In this, the second of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy we continue the story of Vasya. As a young orphaned girl who is suspected of witchcraft options are few- to enter a convent or let her sister arrange a marriage for her. Both options are anathema to her freedom loving spirit and she chooses her own path- to disguise herself as a boy and ride away on her horse into the forest.

The land is scourged by bandits, destroying villages and stealing the young girls. After coming across a devastated village she Vasya is determined to rescue three girls. This leads her down a dangerous path.

Fairytale? Folklore? History? This trilogy has them all. This second book is a worthy follow up to The Bear & the Nightingale. Vasya's character is continuing to capture the imagination. I can't wait for the finale. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me spend time in Vasya's time & place.

WOW, this truly lived up to the legacy of the first book. I felt Arden really excelled in her character writing, as the changes and progression that Vasya goes through flowed naturally and felt authentic to her character.

I absolutely adored the first book and was quite worried that the author couldn't replicate the same magic in her follow-up. I was thankfully dead wrong. Roll on book 3! Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A fantastic continuation of The Bear & The Nightingale. Vasya is becoming a woman, which is at odds with her appearance as she disguises herself as a boy in order to ravel freely. Far more action-packed and perilous than the first book, there feels less folklore and magic, but the ride is indeed still a beautiful, lyrical yarn.

There is so much to ‘The Girl in the Tower’ by Katherine Arden, follow-up to ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’. A strong female heroine, magical mystical Russian folklore, fighting, horses and danger. Vasya is an awkward teenage girl in the mythical Middle Ages of old ‘Rus who does not like her traditional choice of marriage or convent; in ‘The Girl in the Tower’ she is older and more defiant. You just know she is heading for trouble. She leaves home to wander and look at the world, refusing to worry about survival in the winter forest, and in so doing stumbles into banditry and violence that has implications for the power of the throne. I read the second half of this at a pace, wanting to know the outcome, not wanting it to end.
A faster-paced book than the first of the series, the two are tightly linked and so I hesitate to give away too much plot. Disguised as a boy, Vasya cannot help but attract attention despite the warnings of her magnificent stallion Solovey. Her exploits bring her to the attention of Dimitri, the Grand Prince of Moscow, and red-haired lord Kasyan Lutovich. Feted for her fearless fighting, Vasya’s disguise becomes more difficult to protect. Reunited with her brother Sasha, the monk who is Dimitri’s best friend and adviser, Vasya must maintain her disguise or risk the lives of her family. The secret must be kept at any cost.
It is a pleasure to read these books, confident that author Katherine Arden has a supreme hold on her material, the legends and the world she has created. And in Vasya she has a heroine who confronts evil in its many forms – the human sort of swords, ambition, bigotry and malicious words – and the superhuman sort of gods and demons, a firebird and magic jewels that confer control. Arden describes this world, and Vasya’s adventures, beautifully. In this second novel she grows from a teenager to a young woman, bringing with it an awareness of attraction and a kiss with a frost-demon. In parallels with heroes of other fantasy fiction – Philip Pullman, JK Rowling – Vasya shows respect for people and creatures which others may ignore and demean, so earning their loyalty and support at critical moments.
These are adult fantasy tales, complicated, dense and a rollicking read. A quite unusual combination. Can’t wait for the third in the series.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

“Vasilisa Petrovna, murderer, savior, lost child, rode away from the house in the fir-grove.”

“The Girl in the Tower” is the second in the Winternight trilogy. In it, Katherine has produced an extensive fantasy world that, from the first pages of the book, constantly provide hints of the depths of her creation that we only see glimpses of. As a reviewer I never had the privilege of reading the first book in the trilogy, however, the best works of fiction are just as capable of standing alone on a shelf as well as alongside their fellow works.

