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HAVE ALL THE STARS! This book deserves them. My god, what a masterpiece.
No, you overreact a lot. When I originally started to read this, I struggled with the first 30%. I thought that maybe I didn’t really enjoy the beginning due to my mindset and where I was at (as can sometimes be the case), so I decided to go back to the beginning and start again. I am so glad I did because I fell in love with this book. I did the same thing with Ferrero Rocher – I had one once and didn’t think much of them, then I had another and now it should be the law that I own all Ferrero Rocher and nobody should question it. Anyway, I do digress. Gather round people, lend me your eyes and let me tell you for why I liked this book so much.
Before the end, you will pluck snowdrops at midwinter, die by your own choosing, and weep for a nightingale.
The Bear and the Nightingale is best summed up by the words of the author – “A book set in Russia in the middle ages and is a mix of actual history and Slavic folklore”. The story follows Vasilisa Petrovna (or Vasya for short) – the daughter of Lord Pyotr Vladimirovich. During the time this is set, Christianity is still relatively new to these lands, and when a new priest arrives into the village there is inevitably conflict between this new(ish) god and the old gods. Actually, they are nature spirits rather than gods, but you get the point. The story doesn’t take the typical, somewhat easy route of a split townsfolk warring against each other and instead focusses on what happens to the nature spirits when people start to forget about them. NEWSFLASH – it ain’t good for them. You see, they do good. And when they are forgotten about, they fade away and can no longer do good.
"Dread settled over the village: a clinging, muttering dread, tenacious as cobwebs."
I think Vasya may just be the greatest character to have ever been written ever not even slightly exaggerating!! I LOVE her so much (in a purely platonic manner). I’m trying to avoid referring to her as a ‘strong, independent, female character’ because quite frankly that just doesn’t do her justice. She is so much more than that. I heard Katherine Arden read a deleted scene in which Vasya was referred to as being particularly ugly. Her father refers to her as being a ‘forest imp’ and that term sums her up so well! Throughout the story we see that Pyotr marries off his children when they come of age (as was the norm at the time). Vasya has no aspirations to get married to a wealthy Prince or Lord (despite her sister reminding her how wonderful such a thing would be). Instead, she wants to live in the forest, and spend her days gathering food and climbing trees and digging in dirt, and I feel so at one with her. She spends her days riding horses and communing with nature spirits… wait, what?! Oh yea, did I also mention, she can see nature spirits that other people can’t see and talks to her horses – they also talk back, she’s not just a rambling mad woman (although, that is how the other villagers would see her).
I particularly enjoyed the conversations between Vasya and her siblings, and Vasya and the priest. Vasya is witty, clever, funny and caring but can be rather savage at times. Her ability to deliver a thud of cold hard truth was so satisfying. Several times I was internally shouting "YEAH, YOU TELL HIM!" like some kind of Vasya team cheerleader, just with a lot more beard, and my wrists are much more sexy than that of the average cheerleader.
“I go to church, Father,” she replied. “Anna Ivanovna is not my mother, nor is her madness my business. Just as my soul is not yours. And it seems to me we did very well before you came; for if we prayed less, we also wept less.”
give me a V… give me an A….
Okay, enough Vasya love (there will never be enough Vasya love, I will not be silenced!) and let’s talk about Arden’s writing style because by the gods this woman writes magical sentences. As I was reading I kept thinking ’Oh, that’s a really good sentence’ and ’wow that’s beautiful’. I seriously can only hope to someday write with such strength and beauty. Just as one tiny example, look at this:
"His voice was like snow at midnight."
I mean, come on! Who even thinks to write like that. Bloody Katherine Arden does, that’s who. I doff my hat to you miss – I am in awe.
I loved the setting. It’s dark, brooding, cold, and harsh. The weather is described in such a way that it feels much more powerful and important than usual. Throughout the book we are reminded of how hard it is to live in this environment. It’s easy to see how people didn’t survive the winter. It’s easy to forget in our modern age that there was a time when if you did not prepare for the winter, you simply died.
The plot was great. I was invested throughout and the ending is really satisfying (although, there was one death I wanted that didn’t happen *shakes fist in the air*). I believe there is another book due out soon, and then there will be a third and I CANNOT WAIT JUST GIVE THEM TO ME ALREADY!
If you have this book on your TBR just do yourself a favour and read it already. It’s bloody marvellous and I will fight you if you say otherwise (I won’t fight you. I will simply respect your right to be wrong).
Sometimes if I read a kindle version of a book (as I did in this case) and I really like it (as you may have guessed I did in this case), I will then buy a physical copy to have on my bookshelf. And LOOK AT THIS COVER – as if there is even a chance I ain’t going to have a hardback copy of this on my shelf soon.
Anyway, I’m off to bake some bread and then bury it in the garden as an offering to the old gods. Peace and Love.
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Already one of my favourite reads of the year!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2017
I received a copy of The Bear and the Nightingale from the publisher for an honest review.Set in medieval Lesnaya Zemlya, a quaint little village in northern Rus’, The Bear and the Nightingale features villagers who show signs of double faith (accepting Christianity but still holding onto pagan practises and worship.) Per my extensive and credible research (Wikipedia lol), ‘double faith’ was common in rural areas because Christianity only offered goodies in the afterlife, but it didn’t offer anything for those who needed to survive in the world. Which is why the deities and sprites of the existing pagan beliefs continued to thrive in these areas. The Bear and the Nightingale draws on the mythological elements of Slavic folklore such as the domovoi (household-sprite), dvornik (guardian of the yard), and leshy (woodland spirit), these creatures and their personalities make the story enchanting. I was already a little familiar with some of the characters and stories Katherine Arden borrowed from folklore (like Morozko), but the way she portrayed them was unique and I personally thought she had a respectful approach.The Bear and the Nightingale was a page-turner. I kept guessing at what would happen next and thought the story was gripping (well, I finished it in one sitting!). The story did progress a little slowly at times, but I didn’t mind this because it gave me time to savour Arden’s writing. I would have felt dissatisfied at the end if the pace had been quicker.The Bear and the Nightingale is narrated in the third person past tense, and the story is told in a fairy tale style, which makes the prose sound lyrical and captivating. The style was a smart choice because it complemented the mythological parts of the storyline and helped to make their existence in a ‘real’ setting less conflicting and strange.“They were going to send me to a convent. I decided I would rather freeze in a snowbank.” Her skin shivered all over. “Well, that was before I began to freeze in the snowbank. It hurts.”The protagonist, Vasilisa (Vasya), was brilliant, growing fond of her and getting attached to her was easy. She was loud, wild, and non-conforming in a society that expected her to act as a child bearing and rearing machine. I thought there were similarities between Vasya and Lada from And I Darken, although Lada was dark and cruel, Vasya shared Lada’s sense of belonging to the wilderness and telling men to stick it. The secondary characters had their own personalities and quirks. Alyosha’s brotherly love and concern for Vasya was sweet, and I loved how much Pytor adored his children and his wife, Marina. The domovoi and the rusalka were my favourite creatures, I liked domovoi’s concern and protectiveness of Vasya and the rusalka was hilarious.The Bear and the Nightingale has been suggested to fans of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and Deathless by Catherynne Valente. I was happily smitten by the book and would recommend it to both a Young Adult and Adult reading audience. If you’re fond of retellings and folklore mixed with historical fiction, you might enjoy this book as much as I did.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2017
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