Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

"He didn't seem to notice that the whole house smelled like Yves Saint Laurent Opium and a strange old woman, a remarkable combination of impending death and luxury."

The blurb for The Dog Park pulled me in immediately. Olenka is a Ukrainian woman living in Helsinki, Finland in 2016. The Olenka of the year 2006 - the one who wore fur coats, lived in a posh apartment, and was on the top of her game in the fertility industry - likely wouldn't recognize the Olenka of 2016 who has taken a tumble from grace and is living her life as a cleaning lady. But no matter - Olenka feels safely hidden from her past life (and past problems) living under an alias in a foreign country. Or at least she did until a blast from her past finds her in a dog park, plops down next to her on a bench, and threatens to expose her. But... expose her for what? What exactly happened a decade ago that would promote Olenka to walk away from everything she knew and loved for this drab life?

When I first started reading this tale I had a hard time grasping why it has less than a four star average on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, especially given that most of those reviews and ratings are based on the original Finnish version. But as I kept plodding along, I started to understand why all of the reviews weren't exactly glowing. Although the premise and the introduction of the novel are fascinating and well done, the overall execution leaves something to be desired. While the jumps in the story between Ukraine in 2006 and Helsinki in 2016 initially were crisp and clear cut, as the novel wore on they became more muddled and messy. Oksanen throws in snippets from Olenka's childhood, detailed descriptions of political drama in Ukraine, and more side characters than were necessary (and more than my wee brain could easily keep track of). Additionally, the character development was nonexistent. I'm perfectly fine with minimal character development if the story itself is well done (lookin' at you, Stephen King) because the focus of that type of book is on the plot itself. But the plot in The Dog Park is too weak to make up for the lack of interesting characters.

When I first cracked open this book I was dying to find out what Olenka's whole story was. But the closer I got to the conclusion, the less I cared. The fact that the ending was rather lackluster fell right in line with my expectations for it, unfortunately.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.