In “The Girl in the Tower”, a young highly capable woman called Vasya must choose between a life of marriage and child-bearing or life as a nun; essentially a choice between society’s expectations and life as a social outcast. She chooses the third option of her own making, and alongside the help of an unlikely companion, becomes entrapped in a web of lies and deceit that even she struggles to unravel while clinging to her hard-won freedom.

The book itself is exceptionally well written with a perfect balance between phenomenal detail and enthralling narrative. Even without the assistance of the previous instalment of the trilogy, the story has enough life in each aspect of writing to captivate the reader. As the pages go by, each character is fleshed out to make a genuine connection with the reader, prompting feelings of rage or sympathy at the author’s will.

This is a thrilling and captivating read which feels novel and utterly original from start to finish and is a must-read for anyone who loves fantasy.

Alex

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Fear not gentle reader, I am back with my Week in Review :) I thought I would give you a short break from my WIR and share two of my SPFBO 2017 reviews. I hope you enjoyed them. Keep your eye on the blog for reviews from my fellow Qwillery reviewers on what they thought of the books they read for the competition.

I had a little pooch at NetGalley this week and was surprised by two books I had read last year but hadn't yet reviewed. Lately books have been available months before their publish date and then I get all excited about reading them. This time I had convinced myself that I had actually posted a review here but after some checking it transpired I hadn't left you a review so check out what I read.

The second book I would like to tell you about is The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. This is the second in her Winternight Trilogy and follows not long after the events of book 1 - The Bear and the Nightingale. Vasya is on the run. She has been cast out of her village following the death of her father and she faces either being married off - to become a girl in a tower - or joining a convent. Neither option appeals to her so when the opportunity presents itself she disguises herself as a boy and joins the Grand Prince of Moscow's retinue. When a mysterious and possibly magical force threatens the kingdom Vasya risks everything, including her freedom, to save the Prince, her family and her kingdom.

I can't believe that it is less than a year from the time that Arden released her debut The Bear and the Nightingale (check out my review here). Book 2 does not disappoint. In fact Arden has built upon the strengths of these characters and takes this from a mere fairy tale into some more like folklore. While this is fiction Arden has created characters who are credible, who make you believe they were actually alive, centuries ago. I have to admit I did spend a lot of the story thinking to myself 'poor Vasya' as things seem to go from bad to worse for our teenage heroine. She is forced to grow up quickly but at the same time stays innocent from how cruel the world can really be.

Again, this is another book that I could recount half the plot for you in this review but why would I ruin the journey that you need to take? Join Vasya on her journey of self discovery. Well done Arden, another great book. I can hardly wait for the final in this trilogy, The Winter of the Witch.

I wasn't a massive fan of the first book but felt that this one was equally enjoyable. It delved more into the characters and portrayed more of the world. I loved the vivid descriptions and the way Arden paints the world.

The Girl in the Tower is absolutely gorgeously written. This is a sequel that actually ends up better than it's predecessor. The story expands on the first, exploring the world laced with Russian folklore. Vasya will have you cheering. I truly cannot recommend Arden's beautiful writing enough.

Having loved the first one I was apprehensive about a sequel but it was just as brilliantly written and just as exciting. The storyline was gripping and Vasya is a character you root for the whole way through.

I love Katherine Arden's writing. I'm obsessed with how she manages to create an atmosphere and completely submerge readers into a different time and space. Her writing reminded me a lot of the Russian fairytales I grew up with. My grandma would tell them to me everynight and Arden's writing literally brought me back to that moment.

The Girl in the Tower continues the tale of Vasya and the fantastic adventure introduced to us in superb The Bear and the Nightingale. The Girl in the Tower is as good as Arden's first book. The writing and storytelling is still as magical as ever and the world building will immerse you in Arden's Russian fairy tale. If you have read the first book then you must read this one. If you haven't read the first book then you definitely should!

This series feels to me kind of like Tolstoy's works had a baby with Tolkien's - there is a fantastic feeling of an epic fantasy-ish adventure set on the backdrop of a Russia that is written in a way that makes it feel like historical fiction.

