Katherine Arden establishes a forlorn, wintery setting that I just can’t help but love, with snow-laden forests and small villages flung across the vast wilderness. It is a perfect winter read to flip through on a cold day, next to the fire. Set in northern Rus’, where the winters are long and cold and dark, The Bear and the Nightingale is an atmospheric and haunting book.
But thanks to such a focus on exposition and establishment, characters are lovable and well-thought-out. It is part fairytale, part historical slice-of-life. I loved it because of the setting and the folklore, but I know some people will feel it falls short because some bits are relevant, some bits are not. The Bear and the Nightingale feels like an introduction the first third of a bigger story an establishment of people and places and narratives. The only reason I do not give it a full five is because it feels ultimately too juvenile in the sense that, as a story, it is still growing. I find myself loving Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale every moment more that I think on it.
↠ Title: The Bear and the Nightingale (Book 1 in the Winternight Trilogy)
She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods…Ītmospheric and enchanting, with an engrossing adventure at its core, The Bear and the Nightingale is perfect for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman. In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.īut for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. And because you are, you can walk where you will, into peace, oblivion, or pits of fire, but you will always choose.”
0 kommentar(er)
