, which has had its supplies cut off by Axis forces, and if Liza wants to continue receiving her recently deceased mother’s ration cards, she must bury her in secret. Hoping to help, Liza’s best friend Aka reveals she’s found a way to secure more food. The NKVD, the Soviet secret police, is purportedly giving bread to girls in exchange for sexual favors; after Aka disappears, Liza, certain she’s somewhere inside the NKVD base, sets off to find her. During her search, she becomes entangled with Maksim, an officer of the secret police, and Luka, a musician and former classmate forced to live in the tunnels underneath the city. While Liza is willing to steal whatever she can to survive, she struggles to navigate her community’s increasingly volatile response to the food shortage, including black market dealings and rumored cannibalism. Scott combines rich historical details, propulsive pacing, and a bleak, realistically wrought landscape to illuminate this dark chapter in history while raising moral questions about the lengths to which people will go to stay alive. Ages 12–up. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Nov.)

School Library Journal (Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Gr 9 Up— It's the summer of 1942 and the citizens of Leningrad are starving to death due to the Nazi siege of the city. In addition to dealing with constant hunger and grieving the loss of her mother, Liza is trying to find her best friend Aka, who has disappeared. In the quest to find her, Liza makes daring decisions, ventures to a dark place where girls are given food in exchange for "entertaining" officers and learns who can truly be trusted. Scott's work is a page turner and won't fail to surprise along the way. Liza and the other characters talk so frequently about food that readers will be able to truly feel their struggles with starvation. Although she is dead, Liza's mother's voice often plays inside Liza's head with words of advice and guidance. Not only are her deceased mother's thoughts italicized but so are Russian words that are sprinkled throughout the text and easily understandable. VERDICT This title would make a great addition to a historical fiction collection and will appeal to readers of Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen.— Elizabeth Gold