This combination really hit the spot for me for a bunch of reasons...
- there was something about the writing that I just can't put my finger on that made it feel like a traditional fairy tale - all lush and magical

- I am fascinated by the books set where a society is moving from the old beliefs to Christianity, and we get to see the tension between the two - the people almost converted but still a bit afraid to upset their traditional spirits, and the church saying that they are being punished for not being dedicated enough to God. And, in particular, the role of women in this time - where we see, for instance, healer women and accusations of witchcraft. This was something I also loved in Hannah Kent's The Good People, and am keen to read more about (please leave me some recommendations in the comments if you have any!)

- And, along the same lines, I'm really interested at the moment in fiction that examines the role of women in society - in this case these is the very clear expectation on Vasilisa that her future is either as wife and mother or in convent - and what happens when a women rejects both of these options (again with the 'witch' accusations).

In terms of reading challenges, this book met the criteria for one task on the Read Harder Challenge -
5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa) - this being set in Russia.

Oh, and one more thing - I found it took me a little while to remember all the names and who was who when picked up the second book, so I'd recommend reading them together (although it all did come back to me pretty quickly). Quite a lot of Russian words pop up in the text, but there is a glossary, so make sure you check that out!

«The Girl in the Tower» was an even better continuation to Vasya’s adventures. It felt much more fast paced than the first book and Katherine Arden’s lyrical writing did not stop to amaze me page after page.

There were so many passages that I wanted to highlight just for the sake of beautiful descriptions, like this one:

«Moscow, just past midwinter, and the haze of thousand fires rose to meet a smothering sky. To the west a little light lingered, but in the east the clouds mounded up, bruise-colored in the livid dusk, buckling with unfallen snow.

Two rivers gashed the skin of the Russian forest, and Moscow lay at their joining, atop a pine-clad hill».


Instantly, I could picture the fires and the hill, the whole paisaje, vivid before my eyes. That and retellings of Russian folklore that I grew up listening to, made it an unbelievable experience.

In the previous book we saw Vasya grow up and struggle against the customs and beliefs of her family, against the way of living. Where have you seen a maiden to not behave like one? Who didn’t want to get married, who just wanted to be free. Unfortunately, that was not an option, not in the medieval Rus’.

«”Because I do not wish to marry,” Vasya finished. The words sounded strange even as she said them. A woman married. Or she became a nun. Or she died. That was what being a woman meant. What, then, was she?»

As Vasya is forced to live her home and family behind, her free spirit finally gets the outburst it so deeply desires. She can be anyone she wants, she can go anywhere, there is only her and a vast mysterious world, with Solovey always by her side.

Speaking of Solovey - Vasya’s horse, I loved the playful dynamic between them. Jokes back and forth. The uncontained love and care. Solovey was not a regular horse, he became one of the characters, and the one I cared deeply about.

In the very beginning of the book, Olga - Vasya’s sister, tells the story of Snegurochka, the snow-maiden. The fairy tale every child hears from the very young age. «’You are made of snow’, Morozko the frost-demon warned her, when she met him in the forest. ‘You cannot love and be immortal’». This tale, as we understand later on, is a preset to some events that take place later in the book, very heart-breaking events I must add!

Besides the carefully described family relations, intricate love interactions and never-ending well of emotions, we got to see much more of history side as well, especially Mongols and their dominion over Rus’ and political games that were part of their fragile relationship. Described so vividly and interesting that I went right into googling more historic facts.

Vasya really is a great protagonist and Arden keeps you on the edge of your seat. There's just enough unknown about this world of fairy tale alive that you're not sure how the human politics will interact with it. I found myself quite confused sometimes with the politics in a way that the folklore did not confuse me so that's interesting.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

This is the second instalment in the Winternight trilogy. Based on Russian folk lore and fairy tale, this follows Vasya as she traverses her tricky world of court politics and religion. Born of a prophecy and markedly different from other young girls, she refuses to allow the conventions of society and the historical time period she is born into dictate her actions or her future. Especially when bandits are pillaging villages and there is a vast world to go and explore!

