Scan barcode
ravensandlace's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com
I might have to stop reading Russian fairy tale retellings because so far, I have not been a fan of the ones I have read. I didn’t care much for the Bear and the Nightingale. And I did not like Vassa in the Night at all. It was a chore to read and I just did not like it at all.
During the course of the book, I was bored and confused. I didn’t understand how Baba Yaga could get away with literally murdering people and hanging their heads in the street? This book took place in modern day New York. Even though there was magic involved, I find it hard to believe that no one did anything about this. If you are going to have a magic system in your book, you have to make sure it makes sense, otherwise the reader is just going to be upset.
While I didn’t care for Vassa, my biggest character complaint lies with Erg. Erg is a magical doll that Vassa takes care of as it was given to her by her mom. Erg was awful! I couldn’t STAND her. She treated Vassa poorly and guilt tripped her all the time. She had no concern that her actions were hurting Vassa and putting Vassa in situations that she couldn’t talk her way out of. Now, I don’t know if Erg is part of the original fairy tale but if she wasn’t, I don’t think she needed to be in this book. She did nothing but upset me.
I think my problem with the book wasn’t realistic enough. It had a magical system like I mentioned above but it wasn’t blended in well enough. It felt like the magical system was battling to fit into the real world. It just wasn’t well done at all. There were characters in the book that I assume were from the original fairy tale but they didn’t make sense to the world. The whole thing was just a big plot of confusion.
Overall, I didn’t like this book as you could all probably tell. Maybe I would have liked it if I had read the actual fairy tale? I’ll never know. All I do know is that I need to stay away from Russian fairy tale retellings for a while because so far they have not been a hit with me at all.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Violence
More...