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A review by sidekickyin
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
3.0
I'm very torn between giving this a 3 or a 4 star rating. On the one hand, I loved it. On the other, it infuriated me with the pacing.
First of all, this read like a classical novel. So it was a much slower read due to the way it was written. That being said, I loved the writing style and descriptions. Everything in this world felt fully fleshed out and real and believable.
Second, the characters were outstanding. Everything about them made sense and even for such a sprawling cast with ones dipping in and out, they all had a sense of purpose and helped to flesh out the world better.
Third, the fantasy element surrounding traditional folklore felt real and believable. It is more than obvious Arden knows her shit around Russian folklore and adjusted it to her needs for this novel, which is highly impressive for a debut.
However, the pacing stunted everything in this volume. I know there are two more volumes to this, and unfortunately from what I've gathered of the second novel, the pacing doesn't improve. I get that there's a lot of world building, which Arden does quite well, but I felt some parts of this volume could've been cut out and the tone nor character growth would've been damaged.
I slogged through the first half of this book, putting it down frequently, wondering when it would get to the point, which was well known early on, but dragged about laboriously. This is how it infuriated me by reading like a classical novel - it took forever to get past all the world building to reach any major plot movements despite the reader well knowing it is going to happen. When the plot did get going more around the 2/3 mark, it flew by in a rush and I felt all the more wonderful, fantasy elements to it were thrown in - in a mad dash to reach the conclusion of this volume. I get that this is a historical fiction fantasy and it is rooted in "reality" with the fantasy hovering at the edges to keep readers enticed by when it will spring up, but the vast amount of this volume dragged its feet on it so much I felt short-changed by the rushed, full-blown fantasy sections at the end.
The folklore creatures, spirits, fae - whatever you want to call them were charming and gave the constant feeling of "magic" woven throughout, but when we get to the Grand Creatures that always seemed to threaten to pop out, they had such little presence at the end due to being hidden in the shadows of the story for so long they lacked a lot of their luster, which is a shame. They had small, important appearances in the beginning, which greatly enticed me to read more, but then the slog of the first 2/3 of the book despite those appearances really drained me. By the end, I felt very let down by how the major fantasy creatures were given such a short time to shine.
Again, I loved the characters and writing of this, but again, it infuriated the hell out of me with the pacing. While I want to read volume 2, I'm also somewhat dreading it if this pacing continues.
First of all, this read like a classical novel. So it was a much slower read due to the way it was written. That being said, I loved the writing style and descriptions. Everything in this world felt fully fleshed out and real and believable.
Second, the characters were outstanding. Everything about them made sense and even for such a sprawling cast with ones dipping in and out, they all had a sense of purpose and helped to flesh out the world better.
Third, the fantasy element surrounding traditional folklore felt real and believable. It is more than obvious Arden knows her shit around Russian folklore and adjusted it to her needs for this novel, which is highly impressive for a debut.
However, the pacing stunted everything in this volume. I know there are two more volumes to this, and unfortunately from what I've gathered of the second novel, the pacing doesn't improve. I get that there's a lot of world building, which Arden does quite well, but I felt some parts of this volume could've been cut out and the tone nor character growth would've been damaged.
I slogged through the first half of this book, putting it down frequently, wondering when it would get to the point, which was well known early on, but dragged about laboriously. This is how it infuriated me by reading like a classical novel - it took forever to get past all the world building to reach any major plot movements despite the reader well knowing it is going to happen. When the plot did get going more around the 2/3 mark, it flew by in a rush and I felt all the more wonderful, fantasy elements to it were thrown in - in a mad dash to reach the conclusion of this volume. I get that this is a historical fiction fantasy and it is rooted in "reality" with the fantasy hovering at the edges to keep readers enticed by when it will spring up, but the vast amount of this volume dragged its feet on it so much I felt short-changed by the rushed, full-blown fantasy sections at the end.
The folklore creatures, spirits, fae - whatever you want to call them were charming and gave the constant feeling of "magic" woven throughout, but when we get to the Grand Creatures that always seemed to threaten to pop out, they had such little presence at the end due to being hidden in the shadows of the story for so long they lacked a lot of their luster, which is a shame. They had small, important appearances in the beginning, which greatly enticed me to read more, but then the slog of the first 2/3 of the book despite those appearances really drained me. By the end, I felt very let down by how the major fantasy creatures were given such a short time to shine.
Again, I loved the characters and writing of this, but again, it infuriated the hell out of me with the pacing. While I want to read volume 2, I'm also somewhat dreading it if this pacing continues.