The Bear and the Nightingale

368 pages

English language

Published Sept. 10, 2017 by Random House Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-1-101-88595-6
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4 stars (13 reviews)

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, …

2 editions

Review of 'The Bear and the Nightingale' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

A friend suggested this book to me on the basis that I loved [b:Spinning Silver|36896898|Spinning Silver|Naomi Novik|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513872748l/36896898.SX50.jpg|58657620], and it was a hit.
There was a bit of a bumpy start in part because the narration of the audible audiobook uses a fake accent for the dialogs which is a silly, silly, distracting thing to do for characters that are not supposed to have accents.

The other part to being a bumpy start might be that the story only gradually reveals it's fairytale nature to the listener. For a long while it appears to be a depiction of a societal situation that I'm glad I'm not around for. But I think the slow-ish start is also a feature, not a bug.

The fairytale part is pleasantly dark - the mythical creatures are not inherently good or bad by themselves for the most part. The ending is pleasantly "happily ever …

Review of 'The Bear and the Nightingale' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book grips you right away – not so much like a runaway rollercoaster, but more like a grandfather who has worked his whole life in the field might grip the hand of a grandchild as they cross a road, firmly but not unkindly, if a little too tight.

I am largely unfamiliar with Russian/Eastern European fairy tales and folklore. What little I've encountered has been filtered through English (or other Western European) writers, and a lesser amount from general cultural osmosis. There are many recognizable elements from the Germanic, French and English folk tales I am grew up with and have studied – customary ingredients from Tolkien's "soup," as it were – but they are combined with other components and assembled in different ways so as to be fresh and interesting. Arden does a great job of weaving those elements around a compelling narrative, creating a story that moves …

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Subjects

  • Russia (federation), fiction
  • Fiction, general