The Red Sparrow
TLDR: “Fantasticly addictive”
This is a very, very good novel. I had a flight delay, so I asked AI, “Recommended a spy novel that I can read in three hours.” This was one of the results. I remember the movie (though I haven’t seen it) – I didn’t even know it had been a novel first.
To be clear, you’re not going to read in this in three hours. But you will read it compulsively, because it’s incredibly well-paced and tough to put down. It’s a “hangover” book – one that you can’t quite get out of your head, and your mind lingers in it, long after you’ve finished it.
Dominicka is an aspiring Russian dancer. When her career hopes are destroyed, she directs her rage towards becoming an intelligence agent in the Russian SVR and is eventually sent to become a “sparrow” – a honey-trap; a woman who seduces her target.
In this role, she ends up in Helsinki trying to compromise a CIA agent named Nate. This starts a whole sequence of events that pits the United States against Russia in wild chess game.
What’s interesting about the book is its lack of flashy action. There are a few scenes of violence, but they’re quick, realistic, and not at all cinematic. The core of the book is a strategic game between intelligence agencies. There are moles on both sides, and people are crossed and double-crossed to the point where sometimes you have to stop and concentrate on who knows what and when. There are a lot of scenes – and an entire plot thread – where two people know things about each other, and think the other person is ignorant of it, but they’re basically playing the same game from opposite sides. It’s… delicious.
It reminded me of John Le Carre, but in a good way (I’m not really a fan; see my review of A Legacy of Spies). It was very administrative – lots of talking, thinking, strategizing – but unlike Le Carre, it was never boring.
I loved it. I tore through it in one day. I barely even remember the two flights I read it on.
Book Data
- Author
- Jason Matthews
- Year
- Pages
- 432
- Acquired
- Not recorded
- Open Library
- OL20586451W
- Wikipedia
- Red_Sparrow_(novel)
- I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
- I own (or have license to) an electronic copy of this book.