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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
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
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
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
There isn't a LOT that happens in this book, but somehow I was so transfixed. This was an excellent story.
Very character driven. The author keeps the right amount of information from you to lead into the next book in the series in a really good way, without taking away from what is happening here. As in there are still so many unanswered questions.
Very character driven. The author keeps the right amount of information from you to lead into the next book in the series in a really good way, without taking away from what is happening here. As in there are still so many unanswered questions.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was different than I expected but I loved it. The title is a bit misleading. The bear is symbolic of the dangers in the wild. A young stallion is named Solovey- meaning nightingale. It’s a battle between good and evil. Young Vasya is caught between old pagan beliefs and Christianity. She is accused of being a witch and attracting demons while she tries to save her misguided family and the villagers from those same demons. It’s based on Russian folklore and the variations of Russian names made it a bit challenging but worth sticking with. This is a great winter read as the descriptions of life in freezing Russian medieval times are quite chilling. I’m excited to read the rest of the series.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Bear and the Nightingale is a novel filled with Russian folklore and fairytales. In this novel we follow Vasya as she grows up seeing spirits of both the household and nature. One day, a priest comes to town and to make the people love him, he instills fear into their lives. He tells them that their household spirits are devils, not worthy of offerings. They grow weaker and the villages are overcome with misfortune. What they don't know, however, is that a bear is waking in the woods. One who will bring fear and misfortune on to the people. And only Vasya and the spirits she befriended will be able to save them.
I loved the fairytale aspect of this book, and if you love fairytales, you will probably enjoy this book too. The pacing is a bit on the slower side, however. The middle part is mostly focused on the priest and how he is spending his time in the village. I think this really took the pacing out of it. I understand it is important to get to know him to be able to understand the later chapters, but I think he got too much attention for how little he was featured in the end. I probably could have skipped a few middle chapters and still be able to feel like I read this book in a coherent way.
But the end was amazing. We finally stop focusing on the priest and it is just Vasya and the spirits against this threat. Her relationship with Frost is really well written and highly enjoyable. It's just such a shame that it was at the end of the book. I would have loved if the whole novel was just relationship building between them. Alas, perhaps he will feature in the other two books.
I loved the fairytale aspect of this book, and if you love fairytales, you will probably enjoy this book too. The pacing is a bit on the slower side, however. The middle part is mostly focused on the priest and how he is spending his time in the village. I think this really took the pacing out of it. I understand it is important to get to know him to be able to understand the later chapters, but I think he got too much attention for how little he was featured in the end. I probably could have skipped a few middle chapters and still be able to feel like I read this book in a coherent way.
But the end was amazing. We finally stop focusing on the priest and it is just Vasya and the spirits against this threat. Her relationship with Frost is really well written and highly enjoyable. It's just such a shame that it was at the end of the book. I would have loved if the whole novel was just relationship building between them. Alas, perhaps he will feature in the other two books.
I thought I would really enjoy this, but despite a more promising start, I found the characters underdeveloped and two-dimensional, and barely anyone was likeable. By the time everything started to look like it was actually headed somewhere, I had already become bored and irritated by Anna constantly hating and beating Vasya and being scared of demons, Pyotr looking at his kids like they were all simply waiting to be married off (and yes, that might have been the view back then, but people were still actual three-dimensional people back then as well, so that's no excuse for lack of nuance or complexity), the simplistic "Christianity good / pagan beliefs bad" view, the teaser of folkloric elements scattered throughout but nothing really substantial happening with that to give a clue as to what the point of the story was, and insufficient attention to actual relationships between characters so there is a sense of an actual tapestry being woven, not just a mishmash of isolated events happening to cookie-cutter characters who can barely communicate with each other.
I actually liked Vasya well enough, but even she was barely more than just the wild child who won't do as she's told and everyone suspects is a witch. Fine, so she's more likeable than the rest, but to be honest, since the folkloric side wasn't doing anything for me (despite that being what appealed in the first place) and most of the main characters were underdeveloped, I found myself idly wondering about the absentee characters, like how things turned out for the son who decided to become a monk, or what Pyotr felt about his new wife after his decision to provide his children with a mother seven years after his first wife's death. This last one would have been especially interesting to know and would have added depth, but instead any depth to his character just fizzles out from this point on.
As did my interest in reading this before I reached even a third of the way in.
I actually liked Vasya well enough, but even she was barely more than just the wild child who won't do as she's told and everyone suspects is a witch. Fine, so she's more likeable than the rest, but to be honest, since the folkloric side wasn't doing anything for me (despite that being what appealed in the first place) and most of the main characters were underdeveloped, I found myself idly wondering about the absentee characters, like how things turned out for the son who decided to become a monk, or what Pyotr felt about his new wife after his decision to provide his children with a mother seven years after his first wife's death. This last one would have been especially interesting to know and would have added depth, but instead any depth to his character just fizzles out from this point on.
As did my interest in reading this before I reached even a third of the way in.
Had high hopes for this fantasy book. Excruciatingly long in most parts. Very predictable after reading many fantasy novels. Characters were mediocre. The heroine was the only saving grace. Story was decent just drawn out longer than needed.