I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. If more of the book had been like the last quarter or so, I probably would have liked it more. I think I just wasn't expecting the right sort of book. If I had expected historical fiction with a little dust of magic and folklore, I probably would have enjoyed it more. I was expecting a book with a lot more magic, especially because the title is so mysterious and reminiscent of fairy tales.

Most of the book was a young girl growing up in Russia in a time period where women were expected to be humble and domestic. Vasya is instead headstrong and wild, and does what her heart tells her. She follows the old traditions and feels a deep connection to the creatures and spirits of Russian folklore, even as her family members try to assimilate and become good Christians. I really liked Vasya, especially because of the contrast between Vasya and her step-mother. I also loved the portrayal of the Lord of Winter/Death. He isn't actually in much of the book but the few moments where he is present are magical.

I have really mixed feelings about the writing style. On one hand, it was very lyrical and beautiful, and quite fitting for a story about the richness of folklore and magic in every day life. On the other hand, I felt like the prose was a little...for lack of a better word...cold. I didn't feel very connected to the characters throughout the book, and it was mostly because the writing style told story as if you were a neighbor passing by and looking into people's lives instead of engaging with people and really understanding them.

Another thing that kept me from really getting into the book is how slow it was. The prologue was beautiful and got me hooked, but then nothing much happened for the rest of the book. The last quarter of the book was really intense and I thought the book had a fantastic and fitting ending, but it was just hard to stay focused in the middle. Thankfully the book isn't that long so it wasn't too bad even with the slow middle.

I did like this book, but it wasn't as magical as I was hoping it would be. I would definitely recommend it, but with the caveat that it's a very slow book and more historical fiction than fantasy.

A free eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

What a lovely book!

The Bear and the Nightingale reads like an extended riff on Russian fairy tales. While the main character Vasya (Vasilisa) is rooted in real life, with a family, a home, and the realities of harsh Russian winters, her life is filled with hints of magic. Set in the medieval Russian era, the book shows the harmony that exists between the people and the traditional spirits, even as their outward lives are governed by the Church. The women of the house leave offererings for the domovoi and other guardian spirits, but only Vasya is gifted with the ability to see and converse with them. When a new, ambitious priest arrives and forces the people to stop their offererings to the spirits, things go from bad to worse.

The writing in The Bear and the Nightingale is pitch-perfect, with a rhythm that evokes fairy tales and magical beings. It feels throughout that we’re listening to a folktale, and so the mood is sustained from moment to moment, even in the more mundane scenes of household chores or treks through the snow.

Vasya is a wonderful character, unwilling to accept the only two paths — marriage or convent — available to a young woman at that time. Through her independence and strong will, Vasya forges a new future for herself, even at the risk of gossip, ostracism, and physical danger.

It took me a little while to find the thread of the main plot, as the opening chapters feel a little scattered and disconnected. Once we meet Vasya, the story really comes together and develops more momentum. All in all, a very satisfying and enjoyable read.

Note: I didn’t discover until I’d finished the book that this is the first in a projected trilogy. The Bear and the Nightingale reads as a stand-alone, and felt quite complete at the end. Still, I’ll look forward to revisiting these characters and this world.

I'm going to be honest here. The first half of this book is slow and full of worldbuilding. That doesn't mean it wasn't gloriously good but it took me a bit to get into it. I will say that I knew I was going to love the story as soon as I finished chapter three. The writing is gorgeous and atmospheric and reminded me of Robin McKinley's works which is one of the biggest compliments I can give a book. I loved that the story is full of Russian fairy tales! I was familiar with a few of them but not all of them. Reading this book, you can see that the author did her research and it made the story that much more amazing!

The story's main focus and character is Vasya, the youngest child of the minor nobleman, Pyotr Vladimirovich. She is a strange child who likes to spend all her days in the woods and is always getting into all sorts of mischief. This book isn't just the story of a girl with strange abilities, it's also about the rise of Christianity in Rus and how it starts pushing out the country's pagan beliefs. There are many households in Vasya's village who both pray to God and make offerings to the household spirits until a priest comes and tells them there is only God and no such thing as spirits.

Soon after that the village starts to suffer terrible winters that don't let up. Vasya starts to realize that the fairy tales her nurse told her growing up may not be simply fairy tales. When darkness descends on the village, Vasya may be the only one with the power to stop it.

