This was an entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
The characters were all realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

Vera, or faith is another social commentary from sheteyngart on the heels of our country friends. Told through the perspective of Vera, a wildly intelligent (implied to be on the autism spectrum) 10-year old adopted into a family representing a cross-section of modern America. Vera’s adoptive parents are on the brink of divorce leading Vera on a search to find her birth mother and her place in this country at a tumultuous time in history where being different is a crime.
Vera is a unique voice for sheteyngart to invoke in his commentary of America. She is memorable if not somewhat too much of a sketch and stereotype. Her observations are humorous but her journey is heartbreaking.
I admit there was something that didn’t work about this for me-I am not sure what. This checks many of my boxes-biting social commentary, well-.written, engaging protagonist. I lost interest about 1/3 through and couldn’t get back into it. This is a me issue perhaps and I would encourage other lovers of Shteyngarts to check this out as this will be worth while to many of his readers!

Thanks to the publisher for this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This is a quirky commentary on the direction our country is rapidly heading in which makes insightful points, yet ultimately is not for me.

Vera is a highly intelligent 10 year old child (heavily implied to be on the autism spectrum) who is the daughter of a leftist failed magazine editor who immigrated to the US from Russia and his WASP wife (her stepmother). Vera’s biological mother is a Korean-American woman who was never part of her life and her only sibling is the goofy and significantly less intelligent than her child of her dad and stepmom. The primary companion of Vera is a chess robot AI type toy that she has deep conversations with along with actually playing chess.

Despite being ten, Vera primarily belongs to the world of adults as she has difficulty connecting with her peers. Much of the book involves her struggling to make sense of not only her role in her blended family, but making sense of her father’s rapidly declining career and an openly white supremacist country that is taking away the rights of people such as her who do not have 100% European ancestry.

Much of what made this book a little too much was the vast overuse of quotation marks around what felt like every other word as Vera notes exactly what the adults are talking about (in fact she keeps a notebook of things to look up). While it is critical to engage with how children interpret traumatic political situations, this just came across as too cutesy.

The way the book concludes stems from a completely misinterpretation Vera has of an adult conversation. I enjoyed the ending as it drove the point home that no matter how mature one may seem or how in tune they are with what’s going on with adults, ultimately a ten year old is just a ten year old and should not feel responsible for what is happening in their family or in the world.

Another aspect the book did very well was the evolution of the relationship between Vera and her stepmom which also reflects Vera’s greater understanding of her family. Vera’s growth in how she related to her classmates was also written very well and was compelling.

While this book was not for me, it’s well written overall and I can understand the appeal of exploring these heavy topics through the eyes of a child.

Many thanks to Random House and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion

Vera is our ten-year-old (eleven in eight months!) narrator. Try not to fall in love with this socially awkward girl, correcting the teacher in math class and just yearning for a friend. She's being raised by her Russian/Jewish father and her stepmother "Anne Mom", along with a younger brother. Vera (or "faith", in Russian) is just trying to figure out life, hold her family together, and maybe meet her Korean "Mom Mom" one day.

The characters are genuinely quirky in this vaguely dystopian future, where women are given pregnancy tests when crossing state borders (!!!), self-driving cars take the kids to school, and an AI chessboard chats up its opponent. The tech stuff is prevalent, but what stands out most is the charming and delightful Vera, keeper of the "Things I Still Need to Know Diary". She's bright and observant, struggling with identity and belonging, and just can't help herself sometimes from holding her thoughts in, which often gets her in trouble.

"Daddy's parents had "done a number" on Daddy. Okay, Vera thought, but which number? A prime one? An imaginary one? Maybe a transcendental number like pi, given Daddy's complexity?"

This novel captured my heart. Bravo Gary Shteyngart!

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 7/8/2025)

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

Gary Steyngart’s evocative new novel is told through the voice of Vera Bradshaw-Schmulkin, a very precocious, anxious, and vulnerable 10-year-old Korean-American, living in an increasingly racist and misogynistic America. (Though perhaps what seemed dystopian when the book was created is too close to reality now.)

