Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Arden

17 reviews

latashman's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

Great sequel to the story and answered questions from the first. This book read a lot slower than the first one and I found some of the character choices to be stupid toward the end of the book. looking forward to reading the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Death of parent and Kidnapping

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! 

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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.

olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

Like the first book, this is a great winter read - so easy to fall into the world that's also in the midst of winter, and oddly comforting for the bitterness of winter to be relayed in what you're reading. I'm also rather impressed I didn't feel like I was missing anything having read the other book nearly a year ago. Folks that think "winter fairy tale in medieval Russia with some gender commentary" sounds good will dig it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Child death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical trauma, War, Kidnapping, Slavery, Murder, Gore, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit

vistacanas'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? Yes

3.0

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.”

Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of fantasies or series.

So, why would I read the second book in this series about medieval Russia that is a mix of fantasy and reality?

Because the main character is a witch, of course. And, because I liked the first book (The Bear and the Nightingale) well enough to read the second. 

I don’t know what it was (or wasn’t) about this book…it was yet another one that had all the elements I usually love (history, a strong female lead, good writing), but I just couldn’t get into it. My theory is that Russian history and culture just isn’t my thing. It might also be that I find it annoying when the main character is immature and constantly messes shit up. 😆 

Honestly, if all things Russian and pagan float your boat, I’d recommend this to you! 

Now that I’ve read two of the three books in the series, of course, I have to read the third…after some time passes, so my attitude improves 😄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Violence, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Pregnancy

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

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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

paulina_laukova's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Blood, Sexism, Child death, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit and Confinement

toriffic's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, War, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Self harm

thewildmageslibrary's review

adventurous

5.0

Wow, 5 stars for sure. I adored the way this built on book one and all the revisited characters! Vasya and Morozko have my heart. I love the vibes, the magic, SOLOVEY, girl-in-disguise, just everything.

CW: same "it's set in the 14th century, so" as book one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Child death, Blood, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent

tmickey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent

sarahaf712's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Sexual harassment

Content warning: birth; stillbirth