This book is magical and Vasya is an unlikely heroine in the vein of Agnieszka in Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Aerin from Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and I fell in love with her almost immediately! That love just got bigger as the book progressed and we watched her grow into a young woman. I'm pretty sure I can't quantify how much I ended up loving her by the end of the book. She's like the heroines of my childhood reading and it made my reading experience even more lovely! I loved that Vasya continues to make offerings to the household spirits and befriends them even though it goes against her Stepmother's views of them being demons.

The overall storyline of the book is very subtle and the story feels more like historical fiction than fantasy in places. But there comes a point about halfway through the book where things start to pick up and the subtle plot that had been laid in the first part comes to light and the conflict becomes noticeable. IT WAS SO WELL DONE! I'm amazed at how everything came together. This is one of those books that I'll be able to reread over and over again and pick up new details every time. Also, the number of Russian fairy tales referenced in this book was amazing and I'm pretty sure I missed a bunch. I need more books that revolve around Russian folklore in my life!

Not only did I fall in love with the story and the atmosphere of this book, but I fell in love with so many of the characters besides Vasya. I want more of them! The book ends on a slight cliffhanger that will make you want for the next book in this series ASAP. This book is definitely going to be one of my favorites of the year which makes Katherine Arden a debut author you don't want to miss! She has gained a place on my auto-buy list after just one book if that tells you how much I loved this story.

The Bear and the Nightgale is a medieval Russian fairy tale-esque novel by debut author Katherine Arden.

And it's beautiful.

That's pretty much the whole review I want to give this book. It's beautiful. It's an experience. You should absolutely read it.

The closest comparison I can think of is Uprooted by Naomi Novak, for the same dark fairy tale feel. The Bear and the Nightingale is something of a slow burn book, about a family living in Northern Russia, and particularly about their youngest daughter, Vasya, who loves to run wild in the forest and sees the creatures of folklore all around her.

The novel juxtaposes Vasya and her stepmother, Anna, two young women who have the sight. Vasya embraces the creatures as protectors of the land and her friends, while Anna sees them as demons, and throws herself into religion to try and escape them. Then a young charismatic priest, Konstantin, comes to the village, and decides that he's been called by God to rid these people of their old-religion superstitions and fill them with fear of God's wrath. He reviles Anna, who wants nothing more than to be his disciple, and is obsessed with Vasya, who he increasingly sees as a witch. When Konstantin's fear allows a dark force to awaken in the forest, Vasya must fight to protect the magic that protects them all.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a book of wild forests, dark creatures, unsettling promises, and complex characters. It's a story of magic, of wonder, of fear, and of not fitting in, beautifully imagined and enchantingly told. I really recommend it.

Gorgeous. Stunning. Absolutely breathtaking. Any of those words and phrases barely skim the surface of how impressed I was by this well-woven tale. Fairy tales will always have a special place in my heart. I relish the feeling of being swept off into a new world or, in this case, a world that is right on the borders of our very own. Arden's tale pulls together Russian folklore into a tale that will have you breathless with equal parts excitement and fear. It's a beautiful thing.

Characters like Vasilisa have always been my favorite. Stubborn, willful, strong to a point where they actually cause others to fear their strangeness. Vasilisa is a woman on the fringes. She's a character who doesn't conform to norms, and is better because of it. In other words, she's everything I aspire to be. Arden wastes no time in pushing Vasilisa towards her ultimate fate and, to her credit, Vasilisa faces it head on. I was mesmerized by her, and it made this story fly by. I could have read many more pages following this amazing woman.

As mentioned above, the Russian folklore is really the star of the show here though. As the children sat around the fire, to hear tales of bravery and death, so did I. Arden brought to life the winter demon, his black-hearted brother, and all the household spirits that populated this story. As Vasilisa grew to know them, and love and hate them as called for, so did I. I found myself so immersed in this story, that I actually felt angry when people pulled me away from it. My one wish was to find out what became of our brave protagonist, and the family that she would do anything to protect.

The Bear and the Nightingale is my first five-starred review of 2017, and well deserving of that honor. This is the kind of book that you buy in hardcover, so that it will survive many re-reads to come. If this isn't already on your reading list, it should be. It really, really should.

