Here, winter lasts the majority of the year, and it gets so cold that the windows ice up completely for weeks at a time-so basically a typical Canadian climate.Īnyway, back then they didn’t have the same luxuries we do, so this family curls up on the top of their stone oven to sleep at night, drifting off while their nurse tells tales of the spirits, both good and evil found in the forest. The story takes place in medieval Russia, mostly in a small village steeped in wilderness. Posted on MaMaby Nikki Fillion Posted in Books Tagged book review, Books, fantasy, fiction, katherine arden, reading, the bear and the nightingale.This is a difficult book to classify because it has successfully taken elements from many genres fantasy, historical fiction, even horror can be found in The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. An added bonus is that the audiobook is narrated by Kathleen Gati, for whom I have a soft spot after seeing her on and off over the years as the eccentric Dr. It wasn’t perfect, but I really loved it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an atmospheric, wintery fairytale. Overall, I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Vasilisa does next. I already own the rest of the series, and while I’m excited to read them, I probably won’t until next winter when it’s cold again. I loved fairytales as a child, and this book allowed me to relive some of those feelings.

The pace was a little slow compared to the books I typically read, but it allowed me to really immerse myself in the frozen, magical world Arden created. I loved watching Vasilisa grow from an adventurous child to a fierce, independent young woman. When her religious stepmother and a devout priest move to her small town, the villagers stop leaving offerings for the household spirits and they begin to weaken, allowing a dark presence to take root in their community. Vasilisa eventually realizes that while she can see and speak to them, no one else can. She and the other villagers leave offerings to the household spirits. She grows up in a small, remote Russian village hearing fairytales from her nurse, such as that of Frost, the winter king. The Bear and the Nightingale follows Vasilisa Petrovna from birth until young adulthood. I grew up in Connecticut, where the winters aren’t comparable to the Russian winters described in the novel, but I still experienced nostalgia for the cold, snowy winters of my youth. I didn’t finish it at the time due to generally being busy, but I finally picked it up again this winter, since I felt like I had to wait to read it in the wintertime. My book club chooses a “wintery fantasy” read every December, and this was our selection back in December 2020. It took me over a year to finish this book, but I ended up loving it.

The bear and the nightingale goodreads