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

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Well, well, well. 

I had really high expectations for this book, and while it started off on a pretty strong note, I can't help but feel that it was rather underwhelming on a deeper level.

I understand that it's the author's debut, so I tried to keep that in mind, but it still fell flat for me. Like, it was great entertainment-wise (and somehow very meme-able to me), but on a deeper note it didn't hit the mark. 

Here's some of my takes: 

• The writing itself was kind of mediocre, and at times I got the impression that I am reading a draft, not the finished work (there were so many spelling/grammar mistakes).

• I appreciate the fact that Arden actually researched Russian culture and history, but personally, I felt that there was still this hint of wanting it all to be exotic (and I got triggered by something in her author's note). As a result, there was this strong disconnect between me and the book, and there was this lack of authenticity.
 

• I am not even gonna go into the whole transliteration thing because that's a whole other conversation (it was one of my big triggers). 

All in all, reading this made me realise that we really do need more own-voice Russian/Slavic fantasy novels (I take it as a sign for me to get back to my WIPs). 

Note 1: I am going to rate this book based on how entertaining I found it, cause despite having a lot of comments about it, it was still pretty entertaining.

Note 2: I finished this book on 1/1/2025, but since I only had a few pages left and I read the bulk of it in December 2024, I'm gonna cheat and count it as one of my 2024 reads.