Vera’s mother was Korean, her father a Russian-Jewish child immigrant. Though her parents were together when she was born, her mother quickly abandoned her, and Vera has grown up with her father and his wife. Anne Bradshaw is the descendent of early Americans, and Vera’s younger half-brother Dylan is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed version of the “exceptional Americans,” the type increasingly valued in their world.

Vera’s story includes several quests: to find her missing birth-mother; to learn how to relate to children her age and find a friend; to keep her father and step-mother together; and to cope with the truth about the father she adores.

Vera spends most of her time trying to understand not just new, difficult words, but the emotions swirling around her. I found it distressing to have the weight of this world carried on her tender shoulders. The book’s climax, with violence and ugly treatment of elderly grandparents, may have been intended as satirical, but I found it sickening.

The frequent use of quotation marks around words (that she notes to explore?) also act as visual “tics,” (Vera has several physical ones), interrupting the story’s flow.

I am not sure where “Faith” (the meaning of Vera’s name) is supposed to come in. This is a sad and rather snarky book, the first I’ve read of Steyngart’s, and probably the last.

Vera, or Faith is a quietly powerful novel written from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl who is observing both her family and her country on the brink of collapse. Set in near-future Brooklyn, this is a story about unrest: a family struggling under the weight of their circumstances, a politically-divided society in upheaval. And at the center of this maelstrom is Vera, an exceptionally bright, emotionally intuitive fifth grader who keeps a diary of all the words and concepts she doesn’t know, grapples with her Jewish-Korean heritage and WASP upbringing, and longs for a best friend other than her AI chessboard, Kaspie.

This is a tough book, dealing with a variety of difficult topics: social and racial tension, alcoholism, marital issues, a fraught political climate. But Vera is the shining light even in the darkest parts of the plot. Vera is immediately endearing and incredibly sweet, and she observes the world in such a wonderfully innocent way. She feels the anxiety in the adults around her, but she doesn’t fully understand it; she has all of these big feelings and thoughts that she can almost, but not quite, articulate. Through Vera, Gary Shteyngart transports his adult readers into the mind of a child – an emotionally complex, perceptive place that reminds us how much children observe and absorb from the adults in their lives.

Vera means “faith” in Russian, and faith is something Vera has a lot of. She has faith in her family, in her classmates and teachers, and in herself. It’s heartbreaking to watch as her faith is tested over and over again, in ways she doesn’t even fully understand. But there’s an element of hope, too, because we readers also have faith in Vera. We’re left with a sense that, even if she has to grow up too fast and face hard things that no child should, our plucky little heroine is going to be just fine. I will never forget Vera, and I’ll be thinking about the world of this book for a long time. Thank you to Random House for the early reading opportunity.

I’ve read and enjoyed other books by this author, and this one does not disappoint. I really like stories told from a child’s perspective, because it reminds me that kids know and are aware of a lot more that adults give them credit for. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shteyngart once again captures the zeitgeist through Vera Bradford-Shumlkin, a very bright Korean American fifth grader (who is “going to be a woman in STEM”) and who suffers from intense anxiety. Poor Vera is wracked with concern that her family is falling apart so she creates lists enumerating the “Ten Great Things About Daddy and Why You Should Stay Together with Him” and the “Ten Great Things About Mom and Why You Should Stay with Her” (although Vera could only think of six great things about her WASP stepmother Anne Mom). Becoming homeless worries Vera when Daddy, an intellectual Russian Jew, is unable to offload his faltering magazine to the Rhodesian Billionaire, as does the grimy fire extinguisher on the third floor of her school which might not be able to combat “an inferno that threatens the lives of us kids.”

The “social component” of school makes Vera anxious, and she has only two friends, Aunt Cecile (who is not really a relative but, rather, Anne Mom’s best friend) and Kaspie, the AI Chess Computer with whom she shares a room. Then she teams up with Yumi to debate the merits of Five-Three, a pending constitutional amendment that would give an “enhanced vote” to Americans “who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains” (ironically, the half Korean Vera and the Japanese Yumi would both be excluded from the “enhanced vote” scheme). Vera is delighted to find that she and Yumi were not just debate partners, but friends, “someone she could one day meet for sangria and pan con tomato and razor clams.”

