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A review by oofie
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book continues the story of Vasilisa Petrovna (Vasya). In this story, she leaves behind the village she grew up in and her siblings there, and revolves to travel. She is aided by Morozko, the spirit of death and frost, who is not as impartial as he pretends to be.
She quickly comes into contact with her monk brother, Sasha, who is hunting bandits burning down towns. He is with the Grand Prince of Moscow. To protect herself in a world that cages women away, Vasilisa Petrovna becomes Vasilii Petrovich, Sasha's "brother". She helps them find the bandits they struggled finding and further complicates her and her brother's situations when she returns to Moscow as a guest of honor.
Her secret remains hidden, especially with the help of her sister Olga, who also lives in Moscow, but as Vasya remains the firebrand she is, how long is that tenable? And then there's the other host of questions: what does Morozko want of her? Who were the bandits? Who is this red-headed lord who joined them on their hunt against the bandits? What is women's true role in society; ought they be sequestered away, or seen and heard?
I liked this book. Arden is good at tension and making bad things pretty unbearable, and at the climax of the book, I'll admit I was a ball of anxiety. In a society that is so cruel to women, the stakes are extremely high.
It also made me just...sorrowful, I guess? 'Sorrow' is not a word I use often, but I truly do feel sorrow for the women of medieval Russia. They were hidden away, unable to leave their towers, married at young ages, and seemingly used basically as broodmares. It's a terrible fate, one that makes me both grateful to be a woman in an age that affords women so many more rights, and makes me sad for women like Vasya, who simply cannot stand for the confinement and restriction of freedoms. She, most of all, desires freedom, whether in the first book or this one, and being a man gives her that freedom. Marriage is continually used as a shackle in these books, and it's hard to not agree with that categorization.
Again, I liked this book. I liked looking into the world of medieval Russia, with its spirits, rules, orthodoxy, etc. Arden is a great writer and I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.
She quickly comes into contact with her monk brother, Sasha, who is hunting bandits burning down towns. He is with the Grand Prince of Moscow. To protect herself in a world that cages women away, Vasilisa Petrovna becomes Vasilii Petrovich, Sasha's "brother". She helps them find the bandits they struggled finding and further complicates her and her brother's situations when she returns to Moscow as a guest of honor.
Her secret remains hidden, especially with the help of her sister Olga, who also lives in Moscow, but as Vasya remains the firebrand she is, how long is that tenable? And then there's the other host of questions: what does Morozko want of her? Who were the bandits? Who is this red-headed lord who joined them on their hunt against the bandits? What is women's true role in society; ought they be sequestered away, or seen and heard?
I liked this book. Arden is good at tension and making bad things pretty unbearable, and at the climax of the book, I'll admit I was a ball of anxiety. In a society that is so cruel to women, the stakes are extremely high.
It also made me just...sorrowful, I guess? 'Sorrow' is not a word I use often, but I truly do feel sorrow for the women of medieval Russia. They were hidden away, unable to leave their towers, married at young ages, and seemingly used basically as broodmares. It's a terrible fate, one that makes me both grateful to be a woman in an age that affords women so many more rights, and makes me sad for women like Vasya, who simply cannot stand for the confinement and restriction of freedoms. She, most of all, desires freedom, whether in the first book or this one, and being a man gives her that freedom. Marriage is continually used as a shackle in these books, and it's hard to not agree with that categorization.
Again, I liked this book. I liked looking into the world of medieval Russia, with its spirits, rules, orthodoxy, etc. Arden is a great writer and I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.