If you need fairytales, folklore, mythical creatures, and strong wild female protagonists to get you through the cold winter then this is the book for you. I read a review of this and it sounded exactly like my kind of book. It was advertised as a read alike for Uprooted (which is still the best modern adult fantasy book I have ever read) and I would say it has some elements of that (Russian folklore and a strong protagonist). However, Uprooted had such a strong intense plot that I was rooted to it from the first page. This was full of folklore (very well researched) and beautifully written but the plot took a while to pick up.

4.5 stars

Finally, a book based on Slavic mythology, which wasn't packed with all those awkward, disappointing, cringe-worthy cliches!
Katherine Arden's mix of old Russian fairy tales feels authentic and real. Meaning, dark and raw - as were the times this story is set in. When ancient pagan spirits were overthrown by new Christian God, princes fought each other and the Great Khan for a piece of power and the only two options for women were to marry and bear children or to go to a convent.
Once again, I was surprised by how far the author went in her research. Everything - from little everyday details to the way the Russian words are used - feels true. And this also refers to the characters - both humans and demons. None of them is pure goodness or evil, pure saint or sinner. And most of them are strong believers. The idea of faith as the creator of reality is, actually, one of the most exciting (and promising series-wise) thing in this book.
It is really worth your time - especially if you weren't raised in Slavic culture (it will open your eyes to many things then). And I was absolutely psyched when I found out that this is not a standalone but a series. Will be looking forward to the next book now.

I kept hearing all sorts of things about how beautiful and lyrical this book was and that usually means I'm equally intrigued and worried about being bored. I like beautiful books. I also know that waxing poetic about how beautifully written a sentence is can also be code for "dull."

Lucky for me, this was the kind of beautiful that is also absorbing and captivating. The chapters are on the longish side and usually that's a bad thing for me, but it didn't bother me in this book. Mostly because I was so, well, absorbed.

The book starts out in one direction and then slowly winds toward the main thread of the story. It first introduces side characters and background characters and normally this would really frustrate me because I hate books that take forever to get going, but in this case it worked for me. Again, chalk it up to the absorbing writing? Probably. It was almost like little fairy tales building on one another to create a bigger fairy tale.

And, yes, this is definitely one of those fairy tale type books. The characters have the depth and nuance of fairy tale characters, which somehow manages to be both shallow and deep at the same time. Sometimes things happen in illogical ways but it works because it's a fairy tale story and sometimes you just need to go with things in these types of stories. The plot winds together slowly and sometimes disconnected, but always methodically and building inexorably toward the final showdown between good and evil.

Bottom line

Beautiful, absorbing, captivating, atmospheric. This recalls childhood stories with all of the magic a good storytelling can impart.

Seems to be a fantastical book. The age old fight between good and evil as a young girl/woman struggles against the expectations of place, time and gender. It is also a struggle between a step-mother, Anna and step-daughter Vasya. Anna is set in her spiritual beliefs/religious and doesn't understand the child. Vasya is blessed/cursed and sees beyond beliefs and into the world of magical beings and nature. I seldom read fantasy but this book has historical and paranormal aspects. It is set in the harsh and often unforgiving Russia in the 14th century. It takes patience to get to where the subtle changes start to happen and you can see in the 2nd half of the book why you were given so much information on how the world was built for the readers. I look forward to reading future books by Ms. Arden.

Good read for the YA reader and for readers who are new to Russian fairy tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a gorgeous fantasy that takes the reader deep into the mythos of old Russia.  It is a tale for anyone who loves fairy tales, for their magic, mystery, beauty and danger.  It is a novel fueled by firelight and dreams, seasoned both by hope and despair.  The Bear and the Nightingale is one of the best fairytale fantasies I have read.  It is a pleasure to experience the Russia of the past through the eyes of Katherine Arden.  

Russia is changing, slowly leaving the old ways and accepting Christianity.  The beings of myth and imagination are growing less powerful and are slowly fading away.  Vasilisa, like her grandmother, is a girl gifted with the ability to See what others do not.  It is with her that hope for the future lies.  The Bear, the god of hunger and destruction is eager to awake, and his brother the Frost Demon is losing the ability to contain him.  When Vasilisa's father remarries to a fervent and devout Christian and a new priest determined to stamp out the old ways comes, the Bear grows in power.  Her father's people suffer.  Ultimately it is Vasilisa and her vision that stands between her people and utter destruction.