But, Vera is worried that Mom Mom, Daddy’s former girlfriend who had abandoned Vera and Daddy before Daddy met and married Anne Mom, has cancer, “the impossible horrible thing that dropped adults dead with just a touch of its finger.” With the help of Yumi, Yumi’s boyfriend, Stephen, one of the Moncler Twins (Anne Mom has named them thus because of the pricey winter jackets they wore), Kaspie and the family’s self-driving car, Stella, Vera hatches a plan to travel to Ohio and to “find out the truth about Mom Mom.”

With Shteyngart, the reader knows that the novel will be blistering funny, but the humor is in the service of telling an important story — in this case, about our broken and divisive country. Vera needs to have a passport or birth certificate available to pass the Cycle Through station at the Ohio border where she must provide a blood sample and attest that she is not the victim of sex trafficking. Cars with women and girls have to wait for inspection, but there is a “male-only lane that zipped past them.” Shteyngart tackles important themes, such as identity and what it means to belong in an increasingly divided country, with his signature dark humor. Thank you Jaylen Lopez, Assistant Director of Marketing, Random House & Hogarth Books and Net Galley for an advance copy of this endearing tale of survival in this fractured America told with humor and heart through the distinctive voice of Vera.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me an ARC of Vera or Faith by Gary Shteyngart. In exchange for the early review copy, I offer my honest opinion.

I adored 10 year old Vera. I found her quirkiness delightful and her musings thoughtful and astute. However, I did not enjoy the political aspect of the novel nor did I enjoy the insufferable tone and nature of the adult characters, especially Vera’s dad ( who strongly resembles the author). This is the third book I’ve read by author Gary Shteyngart and I find I’m clearly the wrong reader. Please seek others reviews , as mine tends to be the outlier.

Narrated entirely from the perspective of 10-year-old Vera, this novel offers a refreshing yet emotionally complex reading experience. Vera is exceptionally bright, both intellectually and emotionally aware, and her observations often transcend her age. While she navigates topics far beyond what most children should face, her narration remains authentic, blending youthful curiosity with startling insight. Her anxiety, meticulous tendencies, and ambitious dreams of a future in STEM are portrayed with care, making her a deeply endearing and unforgettable protagonist.

What makes this story so compelling is how it captures the often-overlooked emotional depth of childhood. Through Vera's voice, we witness the slow unraveling of her family, and we are reminded just how much children absorb—both the spoken and the unspoken. There are moments when you want to comfort her, and others when you wish she could simply enjoy being a child. The result is a nostalgic, heartfelt, and quietly powerful novel that lingers long after the final page; I would highly recommend it for readers who appreciate character-driven stories with emotional depth and perspective.

<u><b>Vera, or Faith</b></u>
Gary Shteyngart
Publication Date: July 8, 2025

ARC courtesy of Random House and NetGalley.

With his witty cynicism, Gary Shteyngart’s <i>Vera, or Faith</i> is a fictionalized social commentary, told through the eyes of a ten year old, of the growing fractionation of American society, of American exceptionalism, and tiers of exceptionalism within American societal strata. It is difficult to read because it is as enjoyable as a bucket of ice cold water thrown in your face.

This is my first venture into Gary Shteyngart's work and now I have some books to add to my TBR.

This book was actually suggested to me by an arc reader. I wasn't prepared for how unsettled I would be by Vera's near future world. The path from our world to Vera's is disturbingly easy to follow.

It's been a very long time since I have been a way too grown up 10 year old but I feel like Gary did a very effective job. I wouldn't suggest reading this if you've been recently struggling with anxious, spiraling thoughts and catastrophizing as the reader is brought along in Vera's. The thought spirals and anxiety felt very familiar as a former parentified child.

I think a child as an unreliable narrator is a great choice. We're so enmeshed into her world view, fears, and what she thinks is going on that it's hard to be sure of what is her perception and what is how reality actually is.

This book is one that I easily see myself rereading.

*Thanks to NetGalley for an arc copy

Ten year old Vera is struggling to see where she fits within her prestigious school, a family, a country, a world that seems to be falling apart. She attempts to decode her world through the lens of her own precocious intellect, and her misunderstandings and assumptions make for shattering social commentary. A satisfying read -- and unexpectedly heartwarming in the end.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for this advance copy!

