Scan barcode
kmcphillips's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
audrey2909's review
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
4.0
megmaffucci's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
lisamchuk's review
5.0
The first time I’ve heard these Slavic folktales, which mesh nicely with the story of a strong magic/witchy heroine - compelling enough that I listened to the audiobook straight through in one day and am looking forward to continuing the series. Also, I’m a sucker for death as a character, so a good use of my day.
bookish_emily's review
5.0
Vasilisa Petrovna is not your typical Russian girl. To the consternation and exasperation of her loving family, she is constantly running off into the woods and speaking of fairy-tale creatures as though they are real. It is all relatively harmless until her father goes to Moscow and brings a new wife back to the harsh wilderness of the north country. Vasya's new stepmother is extremely devout, and forbids the family from acknowledging the traditional household spirits. Things get even worse when a charismatic new priest arrives from the city preaching fire and brimstone for the unfaithful. As life in the unforgiving terrain deteriorates, Vasya must do her best to protect her family and village in the face of increasing hostility and suspicion over her unique abilities. Part fairy tale, part coming of age story, the Bear and the Nightingale features enchanting descriptions and well-developed characters trying to find a balance between old and new traditions.
melgv's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
bookph1le's review
4.0
A lovely, lovely book that I hated finishing because I just kept wanting to read it. More complete review to come.
Full review:
The Bear and the Nightingale is the kind of book that caught me right from the start, and where I kept reading and hoping that it was not going to disappoint in the end. It did not. I don't know much about Russian folklore, so I can't speak to the authenticity of that aspect of the book, but for me it was an extremely atmospheric book. I felt drawn into a new world, one that felt both grounded in reality yet had the escapist appeal of a fairy tale. Some spoilers to follow.
This book covers a great deal of time. It opens before Vasilisa's birth and stretches the length of her childhood and adolescence. That it does this without being a 500-page doorstopper is remarkable. There's nothing wrong with lengthy books if they're done well and not chock full of filler, but I admired the economy of this book. It paints a vivid picture of its setting without needing to go into length explanations, and despite my unfamiliarity with Russian folklore, I didn't have trouble following the story or understanding the characters and creatures that populated it.
However, I think the downside to this is that the book sometimes feels rather episodic. We'll get a brief scene (a few pages), and then the book moves on. I think this aspect may turn off some readers, and though I didn't hate it, it did temper the book for me just a bit. There were times when certain plot points didn't feel as fully-fleshed as I would have liked. And though this book is mainly about Vasilisa, there are times when it follows other characters, and I sometimes would have rather had more about Vasilisa and the main plot than, say, what felt like, to me, diversions into Sasha's character that ultimately led nowhere. I felt like his story was building up somewhere, since he's more present than Olga, who is obviously meant to be a background character, but other than a mention of him near the end of the book, nothing happened with him. I didn't dislike his story, but I thought too much of some of the middle sections of the book were occupied with him when I would have preferred more of Vasilisa.
Like good fairy tales, this one has a touch of the grim about it. I often feel like using the words "fairy tale" to describe a book can have the wrong connotation. We're not talking singing princesses larking around the forest with cute animals, here. This book is more in the tradition of Grimms' tales. At no point did I feel that the book was unnecessarily graphic, but some pretty macabre stuff happens in it, and that contributed a great deal to the book's general atmosphere of dread. However, it wasn't all gloom and doom. There are moments of great beauty, and I admired the balance the book struck.
Vasilisa is an outstanding character, and Arden is very clear about how her female heroine butts painfully against the confines of her world. The book has some feminist strains flowing through it, in that Vasilisa is frustrated by how restrictive her society is, and I don't think you can read this book without empathizing with her plight. She has two choices: get married and disappear into her role as wife and mother, or join a convent and disappear into her role as a nun. Neither appeals to her, for plenty of obvious reasons, and throughout the book I cheered her on, hoping she could find a way to forge her own path.