Vasya is such a compelling character. I adore reading of fictional females breaking the bonds of historical and societal restraints, and she is by far one of my favourites to do so. She is such a fierce individual who was not built for birthing children, staying locked in a tower, or entering the convent. And if her female sex disallows her to travel the world and to fight, then she will mask her identity and continue to do so, anyhow!

Her horse companion, Solovoy, was given as much charm as his owner. Animals in books, who are gifted with their own personalities, always compel me, but Arden showed a special prowess in curating both an authentic character, with bearing on the plot, whilst still allowing his animal nature and tendencies to show through. This seamless blend made him instantly lovable and had me fearing for his safety during every flight, feud, and fight.

This book had a more political and religious focus than the previous instalment and I adored it all the more for it. Instead of perceiving life as lived on the fringes of society, this was largely based in Moscow. The city is entering a period of change, and the old way of rule and the old beliefs that reigned are being overtaken. It was poignantly troubling getting an insight into the death of one belief system for an alternative one, which was humanised for ultimate impact. The fate of the old religion as it gets replaced by the new is already stated as precarious and I can imagine this taking an even larger focus in the next book, which I am already eager to get to.

Last year's The Bear and the Nightingale was one of my favourite reads of the year: a feel-good adventure story about a young girl overcoming a threat to her village with the help of the fairies and other mythical beings that live near her Russian home. The Girl in the Tower (review copy from Penguin Random House) is the sequel, and second book in the trilogy.

The Girl in the Tower picks up straight after the events of the first book. Mourning her family and lacking a place in the world, Vasya decides to try her luck in the world, riding out dressed as a boy and with a pocket full of silver. She finds herself on the trail of bandits burning villages, before accidentally meeting up with her brother Sasha, travelling to Moscow and finding herself pitted against another of Morozko the frost demon's bitter enemies.

This is a classic - and winning - formula. A tomboyish girl fighting against the gendered conventions of her time, a magical horse, adventure, peril and a happy ending. Arden ups the stakes in this sequel, with Vasya also fighting to save her niece from a cloistered life as a Russian noblewoman within the even more constrained environment of the Moscow court. Vasya continues to be impulsive, wilful and an utter delight.

Tremendous fun.

Goodreads rating: 4*

The highly anticipated sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale does not disappoint. The second book in Arden's Winternight series achieves the rare and amazing feat of actually being better than its predecessor. 

In this book we see more of the grown up Vasya, and she takes more of a hero's journey, having left the comfort of her village she now ventures out in to the world, with the intent to explore. She is an active, courageous heroine, always seeking to do good. 

In order to survive in her society Vasya must assume the identity of a boy, 'Vasilii' in order to roam free in a world which restricts the behaviours of women. In this role she can be an active hero, and she becomes uncomfortable with her female self, not to mention how she becomes a victim of assault as a female. Vasya's plight illustrates not only the historical, but current injustices girls face within society. 

Arden's series is redefining the fairy tale form - this is the book I wish I could have had in my teens. Unlike the Bella Swans of before, Vasya seeks adventure, takes initiative and is a skilled horserider and whisperer. She does not spend her days pining after a man, but instead after the freedom of men. 

As a feminist fairytale it isn't totally perfect - Morozoko's history with 'maidens' is problematic as are some of the ideas around consent and sexual assault. However, the very fact that this deals with these kinds of assault lays bare the violence that was then done to women, and highlights how we still struggle to deal with those today. 

The world-building in the novel is fantastic, it is easily readable and wonderfully magical. The accompanying glossary is barely necessary as the world Vasya encounters is so understandable. The characters are well developed and rounded and the plot is unbelievably compelling. You will race through this book, cheering and lamenting for Vasya at every turn. 

