Item: The Bear and the Nightingale
Rating: 4.00
Author: theliteraryphoenix

by Katherine Arden

Katherine Arden’s bestselling debut novel spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.

“A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up.”—Naomi Novik, bestselling author of Uprooted

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.

Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Praise for The Bear and the Nightingale

“Arden’s debut novel has the cadence of a beautiful fairy tale but is darker and more lyrical.”—The Washington Post

“Vasya [is] a clever, stalwart girl determined to forge her own path in a time when women had few choices.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Stunning . . . will enchant readers from the first page. . . . with an irresistible heroine who wants only to be free of the bonds placed on her gender and claim her own fate.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Utterly bewitching . . . a lush narrative . . . an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family.”—Booklist (starred review)

“An extraordinary retelling of a very old tale . . . The Bear and the Nightingale is a wonderfully layered novel of family and the harsh wonders of deep winter magic.”—Robin Hobb

This is a beautifully written story, but I highly recommend reading it instead of listening to the audiobook.

There were some things that Kathleen Gita did extraordinarily well. Her Russian accents and pronunciations are lovely and flowed well, but it was in the narrative itself that she lost me. Her reading is very flat and reminded me of an AI robot in everything except the dialogue. Fortunately, The Bear and the Nightingale is heavy on dialogue and storytelling, so I was able to listen all the way through. The quality of the reader is huge when you are listening to an audiobook, and if they're not just right, it can completely ruin the experience. So I recommend reading a physical copy in this case.

Outside of the technical aspects, I really liked this book. I don't read enough fairytales and retellings outside the western European tradition, and starting this book just as we got our first snowfall here in New England added to the frozen aesthetic. Katherine Arden did a beautiful job of bringing the story to life, from the harsh setting to the mythology around Vasilisa's little home.

A lot of people I follow have noted the lengthy beginning of the novel, including scenes with Vasilisa's mother, as well as her relationship with her oldest brother and sister. I am inclined to agree so far - there's a lot at the beginning of the book that could have been left out for the purposes of this story. At the very least, it could have been provided in a novel. Here's the thing - I've only read The Bear and the Nightingale, so I'm not sure if any of this applies to the other two books in the trilogy. It may end up being important later on, but generally, the first hour or so of this could have been summarized elsewhere, or cut completely.

Beyond the mythology - which I genuinely loved - Arden did an excellent job of bringing her characters to life and making them three-dimensional. This is a constant issue in fairytale retellings, which often lean toward romantic interludes and sparkle in place of depth. Vasilisa is brave, but also reckless, and she was not quite kind, but a tolerable girl. The protagonist is not entirely loveable, and the villains not entirely wicked. It's a great balance, and so frustrating that I could not just flat out hate Anna. Vasilia's sibling relationships, especially that with her brother Alyosha, are wonderful. Sibling relationships in books can be complicated or non-existent, but it always warms my heart when the two are a pair of warriors, side-by-side. Arden captures the older-brother-younger-sister relationship to perfection.

Even though this book had a slow start, I enjoyed it as a whole and am absolutely excited to read The Girl in the Tower. Vasilia's resilience and wildness creates a compelling character, and I am eager to see what adventures she has yet ahead of her.

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1)

by Katherine Arden

Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on Nov 21, 2018

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