The Bear and the Nightingale is beautiful.  It is a powerful tale of magic, vision and developing the strength to do what is right.  I highly recommend The Bear and the Nightingale to those who love fantasy, fairy tales and coming of age novels.

5/5

I received a copy of The Bear and the Nightingale from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden


Buy This Book
I have, most likely, given The Bear and the Nightingale one of the few low grades you will find for it. I did not do this lightly nor did I do it without reason. Part of it is simply that the book was badly marketed, at least for this reader. Hailed as being like Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, the story is instead a rather mundane telling of a brutal Russian folktale. Rather than a loving and enchanting heroine, who discovers her own power along the way, this tale has the completely commonplace feisty, independent, doesn’t-want-to-marry heroine. In place of a fast paced story full of magic, mystery and romance there is a “literary fantasy” with pedantic prose and a pompous message belonging in some dry, liberal, anti-religion text. On the bright side, it made the other fantasy takes on fairy tales I read the last few months look really good by comparison.

We begin with a messianic birth. Marina asks for a magical child and the Russian gods basically answer by giving her a “special” child whose delivery costs her life. I would normally at this point say “note to self, never ask a Russian god for a baby” but what kind of damned fool would do that anyway? This woman had been raised on the folklore of her people and knew that congress with their gods came at a high price. She had four healthy, beautiful children. There was no need for this baby but she was determined to have it, turned down an abortion her servant offered in order to do so and died for her stubbornness. Picture me with steam coming out of my ears and we are only 5% into the tale.

Vasilisa, the “special” baby, gets along with the hearth gods, loves nature, loves playing like a boy over being a “boring” girl yada, yada, yada denigrating of everything remotely smacking of femininity ad nauseam. She winds up with a step-mother and local priest who want her to stop practicing her old religion and embrace the new, which brings tragedy down on the heads of all until the heroine fixes everything and we all limp to the closure grateful to have survived.

For those that don’t know, Russian folktales are not happy things. The old Russian gods were even less benign than the faeries of European legends and received a lot of their “worship” through the spilling of blood. The stories almost always involve a death of some kind, if not of the hero/heroine then of something/someone else beloved. This book is no exception. Moreover, while European tales often involve the clever outwitting of evil by good, Russian tales straddle a far more gray line. Most often there is no good, whoever wins just wins and justice is not achieved even if some sort of balance is restored. While shades of gray can often make a tale more intriguing, in high fantasy it almost never works. It doesn’t here.

What really turned me off in this tale, though, was the agonizing pacing and it’s thoroughly modern heroine. The book meanders from one point to the next. This could be because it is based upon the extremely short tale of Morozko and the maiden given to him for his bride, and the longer length doesn’t suit it. But regardless of the reasons why, this thing dragged. Then comes problem two: Vasilisa, our heroine, seems to exist simply as a referendum against the male dominated culture of her time. I don’t like referenda in my novels. I read for entertainment and feel strongly that if you want to write a treatise, non-fiction is the way to go. While it is natural for folktales to include a lesson, a fantasy novel is a different kettle of fish. It can include a lesson but its primary purpose is to engross and delight, not educate. This book felt less like entertainment and more like a reminder that traditional womanhood is bad.

Lest I sound like some kind of feminazi hating traditionalist who believes a woman’s place is in the kitchen, let me explain. There is a huge difference between creating an independent, intelligent, powerful female character that inspires readers to roar and writing a book that belittles much that women hold important even today while simultaneously depreciating the roles women of the past held. Many times I feel “feminist” characters empower women less than they idealize men. Their message seems to be that a strong women must be just like a man, and I’ll admit, I take a lot of issue with that.

While the prose in The Bear and the Nightingale is lyrical, that is only one of the elements of fiction. The others, such as the plot – which is painfully lacking in real action – and adventure, and the characters – who were quite stock – had nothing to recommend them. If you are someone who simply likes to read prettily written books or to whom bragging about reading “literary “novels is important, this might work for you. Otherwise, I’d give it a pass.