I highly recommend this series and cannot wait for the final installment, The Winter of the Witch later this year!

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed The Bear and the Nightingale when I read it almost exactly a year ago and I remember my excitement on discovering that it was actually the first in a planned trilogy. We haven’t had to wait too long for the second book, The Girl in the Tower, and I’m pleased to say that I loved it even more than the first.

Katherine Arden’s books are a wonderful mixture of history, folklore and fairytales with an atmospheric and wintry Russian setting. If you haven’t read The Bear and the Nightingale yet, I would highly recommend starting with that one – and I should warn you that there may be spoilers for the first book in the rest of this post.

At the beginning of The Girl in the Tower, our heroine Vasilisa Petrovna (Vasya) is fleeing her childhood village of Lesnaya Zemlya. Despite her efforts to rescue the villagers from a great evil, the way in which her father and stepmother died has caused Vasya to be branded a witch, regarded with suspicion and distrust. Accompanied by her magnificent stallion Solovey, Vasya sets off on a journey across northern Rus’ to Moscow, home of her sister Olga – a journey which will be filled with danger as Vasya encounters a group of bandits sweeping across the countryside burning villages and kidnapping children. First, though, she must pay a visit to Morozko, the frost-demon, in his fir-grove deep in the forest…

This novel has a much wider geographical scope than the previous one, in which the action takes place almost entirely in and around Lesnaya Zemlya. I liked this aspect of the book; medieval Moscow is an interesting setting and, with Olga’s family close to the Grand Prince, Dmitrii Ivanovic, we are given some insights into the political situation during this period of Russian history. At the time of the story, the Rus’, as it was known then, is still part of the domain of the Great Khan and the Golden Horde, but with their influence weakening as the Grand Prince grows in power, it seems that things could be about to change.

I was also pleased to see Vasya reunited with her siblings, not just Olga but also their brother Sasha, who is now a priest. Sadly, her relationships with both Olga and Sasha are very strained, partly because of what happened in Lesnaya Zemlya, for which Vasya is unable to give an adequate explanation, and also because of her behaviour on arriving in Moscow, which they consider unladylike and inappropriate. To the modern reader, Vasya is a wonderful character – brave, independent and rebellious – but her refusal to conform to the 14th century ideal of what a woman should be leads her into a great deal of trouble. In contrast, Olga has accepted her place in society and expects her young daughter, Marya, to follow the same course in life. Marya, though, appears to have other ideas!

I’ve said very little so far about the fantasy elements of the novel. We don’t see very much of the household spirits who played such an important part in The Bear and the Nightingale, but there are some appearances by intriguing new figures from Russian myth including the Firebird – and another, more sinister, character whose name I won’t give here so as not to spoil anything! I also enjoyed Vasya’s interactions with her magical horse, Solovey, who has begun to form a personality of his own. Last, but certainly not least, there’s Morozko, frost-demon and god of the dead.

There were hints in the previous book of a possible romance between Vasya and Morozko, and in this book their relationship is developed further. It’s definitely not a conventional love story and because of who Morozko is and the role he has to play in Russian folklore, he has a tendency to come and go throughout the novel. It’s frustrating but it worked for me and I found myself looking forward to the scenes they shared. I loved The Girl in the Tower – and the good news is that the third book in the trilogy, The Winter of the Witch, is expected this August!

First, a smol tip - if you have trouble recalling what went down in the first book, go and reread that, or read a summary of it, because, boy, was I lost at the beginning of this! The first few chapters concentrate on Sascha and Olga, and Vasya, the only character besides Morozko that I could recall fairly well, is barely even mentioned. I was... massively confused, y'all. I didn't know why we were forced to start the novel by reading about two characters who were not even that significant in The Bear and the Nightingale, and I was totally lost trying to remember what went down in book one.