Never once perfect, Vasilisa makes plenty of mistakes and does stupid and dangerous things, but she is a girl and then a woman who is true to her own heart. She doesn't run about her village, sword blazing, challenging everyone with her defiance, but nor does she allow the opinions of others sway her behavior. She's clever, figuring out how to work within her system, and she works hard to protect people who'd sooner spit in her face than try to understand her. She's bitter about this sometimes, as anyone would be, and yet she continues to do what she knows needs to be done. I admired this about her. She's precisely the kind of complicated female character I wanted to see, and I liked that her strength came from a different source than her being a warrior woman. I'm not opposed to those characters either, but I think that what the conversation of the "strong female character" often misses is that strength comes in many forms. Vasilisa can't do what she needs to do on her own, but she learns how to play her part and how to ask others for help when she needs it.
One of my other favorite things about the book is the relationship between Vasilisa and Alyosha, her brother. Though Alyosha buys in to the mores of the day as far as a woman's place in society goes, he is sympathetic to his sister and supportive of her. They don't see eye-to-eye, but he's there for her when she really needs him. I had a strong sense of the love and concern they had for one another, and I enjoyed watching their interactions play out on the page.
It would be remiss of me not to say anything about the Bear and Morozko, but I didn't think that much about them, despite that they are central to the story. They're like most god-like beings in that they dip into and out of the narrative whenever it suits their purpose. I liked learning about this aspect of Russian folklore, but had this book been nothing more than an epic battle between the two of them, I doubt I would have enjoyed it much. Instead, the god-like beings are secondary to the humans, who with all their flaws and petty prejudices often show moments of real wisdom. As any good tale of this sort should be, this isn't a story about humans being subject to brutal gods, it's about the ways in which humans are their own worst enemy. The god-like beings may attempt to manipulate them, but they'd never find a foothold were in not for human nature. At heart, this book is an exploration of human nature, both its good and bad sides.
Katherine Arden strikes me as a promising author, and I am definitely eager to read more of her work. She did not, however, convince me that I wanted to live anywhere near where Vasilisa did. Her vivid depictions of the cold and struggle of Vasilisa's people made me glad to be warm and safe in my own home, and that's the best mark of all of the power of a book.
Full review:
The Bear and the Nightingale is the kind of book that caught me right from the start, and where I kept reading and hoping that it was not going to disappoint in the end. It did not. I don't know much about Russian folklore, so I can't speak to the authenticity of that aspect of the book, but for me it was an extremely atmospheric book. I felt drawn into a new world, one that felt both grounded in reality yet had the escapist appeal of a fairy tale. Some spoilers to follow.
This book covers a great deal of time. It opens before Vasilisa's birth and stretches the length of her childhood and adolescence. That it does this without being a 500-page doorstopper is remarkable. There's nothing wrong with lengthy books if they're done well and not chock full of filler, but I admired the economy of this book. It paints a vivid picture of its setting without needing to go into length explanations, and despite my unfamiliarity with Russian folklore, I didn't have trouble following the story or understanding the characters and creatures that populated it.
However, I think the downside to this is that the book sometimes feels rather episodic. We'll get a brief scene (a few pages), and then the book moves on. I think this aspect may turn off some readers, and though I didn't hate it, it did temper the book for me just a bit. There were times when certain plot points didn't feel as fully-fleshed as I would have liked. And though this book is mainly about Vasilisa, there are times when it follows other characters, and I sometimes would have rather had more about Vasilisa and the main plot than, say, what felt like, to me, diversions into Sasha's character that ultimately led nowhere. I felt like his story was building up somewhere, since he's more present than Olga, who is obviously meant to be a background character, but other than a mention of him near the end of the book, nothing happened with him. I didn't dislike his story, but I thought too much of some of the middle sections of the book were occupied with him when I would have preferred more of Vasilisa.