I loved this book. It kept me up past my bedtime. The story doesn’t move at a pulse-pounding, break-neck speed but, like a road trip through an unfamiliar country, the journey itself is so, so wonderful! The characters were complex and interesting, the setting was fascinating, and the author seamlessly tied together threads of reality and fantasy to create a story that captivated me and left me wanting more (which is great, since this is apparently the first of three novels). I can’t wait to read more from Katherine Arden and I’m sure I will be revisiting this book many times.

“‘All of my life,’ she said, ‘I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender myself to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow that live a hundred years of the life appointed me.”

Vasilisa Petrovna has the sight. All around her she sees creatures from Pre-Christian folklore, known as “chyerty” by the villagers and “demons” by the Catholic. But in medieval Catholic “Rus,” having the sight is a dangerous; so she hides her gift and seeks her own way in the world.

Her way does not include marriage. Every other girl may marry or go to a nunnery, but Vasya refuses, preferring to talk with her creature friends and ride horses in the wild woods around her village.

Everything changes when her father remarries to a Catholic stepmother. Vasys’s idyllic—if never easy—life in the woods shifts from difficult to miserable. The oppressive atmosphere over the village bodes ill for Vasya and her chyerty friends. She has no idea that the Winter king watches her, just as his brother, the devourer, watches. But she slowly begins to realize that her village may depend on the very gifts it scorns. Historical Fantasy/Russian Fairytale. Published January 10th 2017 by Del Rey.

Thoughts : I actually requested The Bear and the Nightingale thinking it was adult fiction, but I quickly realized it could easily be considered crossover, with the way the whole narrative revolves around the young heroine. So it was with pleasure that I read about the two girls who see the “demons” and soon become family by marriage. I thought, “Oh, how good Anna will be for Vasya! They can talk about their visions. They can be friends; they’re not so far apart, and Vasya desperately needs a friend.”

Clearly I didn’t read the book description very thoroughly before starting the book! I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say nothing turned out like I hoped. Anna’s marriage into the family begins all the troubles for Vasya and her village. Why?

Because Anna is a fearful, superstitious Catholic. She assumes the harmless house creatures to be demons; and from then on out, the whole village slides into the clutches of the enemy: the one-eyed man, brother of the Winter King. He is,

“Appetite…Madness. Terror. He wants to eat the world.”

He gains more and more power, thanks to the fear-mongering, misguided Catholics, whose belief system is entirely based on a misunderstanding of the reality of Pre-Christian Russian folklore. God, Satan and demons? They’re all just misunderstandings. So they misinterpret the the harmless domovoi as demons and the one-eyed man as both God and the devil, at different times, and they lead the village into danger.

"'You are the devil!’ whispered Konstantin, clenching his hands.

All the shadows laughed. ‘As you like. But what difference is there between me and the one you call God? I too revel in deeds done in my name. I can give you glory, if you will do my bidding.’”

Thankfully for the villagers, Vasya understands that fear feeds the one-eyed man and that the domovoi help protect the households against him. She heroically and sacrificially turns the other cheek as everyone gathers against “the witch,” saves the bumbling priests again and again (as they, of course, fall head over heels in love with her), and finally rides out to save the day.

I don’t want to make light of all the things I truly enjoyed about The Bear and the Nightingale, because the story reads beautifully, despite its problems. I love Vasya, as a truly strong female protagonist, and I sympathized with her plight of making the village see reason. But we spend a lot of time in the head of a Catholic priest who is led astray by powers he misunderstands, to the folly of the entire village. We also spend a lot of time pitying Vasya’s situation as a woman, as she is forced to choose between either the marriage bed or the nunnery. Arden did Vasya a disservice by turning everyone against her, to the point that it felt overdone and melodramatic. When Vasya misses a certain funeral because she's out slaying the village upyr, this is the response she gets:

"Witch-woman. Like her mother.

‘[Dunya (hide spoiler)] loved you like her daughter, Vasya,’ [her father] said, later. ‘Of all the days to play truant.”"

C'mon. She just spent 24 hours nursing this dying woman into her grave. This is just obnoxiously melodramatic, and it happens again and again throughout the book.

