A review by lodestardirective
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

4.0

A little slow, with, quite honestly, all the action-action at the end, this is a great read for those who love fairy tales. Arden's prose is wonderful, lilting and flowing, like something out of a ballad. The story itself is a lovely tale, with lots of different elements. The Russian can be a little confusing at times, to a non-speaker, or someone who's not familiar with Russian language conventions, but that's rather minor. The transliterations are usually close to phonetic pronunciations, and there is a glossary in the back with most of the terms featured in the book. The characters are well developed, and there are some parts that are not entirely believable even with the suspension of disbelief required by a fictional book of this nature, but that's quite forgivable. This has been a wonderful read, and I can't wait to start the sequel.