Bear and the Nightingale

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 after but with sacrifices" befitting a fairy tale.

The book won't surprise you with any sudden unexpected twists or turns, but it feels fresh enough for the genre of reimagining fairy tales. It has more character interaction depth that the typical actual fairy tales, and they seem fairly realistic, and there's pleasantly little romance.

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 at an even (almost inexorable, but in a good way) pace.

I will definitely pick up the sequel.