You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sunohn 's review for:
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
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.