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A review by elissapoletti
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-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? No
5.0
‘Vasya felt cold despite the steam. “Why would I choose to die?” “It is easy to die,” replied the bannik. “Harder to live.”’
If you love traditional fairytales, beautifully written stories, adventure, Russian myth with some historical fiction thrown in, this is the book for you! The Bear and the Nightingale follows Vasya, a young girl who lives on the edge of the Russian wilderness. Vasya sees thing others can’t, and this in turn is a blessing and a curse. I don’t want to say too much about the plot as I loved knowing barely a thing about this before I started reading. I will say that Arden’s writing style is just beautiful, it is a slow paced book, without being boring, her descriptions are stunning. Her style reminds me of the way Lewis wrote The Chronicles, it’s particularly reminiscent of The Horse and His Boy, especially with the relationships between human and horse and the way Lewis weaves myth into his stories.
Arden has set the story up wonderfully to follow into its sequel (which I’m loving just as much so far, if not more), and I can’t wait to see where these novels will take me. I find them enchanting as well as educational, I’ve said before I love books that make you want to research further, and this was definitely one of those books.
If you love traditional fairytales, beautifully written stories, adventure, Russian myth with some historical fiction thrown in, this is the book for you! The Bear and the Nightingale follows Vasya, a young girl who lives on the edge of the Russian wilderness. Vasya sees thing others can’t, and this in turn is a blessing and a curse. I don’t want to say too much about the plot as I loved knowing barely a thing about this before I started reading. I will say that Arden’s writing style is just beautiful, it is a slow paced book, without being boring, her descriptions are stunning. Her style reminds me of the way Lewis wrote The Chronicles, it’s particularly reminiscent of The Horse and His Boy, especially with the relationships between human and horse and the way Lewis weaves myth into his stories.
Arden has set the story up wonderfully to follow into its sequel (which I’m loving just as much so far, if not more), and I can’t wait to see where these novels will take me. I find them enchanting as well as educational, I’ve said before I love books that make you want to research further, and this was definitely one of those books.