Like good fairy tales, this one has a touch of the grim about it. I often feel like using the words "fairy tale" to describe a book can have the wrong connotation. We're not talking singing princesses larking around the forest with cute animals, here. This book is more in the tradition of Grimms' tales. At no point did I feel that the book was unnecessarily graphic, but some pretty macabre stuff happens in it, and that contributed a great deal to the book's general atmosphere of dread. However, it wasn't all gloom and doom. There are moments of great beauty, and I admired the balance the book struck.
Vasilisa is an outstanding character, and Arden is very clear about how her female heroine butts painfully against the confines of her world. The book has some feminist strains flowing through it, in that Vasilisa is frustrated by how restrictive her society is, and I don't think you can read this book without empathizing with her plight. She has two choices: get married and disappear into her role as wife and mother, or join a convent and disappear into her role as a nun. Neither appeals to her, for plenty of obvious reasons, and throughout the book I cheered her on, hoping she could find a way to forge her own path.
Never once perfect, Vasilisa makes plenty of mistakes and does stupid and dangerous things, but she is a girl and then a woman who is true to her own heart. She doesn't run about her village, sword blazing, challenging everyone with her defiance, but nor does she allow the opinions of others sway her behavior. She's clever, figuring out how to work within her system, and she works hard to protect people who'd sooner spit in her face than try to understand her. She's bitter about this sometimes, as anyone would be, and yet she continues to do what she knows needs to be done. I admired this about her. She's precisely the kind of complicated female character I wanted to see, and I liked that her strength came from a different source than her being a warrior woman. I'm not opposed to those characters either, but I think that what the conversation of the "strong female character" often misses is that strength comes in many forms. Vasilisa can't do what she needs to do on her own, but she learns how to play her part and how to ask others for help when she needs it.
One of my other favorite things about the book is the relationship between Vasilisa and Alyosha, her brother. Though Alyosha buys in to the mores of the day as far as a woman's place in society goes, he is sympathetic to his sister and supportive of her. They don't see eye-to-eye, but he's there for her when she really needs him. I had a strong sense of the love and concern they had for one another, and I enjoyed watching their interactions play out on the page.
It would be remiss of me not to say anything about the Bear and Morozko, but I didn't think that much about them, despite that they are central to the story. They're like most god-like beings in that they dip into and out of the narrative whenever it suits their purpose. I liked learning about this aspect of Russian folklore, but had this book been nothing more than an epic battle between the two of them, I doubt I would have enjoyed it much. Instead, the god-like beings are secondary to the humans, who with all their flaws and petty prejudices often show moments of real wisdom. As any good tale of this sort should be, this isn't a story about humans being subject to brutal gods, it's about the ways in which humans are their own worst enemy. The god-like beings may attempt to manipulate them, but they'd never find a foothold were in not for human nature. At heart, this book is an exploration of human nature, both its good and bad sides.
Katherine Arden strikes me as a promising author, and I am definitely eager to read more of her work. She did not, however, convince me that I wanted to live anywhere near where Vasilisa did. Her vivid depictions of the cold and struggle of Vasilisa's people made me glad to be warm and safe in my own home, and that's the best mark of all of the power of a book.
kiwij96's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.25
Bit of a jumpy start with the multiple POVs and time jumps for the first couple of chapters but I'm so glad I stuck with it. Also, the names were confusing at times because everyone had a name, a nickname, and then an affectionate name given to them, and it took me maybe half the book to remember who was who.
The story was enchanting and magical with a big focus traditional gender norms and values in medieval Russia, as well as religious bigotry in traditionally pagan areas. However, these topics were handled really well and were written to evoke emotion in the reader.
The story was enchanting and magical with a big focus traditional gender norms and values in medieval Russia, as well as religious bigotry in traditionally pagan areas. However, these topics were handled really well and were written to evoke emotion in the reader.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pregnancy, Child death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Minor: Self harm
aksimplegirl89's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0