I struggled with Shteyngart's last book and was weary of going down that road again, but "Vera, or Faith" was such a horse of a different color for me. Shteyngart's style in Vera is funny and easily conveys the seriousness with which children take the words and phrases they hear from adults and move them around in their head, trying to understand them out of context and experience. Vera, as a character, is just trying her best to understand her family and herself, without all the history or information she needs to fully understand her parents or the outside forces pressing on them. Adults writing the interior workings of a child's mind is difficult and I don't know completely if Shteyngart pulls it off, but he certainly gives us something to chew on and Vera is a character that sits with you after you put the book down. I found the ending a bit abrupt, but appreciated how the main story is wrapped up while being true to Vera. Vera's interpretations of her parents words and actions are funny and poignant and this book is worth picking up.

Vera is a character that many oldest girl child women will immediately adore. This is not the book to read if you are looking for an escape from the times we live in but it is charming nonetheless.

For the most part, I had a lot of fun reading "Vera, or Faith" by Gary Shteyngart--the voice of Vera, a preternaturally mature 10-year-old who keeps a "Things I Still Need to Know Diary," is fresh and funny, and Shteyngart's depiction of life in a certain type of New York City household (well-off, educated and progressive media-world parents struggling to keep their lifestyle financially afloat) is spot on and subversively witty. As has been the case in other Shteyngart books I've read, however, the plot takes some strange turns, and the breezy satirical tone from the beginning of the novel breaks down as the story progresses, which is probably a conscious choice mirroring the disintegration of Vera's sense of safety within her family but was disappointing and jarring to me nonetheless. Vera remains a winning presence throughout, however, and it's worth reading "Vera, or Faith" for her voice alone.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Random House for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

This is a much softer satire than we usually see from Shteyngart, He uses Vera, a 10 year old girl with so so many issues, t0 highlight the problems we all face, even if hers are particular to her. He tackles identity, otherness, divorce, politics, and AI (good grief not AI!) in a story than never loses its center or its heart. That's down to Vera, who is well drawn and sympathetic for both her struggles and her hopes. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I liked this more than I thought I would. It's a very good read.

In general, I wish that writers would write children as children and stop falling back on the "precocious child" character that's actually an adult character with less free agency. It makes me think that those writers don't know how to create actual child characters.

Shteyngart is such a good satirist, though, that I'll let him use Vera to mock urban liberal elite vanity while alluding to the darker trajectory of the U.S.'s current political landscape. The immigrant grandparents (both the Russian set and Vera's estranged Korean set) are characterized brilliantly- the similarity of their circumstances with culturally-specific baggage.

AI also plays an entertaining role in moving the plot along. I particularly loved Vera's Korean-made AI chessboard. In addition to teaching Vera chess, it teaches her Korean values and helps her look for her birth mother. It also inspired me to play more chess!

Can a book be both lighthearted and serious? This book hit both of those notes for me. Clearly the topics considered were serious ones - a near future in which a family is struggling to keep itself together. The novel takes on issues of geopolitics and ethnicity, all in a world that is not quite where we are now but it bracingly familiar. However, the story is told from the viewpoint of Vera, a sensitive and observant girl who is just trying to figure things out and fit into her world in the best way possible. I will admit to being a little irritated by all the vocabulary in quotation marks, but I understood the reason for it and I eventually adapted.

Vera, or Faith, really got under my skin. It’s dark and unsettling, but told through the voice of a ten-year-old girl who is just trying to understand the world around her. Vera is neurodivergent, intelligent, and deeply emotional. She’s anxious about her parents splitting up, missing a birth mom she barely knew, and trying to make sense of a country that feels like it's sliding backward.

A lot is going on: AI, a self-driving car, a scary political amendment that hits way too close to home, but it all feels grounded because we’re seeing it through Vera’s eyes. Her diary, where she writes down adult words and phrases she hears, made me laugh and ache at the same time. She wants to be loved, and you really feel that. It’s sad and smart and full of feeling, and even though it goes to some very dark places, I couldn’t stop reading.