Review – The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, Book 1) by Katherine Arden (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Del Ray
Release Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1101885956
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Winternight trilogy
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“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.”

This is the first book in the Winternight trilogy. The second book in the series is already released and is titled “The Girl in the Tower”. This was a well done novel. I struggled a bit at the beginning but as the story went on I started to really enjoy the book.

I liked the winter Russian setting and the fairy tale feel to the novel. I struggled a bit with the book early on because of all of the Russian names and politics that are thrown at the reader. However, as the book continued this decreased and we got to spend more time with our main characters in a rural forest setting, which was much more engaging and magical to me.

The story has a very traditional sort of fairy tale feel to it. This would be a great “winter” book to read because of the winter setting. The writing style is beautiful and the book ties up at a good spot.

Overall I ended up enjoying this book and plan on continuing with the series. I would recommend to those who enjoy magical fairy tale or folklore types of stories

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge