The Bear and The Nightingale

by Katherine Arden

Published May 28, 2017 by Ebury Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-78503-104-5

(75 reviews)

"In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift - a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, Pytor hides the gift away and Vasya grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay."--

8 editions

Pentapod reviewed The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (Winternight Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The bear and the nightingale' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Coincidentally, the second book I've read lately that includes oupyr, the Russian version of a vampire. This is a fairy-tale-like fantasy story set in the home of Pyotr, a local lord. His wife Marina dies after bearing him Vasilisa, a final daughter who will be like her mother - possessed of "the sight", able to see the domovoi, those creatures of Russian folklore who help around the house and lands. As Vasilisa gets older, she gets to know all the domovoi and learns from them. But when her father remarries, his new wife Anna also has enough of the sight to see the domovoi, but has been raised as such a fundamental Christian that she believes they are evil demons and is terrified by them. When a priest who is exiled from Moscow comes to work in Pyotr's village, he decides a way to gain respect in the eyes of the villagers is by making them fear the domovoi. As the village turns away from the domovoi, they begin to starve and leave, leaving the villagers' homes unprotected from the true evil beings. Only Vasilisa sees the value of the domovoi and tries to save them, and protect the village.

That's a very simplistic summary of the book, mostly it's charming because it feels like reading a fairy tale and the Russian folklore spirits are so charming you wish they were real. I didn't rank it higher than "liked it" however because the stubborn blindness of the Christian characters (mainly the wife and the priest, but also all those who go along with them in contradiction to all their old beliefs and traditions) is just so infuriating that I found it a bit hard to swallow.