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pnonikki's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexism, Animal death, Violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Infertility
aksmith92's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
The second installment of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy was an absolute delight. While it did veer to the Young Adult side of the spectrum, I still very much enjoyed this book and liked it even a bit more than the first one.
The setup: ~Trying not to spoil anything from the first book ~ Vasilisa, AKA Vasya, is set to travel the world after defeating many challenges in her hometown, the frontier country of Rus', in the last book. Ousted from her community and deemed a witch, she is ready to find solitude in the great outdoors with her beautiful horse, Solovey. That Solitude lasts about a day when she stumbles upon villages that have been burned and their young girls taken. Dressed as a boy, since it is still medieval Russia and the time is not kind to adventurous girls and women, she sets on a quest to find the girls and help the villages outside of Moscow.
During her adventure, she links up with family and soon finds her way to Moscow, where she becomes comfortable in her boyhood. But darker and grimmer things await her. Throw in Morozko, the frost demon straight out of fairy tales, and you also have a sprinkle of a love story without taking too much away from the plot.
What I loved: This was an atmospheric book with beautiful prose. The vocabulary was a bit different, just like in the first one, because Arden did her best to try to stick with the medieval Russia (Rus') theme in a historical context. However, it was pretty poetic yet readable. I had a blast.
Additionally, each character was developed and layered in their own way, especially Vasya and the frost demon. And, I must admit, I couldn't help but love a talking horse (only to Vasya, though). Plus, unlike the first novel, this book had more profound plot points and action scenes, which I thought was a nice touch.
Lastly, there was something quite beautiful about Vasya's development in this book. For context, this book was deeply misogynistic, just like I would imagine medieval anywhere to be. Vasya, as someone who diverts from the typical girl-to-woman tracks, was not regularly rewarded or applauded. Therefore, a lot of this book was saddening and sometimes even uncomfortable to read. Vasya had to deal with choices that focused on being herself or possibly getting herself into real trouble and, worse, getting loved ones in trouble because of her actions. Because of this, I would imagine some people reading this might become frustrated with Vasya and her decision-making, but to me, it was about Vasya trying so hard to be herself in a world that didn't allow it.
Any critique? I gave this book five stars - my first of the year! Therefore, I have minimal criticism. From maybe another reader's perspective, I will say that I'm not sure how much the plot flows from the first to the second one, meaning that the plot didn't seem to be 100% connected other than throwing in fairy tale elements. Some characters were the same, and their stories continued to be connected, but the plot differed slightly from the first book. I loved it anyway because I felt like each book focuses more on one piece of the fairy tale.
I loved this book and cannot wait to read the trilogy's final installment!
The setup: ~Trying not to spoil anything from the first book ~ Vasilisa, AKA Vasya, is set to travel the world after defeating many challenges in her hometown, the frontier country of Rus', in the last book. Ousted from her community and deemed a witch, she is ready to find solitude in the great outdoors with her beautiful horse, Solovey. That Solitude lasts about a day when she stumbles upon villages that have been burned and their young girls taken. Dressed as a boy, since it is still medieval Russia and the time is not kind to adventurous girls and women, she sets on a quest to find the girls and help the villages outside of Moscow.
During her adventure, she links up with family and soon finds her way to Moscow, where she becomes comfortable in her boyhood. But darker and grimmer things await her. Throw in Morozko, the frost demon straight out of fairy tales, and you also have a sprinkle of a love story without taking too much away from the plot.
What I loved: This was an atmospheric book with beautiful prose. The vocabulary was a bit different, just like in the first one, because Arden did her best to try to stick with the medieval Russia (Rus') theme in a historical context. However, it was pretty poetic yet readable. I had a blast.
Additionally, each character was developed and layered in their own way, especially Vasya and the frost demon. And, I must admit, I couldn't help but love a talking horse (only to Vasya, though). Plus, unlike the first novel, this book had more profound plot points and action scenes, which I thought was a nice touch.
Lastly, there was something quite beautiful about Vasya's development in this book. For context, this book was deeply misogynistic, just like I would imagine medieval anywhere to be. Vasya, as someone who diverts from the typical girl-to-woman tracks, was not regularly rewarded or applauded. Therefore, a lot of this book was saddening and sometimes even uncomfortable to read. Vasya had to deal with choices that focused on being herself or possibly getting herself into real trouble and, worse, getting loved ones in trouble because of her actions. Because of this, I would imagine some people reading this might become frustrated with Vasya and her decision-making, but to me, it was about Vasya trying so hard to be herself in a world that didn't allow it.
Any critique? I gave this book five stars - my first of the year! Therefore, I have minimal criticism. From maybe another reader's perspective, I will say that I'm not sure how much the plot flows from the first to the second one, meaning that the plot didn't seem to be 100% connected other than throwing in fairy tale elements. Some characters were the same, and their stories continued to be connected, but the plot differed slightly from the first book. I loved it anyway because I felt like each book focuses more on one piece of the fairy tale.