I dreaded posting this review, knowing that my opinions would be different from most of my friends; but I just have to say that good Fantasy authors know how to respect the mythology and beliefs they interact with. Jim Butcher and Max Gladstone come to mind- they don't pick and choose winning and losing faiths, among the devout of their fantasy. There are good guys on every team. Katherine Arden didn't get the memo on this. Her handling of medieval faith, while sensitive in the way of characterization, is drastically biased in many other ways. I'll leave it at that.

With less emphasis on the human and religious drama and more on the fairy tale elements—which are, I suspect, why most of us pick up this book—I would have loved The Bear and the Nightingale enough to give it five stars.

This is obviously just my opinion, but I think this could have easily been children's fiction to rival Elizabeth Enright's. Which is...amazing! I loved reading about Vasya's life in the woods and the fairy tale aspects from Russian folklore. Here, she’s breaking in a young horse, after a period of convalescence:

“Vasya eyed the stallion’s tall bare back. She tried her limbs, and found them weak as water. The horse stood proudly and expectantly, a horse out of a fairy tale.

‘I think,’ said Vasya, ‘that I am going to need a stump.’

The pricked ears flattened. A stump.

‘A stump,’ said Vasya firmly. She made her way to a convenient one, where a tree had cracked and fallen away. The horse poked along behind. He seemed to be reconsidering his choice of rider.”

This is what people love about The Bear and the Nightingale! The writing and atmosphere are truly, breathtakingly lovely, and the characters, though dark and often tiresome, are clearly imagined with care and love. But the books's flaws are big enough that they did largely ruin the book for me.

Overall : Gorgeously wrought fairy tale with a few major flaws. They won’t be fatal flaws for everyone, although they are for me.

Characters: 3/5 Stars
Worldbuilding: 3/5 Stars
Plot: 2.5/5 Stars
Writing: 5/5 Stars

Overall: 3/5 Stars

Recommended To : A lot of readers enjoyed this story purely based on the historical detail, the strong characterizations and the perfect atmosphere. And no wonder! I have a feeling most readers won't feel the way I do about it, so I say go ahead and try it. You'll probably like it a lot better than I did. (Which is to say 3+ stars at least!)

Thanks so much to Katherine Arden, Del Rey and Netgalley for my review copy of The Bear and the Nightingale.

Blog Review: https://christyluisreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/the-bear-and-the-nightingale-by-katherine-arden/

NetGalley gave me the chance to read this book before release and it was quite good and sad. I couldn't imagine losing a parent that I had a daily routine with only to have that parent replaced with a new person that disagrees with said routine. In this case the new stepmom hated and refused to allow the children to carry on the same practice of celebrating the spirit of Frost that they did with their nurse, mom, and dad. She adds disruption and stress into the lives of this family because of her own inability to be inclusive and understanding.

Concern mounts when things around the house start going awry leading the children to believe that the lack of honoring the spirit of Frost is creating negative effects on their family. I would definitely recommend reading this book. It's fascinating to watch the efforts of the children to correct the problems coming their way due to the change in their routine before their mother passed. Great book!

Steeped in Russian folklore with a twist on well-known fairytales, The Bear and the Nightingale was a wonderfully rich and immersive tale centering around a young woman named Vasya. With a backdrop of medieval Russia, both the landscape and the tale are often as bleak as the harsh Russian winters, and yet as warm as as the family's gigantic oven.

The story begins long before Vasilia's birth, with tales of magic and witchcraft and special powers in her bloodline from her mother's side of the family. While her father and her siblings have always known she was special, as she grows, it becomes incredibly clear just how special she really is. Her gifts, when she finally acknowledges and shows them, are the key to saving them from unimaginable evil.

It took me quite a while to get through this book, but it wasn't exactly a negative thing. There's just so much history, so many intricacies and minute details that if I were to rush, I'd feel like I was missing out on something important. When an author manages to make even the minutiae of daily life and the most mundane activities seem magical and important, you know you've discovered an incredibly special book. And that's exactly what Arden delivered with The Bear and the Nightingale.

Highly recommended, and I will certainly be on the lookout for both a sequel to this book, and anything else from Katherine Arden.

*eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I added another new bookshelf to Goodreads: religious nutters

I preface my review with that statement, b/c it's important that you know exactly how off-putting I find anyone who uses religion as a crutch to excuse their abominable behavior.

Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to ensure favorable winds as he sails to Troy? Kill him on his own alter. Spanish Inquisitioners torturing anyone not Catholic for the glory of God? Burn them at the stake. The KKK claiming that a darker skin tone is the mark of Cain to justify their prejudice and hate? String them up in their own front yard. #noimnotkidding

And I have to tell you, if it wasn't for that insufferable jackass Konstantin and the witch-hunting frenzy he worked his congregation into, THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE would have easily been a 4+ star read.

I loved Vasya and (most of) her family. I was nearly as heartbroken as her father when Sasha left to become a monk. I felt Olga's frustration and amusement at her younger sister who refused to be tamed. And when that creep Karil made eyes at Vasya, I clenched my fists and ground my teeth along with Alyosha.

More than the characters, I loved the folklore. The house spirits, the nature fae, the pagan gods . . . Vasya's world was steeped in fantastical creatures. The vodianoy who stole Kolya's basket of freshly caught fish, the rusalka who agreed to stop drowning men from the village in exchange for friendship and fresh blossoms, and the vazila who taught Vasya to speak to horses are a mere fraction of what Arden's Rus' has to offer.

And if the villains in this tale had been limited to an evil stepmother and a dark god, it would've been my perfect read.

BUT. Religion. Christianity, to be specific, hellbent on choking the life out of everything not equally Christian, and how is this best accomplished? Fear and intimidation, naturally. Also blame. It's important to have an unconventional woman at hand, the better to accuse of witchcraft when the opportunity inevitably presents itself. *flares nostrils*

I'm not trying to discredit this tactic as a viable plot device, I'm just explaining my hatred of it. It's 100% a personal preference, which is why I have zero qualms about recommending THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE to anyone who interested in reading this type of folklore-influenced fantasy. YES, even those rare individuals who hate religious nutters as much as I do--apparently, this is the first book in a trilogy, and as I'm relatively confident that said issue is resolved, which means the next book has even greater potential for awesome.

Looking forward to it.

Magical... This book is based on old Russian fairytales which are sprinkled through the book as told by Dunya, the old nurse and grandmother figure of this story. She raised Marina, daughter of the"swan-maiden" that bewitched Ivan I into marrying him. Even though it is a hard winter, Marina wants a daughter like her mother, one who could tame animals and see the future. Marina dies giving birth to Vasya (short for Vailisa), who has green eyes like the sea and has the second sight (can see the magical world). Wild and free-spirited, Vasya is always outdoors and makes friends with the guardians of the forest. When her father remarries a devout Christian woman named Anna and a new priest named Konstantin arrives in the village, the guardians and the old ways are pushed aside and fear of angering God causes an imbalance in the world. A demon known as the Bear, master of nightmares, awakens and feeds on the people's fear and awakens the dead. The demon's brother and master, Frost/Death, struggles to control him. Vasya is warned in dreams similar to the fairytales told by Dunya about what is happening. Anna and Konstantin help spread the fear among the village that Vasya is a witch and that Vasya's sin and witchcraft is causing their suffering. As the "real" world collides with the magical world, Vasya must use all her bravery and magic she can find within herself to try and save her village, no matter what the cost.

There was so many fairytales in this book that I was trying to remember and figure out how they may be related to what was going on currently in the story that it almost seemed like a mystery book, trying to fit all the clues together. This book was beautifully written. I could feel the cold and the fear and the hopelessness and panic that Vasya felt having no control in the decisions that shaped her life and her future:

“Why are you frightened, Vasilisa Petrovna?” “Do not you know, Batyushka?” she said. Her laugh was soft and desperate. “You were frightened when they sent you here. You felt the forest closing about you like a fist; I could see it in your eyes. But you may leave if you will. There is a whole wide world waiting for a man of God, and already you have drunk the water of Tsargrad and seen the sun on the sea. While I …” He could see the panic rising in her again, and so he strode forward and seized her arm. “Hush,” he said. “Do not be a fool; you are making yourself frightened.” She laughed again. “You are right,” she said. “I am foolish. I was born for a cage, after all: convent or house, what else is there?” “You are a woman,” said Konstantin. He was still holding her arm; she stepped back and he let her go. “You will accept it in time,” he said. “You will be happy.”

