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ttorisaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Death
Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Pregnancy, Murder, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
alisonvh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.0
Baba Yaga is a mostly immortal half goddess trying to stop Ivan the Terrible from being so terrible. I love historical fiction, I love magic, I love talking animals, and I love stories about gods and goddesses messing with human affairs. Mix it all together and you have a book written just for me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Abandonment, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Blood, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Torture
lovosii's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Abandonment, Violence, Confinement, and Blood
Moderate: Rape, Animal death, Classism, Gun violence, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
eli_like_a_lie's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Death of parent
Moderate: War, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
cookiecat73's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, War, Xenophobia, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Classism, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Animal cruelty, Grief, Sexism, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Vomit, Self harm, Sexual content, Animal death, and Child abuse
taranim's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the UK publisher, who gave me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
—
”When my owl landed on my shoulder, I knew heartbreak wasn’t far behind.”
The Witch and the Tsar is a fantasy-infused historical fiction, and a feminist take on the Baba Yaga myth. It follows Yaga, an immortal half-goddess who lives in seclusion from mortals, having been shunned by them for being a ‘witch’. She is pulled out of her seclusion by her dear friend Tsarista Anastasia, who Yaga suspects is being poisoned at court. Soon Yaga learns that there is more to these suspicious poisonings than meets the eye, and that she may be key to stopping them - and saving the future of Russia. Set before, during and after the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, The Witch and the Tsar is as brutal as it is magical. I’d recommend reading the trigger warnings before you pick it up.
I did like reading this book, but I get the feeling that I did because I am not as familiar with the original tale of Baba Yaga. I have only heard the name in passing, knowing only that she was an evil witch figure from Russian and Slavic folklore. I will say the author touches on the folklore both in the narrative and in the following author’s note. I appreciate what she was trying to do. I also understand why people would not like what she was trying to do. Personally, it was okay for me because I decided early on that this character was only loosely inspired by Baba Yaga and ran with it. I also thought it was a clever idea to portray the crone image as a lie spread about Yaga by those following the Christian Orthodox Church, portraying that tension between pagan and Christian traditions.
That said, it would have been great to see, instead of creating a new version, what the author could have done in humanising the terrifying witch that has become so infamous in folklore. It probably would have been a more interesting book, especially since Yaga in this book is not the strongest lead. She does read, as other reviewers have pointed out, more like the stereotypical YA heroine than a centuries old immortal being.
The pacing of this also threw me off. The book spans multiple decades, skipping years at length when Yaga goes into hiding or she lives peacefully between battles. You would have multiple chapters detailing the events of a week, and then in one chapter you would move forward eight years in time. I won’t say that it didn’t work in forwarding the narrative effectively, but it was jarring. It also meant that I did not connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. I liked a lot of them, especially Marya and Vasily, but beyond that I felt no strong connection to them. Similarly, I did not feel that the villains were scary themselves, though their acts were horrific.
I did like the writing style in terms of language and description. The author’s descriptions of the landscapes and scenes that Yaga witnesses are vivid and at times quite graphic. It was easy to get lost in her writing to this end, which I loved. I also liked when the author included Russian in the text, as it made me as a reader feel a little closer to the world that she had created. Something about a second language being included in a text in this way really appeals to me as a reader.
I also liked the more magical elements of this book for what they were. I knew nothing of the magical rituals described in the text or the Russian and Slavic gods, so I enjoyed learning more about them in the story and the glossary at the back. It was cool to see how the author incorporated these elements into the text. I wish in hindsight that we had gotten more of this. This is why I enjoyed the interlude scenes, as short as they were. They provided insight into the gods and the more magical aspects of the story, and they were fun to read.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, but maybe to someone who doesn’t know much about Russian folklore or Baba Yaga as she exists in the myths. It’s a fun read but I think the portrayal of Yaga in this book would not appeal those looking for the evil hag of folkloric tradition.
—
”When my owl landed on my shoulder, I knew heartbreak wasn’t far behind.”
The Witch and the Tsar is a fantasy-infused historical fiction, and a feminist take on the Baba Yaga myth. It follows Yaga, an immortal half-goddess who lives in seclusion from mortals, having been shunned by them for being a ‘witch’. She is pulled out of her seclusion by her dear friend Tsarista Anastasia, who Yaga suspects is being poisoned at court. Soon Yaga learns that there is more to these suspicious poisonings than meets the eye, and that she may be key to stopping them - and saving the future of Russia. Set before, during and after the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, The Witch and the Tsar is as brutal as it is magical. I’d recommend reading the trigger warnings before you pick it up.
I did like reading this book, but I get the feeling that I did because I am not as familiar with the original tale of Baba Yaga. I have only heard the name in passing, knowing only that she was an evil witch figure from Russian and Slavic folklore. I will say the author touches on the folklore both in the narrative and in the following author’s note. I appreciate what she was trying to do. I also understand why people would not like what she was trying to do. Personally, it was okay for me because I decided early on that this character was only loosely inspired by Baba Yaga and ran with it. I also thought it was a clever idea to portray the crone image as a lie spread about Yaga by those following the Christian Orthodox Church, portraying that tension between pagan and Christian traditions.
That said, it would have been great to see, instead of creating a new version, what the author could have done in humanising the terrifying witch that has become so infamous in folklore. It probably would have been a more interesting book, especially since Yaga in this book is not the strongest lead. She does read, as other reviewers have pointed out, more like the stereotypical YA heroine than a centuries old immortal being.
The pacing of this also threw me off. The book spans multiple decades, skipping years at length when Yaga goes into hiding or she lives peacefully between battles. You would have multiple chapters detailing the events of a week, and then in one chapter you would move forward eight years in time. I won’t say that it didn’t work in forwarding the narrative effectively, but it was jarring. It also meant that I did not connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. I liked a lot of them, especially Marya and Vasily, but beyond that I felt no strong connection to them. Similarly, I did not feel that the villains were scary themselves, though their acts were horrific.
I did like the writing style in terms of language and description. The author’s descriptions of the landscapes and scenes that Yaga witnesses are vivid and at times quite graphic. It was easy to get lost in her writing to this end, which I loved. I also liked when the author included Russian in the text, as it made me as a reader feel a little closer to the world that she had created. Something about a second language being included in a text in this way really appeals to me as a reader.
I also liked the more magical elements of this book for what they were. I knew nothing of the magical rituals described in the text or the Russian and Slavic gods, so I enjoyed learning more about them in the story and the glossary at the back. It was cool to see how the author incorporated these elements into the text. I wish in hindsight that we had gotten more of this. This is why I enjoyed the interlude scenes, as short as they were. They provided insight into the gods and the more magical aspects of the story, and they were fun to read.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, but maybe to someone who doesn’t know much about Russian folklore or Baba Yaga as she exists in the myths. It’s a fun read but I think the portrayal of Yaga in this book would not appeal those looking for the evil hag of folkloric tradition.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment and Grief
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