I loved this book and cannot wait to read the trilogy's final installment!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Child death, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Physical abuse, Grief, Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Animal death
Sexual assault is giving and forced touching.magicsarah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Blood, Violence, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent, Trafficking, and Animal death
nightmarebees's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
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
4.5
only got better after book one. medieval gender politics? old world pagan religion versus imperial christianity? and i’m such a sucker for an immortal slowly reverting to humanity when they catch feelings for a mortal. vasya has made it to my top 15 fave book protagonists and i have no idea what i’m in for on book three.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage and Child death
Minor: Animal death
bethlynch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Child death, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Grief
mmefish's review against another edition
adventurous
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
3.5
Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.
This one... isn't as great as "The Bear And the Nightingale".
I still love Katherine Arden's writing and the way she shapes her characters but this book feels way less... mature? The beginning is fine and the middle section is great (I was anxious the whole time) but the ending felt rushed, unnecessary and trope-ish.
What I mean by unnecessary is, for example, this:
-
-
-
And by tropes I mean: Vasya is special, "plain" (so many time it's mentioned that she's ugly and not a beauty, we get it), everyone falls in love with her; Vasya is good/better at whatever; lack of communication, specifically people starting telling something and just... deciding not to (I hate it so much); the "twist" (
It read a little bit too much like YA.
Also, I'm really sick of
Overall, "The Girl in the Tower" is definitely not terrible but still feels like a letdown after such a strong first book.
_______________
Edit: decided not to finish the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, and Sexism
Moderate: Gore, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Slavery, and Rape
saintyeehaw's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was kind of a slog to get through from the beginning to middle, but once it started picking up toward the end I was hooked into the series once again so I will continue to the final book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and Religious bigotry
maeverose's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
This one is equally as good as the first book to me, maybe even better. I liked it for all the same reasons I liked the first book; atmosphere, setting, writing, realistic characters, the interweaving of the folklore into the story, plus it has one of my favorite tropes (female character has to disguise herself as a man), and Vasya actually leaves her home to explore different towns/cities, including Moscow, and gets to be a badass (albeit pretty naive at times, but what do you expect from someone who's never left her very small town in the middle of nowhere until now?). I really grew to like Sasha in this book, despite him being a bit of an idiot sometimes (like why are you focused on your sister 'sinning' by dressing as a man when she just saved several kids LIVES?) The main antagonist was very predictable, not sure if he was supposed to be or not... but I didn't feel it took away from my enjoyment of the story at all.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Violence
Minor: War
stillbirthpvbobrien's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, Sexual assault, and Child death
Moderate: Kidnapping, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Slavery, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry
kassielovestoread's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
I'm having a hard time putting together a worthy review of this book. Truly, it was a fantastic book and doesn't fall at all under the middle book syndrome. There's just so many things that I loved about the first book that the second takes under its wing and expands it. To name a few...
Vasya, first and forever foremost, is a badass -not to be fucked with- MC. Vasya is uniquely herself in a society that would rather see her confined or dead than allow her to live freely, bound to no man or church. Her journey is not one I'd ever forget and could easily re-read in the future. I also really, really love that her "ugliness" does not faze her. Nor can it be used against her to hurt her. It's a testament that while Vasya may not be conventionally attractive to her society's standards, she nevertheless stays a constant topic of conversation and borderline obsession amongst these people. I love that for her! Stay mad!
The twists and turns this plot took! Towards the ending of the book, the anxiety of everything falling apart was nearly going to eat me alive. Several times I had to take breaks and rant to my best friend about the story, LOL. What makes a book a great read for me is when I am so impacted and invested in the story that it feels like my heart will leap out of my chest if all does not end well.
Finally, I enjoyed the topics of religious hypocrisy and gender norms. I feel like these issues were discussed quite well in The Bear and the Nightingale, but they come to a dramatic apex in The Girl in the Tower. Overall, this book was an extremely entertaining and reflective read. I cannot WAIT to read the final book!
Vasya, first and forever foremost, is a badass -not to be fucked with- MC. Vasya is uniquely herself in a society that would rather see her confined or dead than allow her to live freely, bound to no man or church. Her journey is not one I'd ever forget and could easily re-read in the future. I also really, really love that her "ugliness" does not faze her. Nor can it be used against her to hurt her. It's a testament that while Vasya may not be conventionally attractive to her society's standards, she nevertheless stays a constant topic of conversation and borderline obsession amongst these people. I love that for her! Stay mad!
The twists and turns this plot took! Towards the ending of the book, the anxiety of everything falling apart was nearly going to eat me alive. Several times I had to take breaks and rant to my best friend about the story, LOL. What makes a book a great read for me is when I am so impacted and invested in the story that it feels like my heart will leap out of my chest if all does not end well.
Finally, I enjoyed the topics of religious hypocrisy and gender norms. I feel like these issues were discussed quite well in The Bear and the Nightingale, but they come to a dramatic apex in The Girl in the Tower. Overall, this book was an extremely entertaining and reflective read. I cannot WAIT to read the final book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death