This is supposed to be the first book in a series so I am looking forward to book 2-- it can't be released soon enough.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is beautifully written. Her characters are complex and so well developed. She created a world that I wish I could spend time in, without all the cold and snow. Her mix of history and myth was flawless. While I as only vaguely familiar with some of the myths and many of them were completely new to me, Arden brought them to life in such a way it didn't make any difference.

For me, the sign of a well crafted story and characters, is when they evoke strong emotions. When I am mad at one of the characters, or want to warn them of their foolishness, then they are well done. In that moment, I have excepted them as real. Arden's characters did that from beginning to end. There were times I wanted to smack one character or another or beg them to be reasonable.

Arden makes me want to believe in fairy tales again. In the world she created in The Bear and the Nightingale, they are real.

In Bear and the Nightingale, we open with the growing family of Pyotr Vladmirovich listening to the tale of Frost-Karachun, the death-god, now known as Morozko, the winter king. Marina, Pyotr's beautiful wife, is pregnant again, and this time will be her last, for the girl Vasilia will be born and bring great joy and great calamity to this family of the Northern Rus' wild.

Vasilia loves to be free, running through the forest and talking to the sprites. She leaves bread for their household spirits and convinces the hungry river-sprite not to eat her people. Her family, Pyotr and her four siblings, both love and fear for her, not realizing how much she knows. This sends Pyotr to take a new bride from the urban Moscow for both Vasya's good and to strengthen family ties to the royal family.

New bride Anna is different like Vasya, but does not understand or accept in the same way. Moscow has fully embraced its Christian tenets, while the wild folk still believe in the old ways as well as the new. While Anna can see the spirits, she fears they are demonic, and thinks her unruly stepdaughter is evil with them. As Anna and her new priest Konstantin's influence begins to grow, the old ways are slowly dropped, leaving Vasya alone and feared even more.

But with this change comes the realization of great horror. Crops are failing, winter is lasting longer and longer, and only Vasilia knows how to stop it. Can she save her people from themselves, meeting a destiny that the Winter King has laid out for her?

What works so well

First of all, the mood of this book is its driving force. This is a curl in your armchair, drinking whiskey-laced tea by a roaring fire kind of tale in which your arm hairs will still rise at parts. Winter is inextricably twined with the narrative, from Vasilia's birth to Frost King's plight. You will feel the hunger of the villagers, the bone chill even being next to a fire. Here, atmosphere is key. Arden does a spectacular job of creating it.

Second, this book is more than another fantasy novel, it is a tour de force in Russian mythology and folklore. Arden flawlessly combines the history of medieval Russia, its blossoming as a Christian nation, and the strongholds of the old ways into one narrative of opposing forces where coexistence is possible. I find that Bear and the Nightingale did this much better than the long-hoped for Last Days of Magic, whose narrative was too heavy-handed and biased. Here, we have a couple of misguided and possessed individuals instead of an entirely evil institution.

Peripherally related to point two is how authentic this narrative comes off as. The reader feels like they are living in the deep freeze of Russian wilderness, with its everyday struggle to survive and close family ties that result. Arden includes a glossary of terms in the back, and I used it to the fullest, but this did not detract but rather added to the experience. Here is a new addition to Russian canon.

What works slightly less well

The pacing was, shall we say, wonky. I separated the portions of this book into two parts: Pre-Konstantin and during Konstantin, as in when the priest showed up to Vasya's village and began to wreak Christian havoc. The first half of the book is slow and languorous, showing Pyotr's family, Vasya's upbringing, and the trials of winter in a slow and richly complex manner. Once Konstantin arrives, however, the pace speeds into a mad dash to the finish line, a build up of pressure that leads to an explosive and bittersweet climax. It almost felt like reading two different books. I loved both sections, and didn't mind either type of pace, but I wish it was consistent.

In a similar vein, the different perspectives were inconsistent, sometimes hard to follow from one person to the next. Split narratives are hard and often unnecessary, and while I liked how it added to characterization, sometimes I could not follow.

Conclusion

A bewitching, beguiling winter bouquet that sinks you deep into a whole new world. It is not often I am this happy that what I thought was a standalone is actually going to be a trilogy. I can't wait for more folklore, kickass female leads, and medieval Russian politicking!