{Release Day Review} The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden (@Arden_Katherine @RandomHouse)

A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.
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At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
 
After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
 
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
 
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

​Everyone thinks that Vasilisa Petrovna is a strange girl.  She always had been.  Her mother, Marina knew even before she was born that she would be extraordinary.  And when bringing such a life into the world proves too much for her fragile body, her father never truly forgets that it was Vasya that stole his love away.
 
As Vasya grows, she explores the vast enchanted forest surrounding her father’s house and to her, it’s not so unusual to see what others cannot. But when her new stepmother arrives, she brings along with her condemnation and judgement.  Now the only thing that stands between the certain demise of the entire village is Vasya and magic that she alone can comprehend.

“Vasilisa Petrovna,” he tried again, cursing his clumsiness.  Always he knew what to say.  But this girl turned her clear gaze on him, and all his certainty grew vague and foolish. “You must leave your barbaric ways.  You must return to God in fear and true repentance.  You are the daughter of a good Christian lord.  Your mother will run mad if we do not exorcise the demons from her hearth, Vasilisa Pertrovna, turn. Repent.”

“I go to church, Father,” she replied.  “Anna Ivanova 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.”

She had walked swiftly.  Through the tree-trunks he could see the palisade of the village.
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“Mark me, Batyushka,” she said.  “Pray for the dead, comfort the sick, and comfort my stepmother.  But leave me alone, or the next time one of them comes for you, I shall not lift a finger to stop it.”  She did not wait for a reply, but thrust his cross back into his hand and strode off toward the village.
 
It was warm from her hand, and his fingers curled reluctantly around it.

​The Bear and the Nightingale is a fairy tale in every sense of the word!  With her lush descriptions, Katherine Arden creates a uniquely singular heroine that is as quick-witted as she is strong. Vasilisa’s story is one of isolation, wonder and self-discovery and it leaves you with feeling that other worlds are right in front of you – if you would only open up your eyes…