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soffi_ramirez 's review for:
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
I'm between a 3-3.5/5 for this book.
I generally liked the book. I love the approach to Russian folklore and I like the setting; being in the countryside, the story was allowed to explore this older gods side more, which was a real highlight for me. The characters were mostly good, I liked some of them a lot, even though you had to put yourself in that period to understand such strong gender roles for them.
There are some flaws, as expected. However, I'm not sure if some things that I considered flaws may be some cultural barriers that I didn't understand. For example, the way of speaking of the characters felt really unreal. It gave me the impression of how characters in a fairy tale would talk, but in this setting it felt jarring. Also, some descriptions of Vasya felt a little sexual, like the constant mention of her breasts instead of saying, for example, her chest. But it is a pet peeve of mine and I'll assume it as such.
As the beginning of a trilogy, I feel it does a good work. It introduces to the world, but it doesn't stop there. It has drive and a lot of things happen, even though for some people the worldbuilding may feel excessive; I like worldbuilding, so it was okay for me, but it took me longer than usual to finish this book, even though is not long, so I get that sometimes it becomes really slow.
I'll read the sequel, I want to know what happens to Vasya and her siblings, and I really want to return to the Russian folklore lore!
I generally liked the book. I love the approach to Russian folklore and I like the setting; being in the countryside, the story was allowed to explore this older gods side more, which was a real highlight for me. The characters were mostly good, I liked some of them a lot, even though you had to put yourself in that period to understand such strong gender roles for them.
There are some flaws, as expected. However, I'm not sure if some things that I considered flaws may be some cultural barriers that I didn't understand. For example, the way of speaking of the characters felt really unreal. It gave me the impression of how characters in a fairy tale would talk, but in this setting it felt jarring. Also, some descriptions of Vasya felt a little sexual, like the constant mention of her breasts instead of saying, for example, her chest. But it is a pet peeve of mine and I'll assume it as such.
As the beginning of a trilogy, I feel it does a good work. It introduces to the world, but it doesn't stop there. It has drive and a lot of things happen, even though for some people the worldbuilding may feel excessive; I like worldbuilding, so it was okay for me, but it took me longer than usual to finish this book, even though is not long, so I get that sometimes it becomes really slow.
I'll read the sequel, I want to know what happens to Vasya and her siblings, and I really want to return to the Russian folklore lore!