Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jvan 's review for:
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
A promising beginning and a lot of writing talent turned into a seriously disappointing ending where not much made sense or felt satisfying. The Nightingale of the title was a trivial late appearing character; the MC is named Vasilisa, which is a very famous Russian fairy tale name, not in this case associated with that fairy tale but with another fairy tale cycle, which was jarring--as if a character named Cinderella had been the lead in Snow White. The entire priest subplot was pointless. If it sounds like I really didn't like the book, that's mostly true, but the writing was strong even if the plot was for me a huge failure.