Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

80 reviews

galactic_gigi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

I picked this book up not knowing what I was getting into. And I couldn’t stop. I was glad that I had nothing else to do today, because I kept reading until I finished the book. The new year is just hours away and the cold air outside set the mood perfectly.
Normally I don‘t really read slow-paced books, but this one is special. It‘s like being transported into a cold winter night to the hearth of a home and listening to nearly forgotten tales. 
I don‘t know how to describe this feeling but it was whimsical and nostalgic all the while keeping me entranced to this glorious piece of storytelling. I‘m completely speechless. I wasn’t expecting much and now I‘m left overwhelmed with the urgent need to get my hands on the next book. 
It’s nearly 3 a.m. and I should probably go to sleep but I can still see the snow falling silently in a long winter’s night. Have you ever watched Narnia as a kid? I’m inbetween the trees and the coats and haven’t yet fully recovered my sense of reality. 

So in case you are like me and can’t wait to be transported into a different universe, you should definitely go and read this book! 
(While I‘m going to sleep)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape, Body shaming, and Child death

savanapavlak's review against another edition

adventurous

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

bookishbeaver's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

katreadswaytoomuch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

I will preface this by saying I don’t know a lot about Russian myths or fairytales.

At first glance, I assumed this was a cross between Cinderella and Beauty & the Beast. It’s so much more than that though. There’s definitely elements of both, but it doesn’t follow a predictable plot. 

I listened to this on audio. First, great choice in narrator. Kathleen Gati really puts the reader in the story. Second, it felt like an oral tradition — a story being told on a cold winter night in front of the fire just waiting for spring to come. Just beautiful

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

soaphest's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Amazing, brilliant & gorgeous. Just everything about this book is perfect, from the gorgeous cover art to the incredibly immersive storytelling. I’ve never been happier to learn that this is the first part of a trilogy so that I still have two more books to enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

The misogyny, rape and adult/minor relationship cw warnings are very period-typical as it (sadly) was the norm for that time. It’s the whole *hand wavy gesture* women being treated as objects with little to no agency over their lives and futures & teens being arranged to marry men twice their age thing. Also I wasn’t sure whether to tag for psychosis as Anna wasn’t really delusional, but her attacks were pretty intense (as were how she was treated by those around her) so that’s why I still chose to.

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

A girl finds that she can see creatures out of forgotten folklore. This, she keeps secret so that nobody accuses her of acts against their new religion and god. Later, a combination of forgetting the old myths and one man’s need to feel exalted above all others leads to deadly trouble that only she is positioned to deal with . 

I love books like this, that use existing mythology and folklore. This book uses Russian folklore to create a magical setting filled with helpful spirits that tend the home or stable, or steward the forest, all only visible to certain lucky people. There's a lot of religious scapegoatting in this book, and overall the book didn't capture my attention as well as I thought it would, but I enjoyed it well enough. I gave it a 4 star review, but ultimately felt so-so about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.5

Once I got used to the narrative voice of this book, I really enjoyed listening to this one on audio. It was definitely an immersive experience, with some moments near the end getting pretty creepy, TBH. While I did like this book a lot, I didn't love it on the level of, say, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, which I was sort of expecting to based on reviews I'd heard. I think I'll pick up the next book in physical copy, just to see if perhaps this is something that needs to be enjoyed more quickly than the realities of my life allow for with audiobook listening. But overall, Katherine Arden has created a gorgeous world, with both loveable and love-to-hateable characters. The plot is very much fairy tale-esque, so if a more whimsical narrative isn't your style, I would say to steer clear of this one. I'm excited to see where we go with (hopefully) Vasya in the next installment!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, and Violence

chloemakesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was delightful, magical and mysterious. Can't wait to read the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Child death

ehmannky's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

Beautiful. At first I was a little put off by how much worldbuilding and story telling goes into the book before we start to focus on Vasya, but it's so worth it. It's just a beautiful rendition of Russian folklore done in beautiful prose with a beautiful story and beautiful characters. The ending felt a bit contrived, but that didn't particularly bother me considering how much this book leans so heavily on fantasy tropes.

I liked that Arden encouraged readers to empathize with antagonistic characters like Konstantin and Anna (I still hated them, but I liked that she made the attempt to show that the typical "wicked" characters in the tale weren't villains at heart, just people with twisted intentions). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Death, Sexism, Misogyny, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood and Child death

Minor: Vomit and Sexual assault

scatteredyarns'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Religious bigotry