THINGS I LIKED:

- Vasya was freaking FIERCE in The Girl in the Tower. She set out on her journey, knowing little about the world, but hungry for adventures and new experiences. She fought for others and saved lives even when the odds were against her, and she outsmarted fearful people. She went toe to toe with Morozko, and she would not let him (or anyone else) boss her around, or condescend to her. Her confidence in herself grew in huge ways, and I was very satisfied to see her developing into a smart, self-assured young woman.

"You are immortal, and perhaps I seem small to you," she sad at last fiercely. "But my life is not your game."

- It was very cool to find out more about Morozko! He's by far my favorite character, and so seeing him as something other than a divine being was great. I'm very much awaiting to see what will happen to him in the following book.

- I'm a tremendous fan of Vasya and Morozko's together, so I was incredibly happy to see them reaching various milestones in their relationship. Like I mentioned, Vasya finally stood up to Morozko, and demanded to be treated as his equal. Moreover, she pushed him until he finally revealed the much awaited truth about some super-important things concerning the both of them. ALSO, they worked like one kickass team close to the end, which makes me hopeful for their relationship in the sequel.

THINGS I DISLIKED:

- This is a "it's not you, it's me" kinda point, buuut I could never fully get lost in the plot. See, I love guessing who is good, who is bad, who is in-between, and I especially love speculating about what will happen next. In The Girl in the Tower there was very little chance to do that. The "bad guys" were overly suspicious from the get go, and, as the story progressed, it really baffled me why none of the characters realized who was the enemy. I don't suppose the Grand Prince or one of his closest advisers, Sascha, got where they are by being so incredibly daft. Moreover, in many cases, the readers are straight out told MASSIVE things way before the characters could realize it. I know that this is not a mystery novel, the point of it is not to be mysterious, but I've never been overly fond of this type of story-telling.

- I've thought long and hard about including this next thing, because it is freaking impossible to word it well, but whatevs, this is my review. I love action packed books where the stakes are high, honest! However, it does bother me when I spend the whole book stressed the hell out, because I can see the shitshow coming from the very beginning. And like, everything is building up to that, there is nothing else (plot-wise) to concentrate on. So, yes, that was annoying, and made the whole reading experience kinda terrible for me. At the same time, I KNOW OTHERS WON'T FEEL THE SAME WAY!! The reviews have been really positive so far, as well, so this is another case of "it's not you, it's me."

- I was... uncomfortable reading about how the Grand Prince's wife was shit-talked. Was it realistic for the era? Yes. So, did I mind it being in the book? Not necessarily. What I did mind was that Vasya, a girl who would literally rather die than become a quiet, meek wife, was totally okay with how carelessly the Grand Prince and others discussed the wife. The wife was referred to much like a brood mare, which, again, is very realistic for the era, but I would have expected Vasya to feel at least a tiny bit of compassion for this unknown woman. Instead, Vasya chose to concentrate on feeling compassion for the Grand Prince, because he has a huge weight on his shoulder. Um, okay, sure, true, but WHAT ABOUT THE WIFE?

- Don't hate on me after this point, because, yes, I may be nit-picking a tiny bit here, but hear me out! I ship Vasya and Morozko together, and I did like to see them go into romantic-relationship territory. BUT!! Back in The Bear and the Nightingale I wasn't even sure they'd ever hit it off, their relationship was that platonic, and so the sudden switch to this very romance-y relationship in The Girl in the Tower was a bit weird.

- It was hard to watch Vasya develop so much, and then still act like a child when it came to her sister. I cannot go into detail without spoilers, so I'm not going to say more than this: what Vasya did was awful, and the fact that it was just brushed under the table at the end.... yikes.

OVERALL, I am conflicted! On the one hand, yay, this was good! I still love the Russian elements and mythology - though this certainly felt less magic-filled than the first book. On the other hand, there are obviously more negatives in this post than positives, so I cannot give this more than three stars. *shakes head sadly* That said, I am excited for the third book!