I’m not sure I liked this as well as I could have. Some things feel unfulfilled. I know this is part of a series, and I plan to get my hands on book 2, but some of the characters and the world seems incomplete. I liked that this novel relied in more detail on the folklore traditions it was working with than Uprooted (which I loved), and you get to meet some of the creatures like the domovoi and the rusalka. I wish there was […]
Enchanting, atmospheric (and timely) read
This week, the UK has been hit by massive* snowstorms that disrupted travel pretty much everywhere, as well as practically-arctic winds that have dropped temperatures to shockingly low*. Also this week, I was supposed to fly across the country for my PhD viva. Well–that didn’t happen. So I read The Bear and the Nightingale instead. And it was just the most perfect book to read during this kind of weather! The book takes place in a barely-fictional Russia in the Middle Ages. The fantasy elements come […]
‘In the stories, they only come for the wild maiden.’
Much like last year, my first 5 star book of the year came to me courtesy of my brother, who’s turning out to be quite the amazing book giver. The Bear and the Nightingale ticked so many boxes for me – well realised characters and setting, great world-building, oodles of imagination and conjuring the sorts of feelings you get from the better, darker fairytales – I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to be reading it all of the time (and did pretty much […]
For the night is dark and full of terrors
Disclaimer! I recieved an ARC copy of this through NetGalley. That has in no way influenced my review. Pyotr Vladimirovich is a boyar, the lord of northerly and remote Lesnaya Zemlya in medieval Russia. A part of the world where the winters are long and harsh and isolate the populace, it’s no wonder that the cold, dark nights are spent telling fairy stories, like those of Morozko or Lord Karachun, the Frost demon himself – who sometimes rewards those who are brave and pure of […]