Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

80 reviews

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Comfort reread of one of my favorites series.

Kathleen Gati does a beautiful job as narrator, capturing the characters, the dialects, the world of medieval Rus. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Sexual assault, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Self harm

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Rape

fatherprozac's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I came into this book expecting a first person narrative focused on the female lead (similar to Uprooted) so it took me some time to get adjusted to the ever shifting perspectives. There were many times when I found myself waiting for the story to actually get going, which made chapters like Pyotr and his sons' visit to Moscow especially sluggish for me. Overall though, once the story got going I was all in. I loved Vasya's relationships with the different creatures, the characterization of Morozko, and the sheer evil/selfishness of the antagonists . I am definitely going to continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, and Vomit

maeverose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A note: If you dnfed just because it’s slow, pls don’t give up! The second and third books are much more fast paced and plot driven. It makes me sad that so many people give up on this series because the first book is slow. It gets better!! But if you disliked it for other reasons then you can ignore this I guess.

Themes/Tropes:

-russian folklore

-snow/winter

-nature/house spirits

-clashing of christianity and paganism

-small medieval town in the middle nowhere
-realistic, morally grey characters 

-witches

-talking horses with individual personalities (not in a cheesy way I promise)

-vampires (but they're very zombie-like)

-god of death

This book is atmospheric, fairy tale-esque and dark. I loved how the Russian folklore was incorporated into the story, and reading the author's notes in the back of each book, I felt that both the folklore and history were very well researched, which I always appreciate in historical fiction/fantasy. I loved the house and nature spirits, they reminded me of studio ghibli characters a little bit, maybe that's just me. If you like assassin's creed valhalla, this series reminded me a little of that. Especially the later books. The story is different, and it's probably not quite as gruesome but the time period, setting and some of the themes are similar. I loved how believable the characters felt. I really value realistic characters in stories, and this book definitely has that. They're also all morally grey.

I will say that despite this being written as an adult novel and having some darker themes, it does read a little YA to me. Thankfully it doesn’t have the super annoying irrational/stupid characters thing that I hate in YA, but it does still have a little bit if a YA fantasy feel to it. Maybe just because the heroine is 17? (and even younger in the first book)

As I said at the top, this first book is a bit slow. It’s really just introducing you to the characters and setting things up for the next books. But I loved the atmosphere and characters so I didn’t mind it at all.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, Rape, Gore, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Animal death, Death, Child death, and Child abuse

The gore is only really in one scene, but it is somewhat graphic in that scene. It’s brief enough to kinda skim it. Also, this book does have the ‘17 year old girl ends up with an immortal man’ trope, if that’s something that bothers you.

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Beautifully crafted and wonderfully atmospheric. I adored this book. Building on fairy tale and folk stories, The Bear and the Nightingale draws you into a story that manages to be both whimsical and dark. There is a nostalgia in the way that Arden captures the feelings of hardship, community and superstition of living in a remote village in Old Russia. It dares the reader to believe in magic and spirits, and feels incredibly real in it's gloriously slow burn building of tension and drama. It has a romance and a wildness that made it impossible to put down. Bold characters and the exquisitely written landscape truly bring the book to life. I had to sit and simply hold it for a while once I was finished reading. It is magnificent.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child death and Sexual assault

btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

Corporal punishment

sauvageloup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

a brilliant book that i got through slowly, but through no fault of its own, i think

pros:
- stunning, lyrical, fairytale writing. simple style but really lovely in originality of description and poignant turns of phrase. the story is carried along beautifully, smoothing over time skips.
- the character development was also so good, with Konstantin descending into worse evils, Anna's rise and fall, Vasya growing into her strength while still being fallible, and my favourite, Morozko, of sleep and death. he was cold but fair, human but other, real and not, and i just loved how Arden wrote him.
- i also enjoyed the setting so much, and the historical details too. the afternotes show how much effort Arden put into historical accuracy.

cons:
- maybe a bit slow, which didn't help my lack of reading focus

looking forward to reading book 2, and glad i won't have to leave the characters :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Child death, Religious bigotry, and Body horror

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Blood, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault

warning for eating disorder is really for starvation and struggling to get enough to eat, descriptions of extreme weight loss.

saoreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I didn't know what I was getting through but it gave that serial kind of narrative which reminds me of Game of Thrones and The Witcher due to diverse characters pulling through in scenes that evolve throughout. I got confused for the most part of the terminology and world-building as it's Russian folklore and the fictional characters are unfamiliar to imagine, yet you can get used to it. Death was the common denominator here. Way too many deaths occurred as the flow of the novel isn't at the precipice yet. It seems there's more to see of the heroine as half of the book introduced the genealogy of her family and other characters involved. For some reason, I am looking forward to the next installment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, and Child death

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child abuse, Gore, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Body shaming

bluejayreads's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Very similar to Spinning Silver in concept - a little village in a cold snowy place under threat from terrifying supernatural beings of the snow - with the bonuses of a protagonist who may be a witch (she's not entirely sure) and of one antagonists being the "holy man is horny and upset about it" trope (which is one of my favorite kinds of antagonists). Very atmospheric and an enjoyable reading experience, but not all that memorable. I'm on the fence about reading the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Misogyny, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Gore, Animal death, Death of parent, and Body horror

Minor: Ableism

aguattery's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I'm not really sure what the plot is but the vibes are off the charts good. Dont recommend reading this alone or at night, especially if demons freak you out. 

I'm not really a fantasy type of gal but this was such a nice blend of fantasy and literary fiction that I enjoyed it. Definitely going to read the rest of the series. 

Also if you can get this version of audiobook the narrator really sells the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death, and Violence

Minor: Animal death